Updates
Where the app is right now
A status update. The platform is built, no companies are on it yet, and what happens next depends on outreach. If the idea appeals to you, we'd like to hear from you.
This is the first of what will probably be occasional posts about the app itself rather than about co-ops or B Corps. If you've read the blog and wondered whether there's an actual product behind it, here is where things are.
What it is
The Better Work Co. started as an idea for a job board for climate companies. It has since widened to cover the other kinds of employers this blog writes about: B Corps, worker cooperatives, employee-owned businesses, nonprofits and benefit corporations. The common thread is that the company has committed to something beyond its share price, in a way that can be checked.
The other half of the idea is about how the listings themselves work. Every job on the platform has to show pay and benefits up front, and companies have to be approved before they can post. Most job boards make the applicant do the work of finding out what a job actually offers. We think that should be the employer's job, and that a board built around a smaller set of vetted employers can afford to insist on it.
We think something like this is badly needed. That's an opinion, and it's the reason the project exists.
Where it stands
The app is built: company accounts, job posting, profiles, search and the approval process all work and have been tested internally. What it doesn't have yet is companies. Nobody is listed, because we haven't started asking.
That's the next step: reaching out to employers in these categories and asking them to sign up. If enough of them do, enough to make the board worth a job seeker's time, we'll open it to applicants. If they don't, we'll have learned something, and the blog will still be here.
There's no timeline attached to any of this. It's a side project, worked on when there's time, by people who think it should exist.
If you want to help
If you read that and thought it sounded like a good idea, we'd like to hear from you. That could mean a company you think belongs on it, a suggestion or wanting to work on it. Email support@thebetterworkco.com and say what you have in mind.
We'll post here again when something changes.