Real Work Web App

A hiring platform designed just for the trades

The Challenge

Real Work, a start-up that focuses on connecting workers in the trades with those who hire them, needed a platform that would serve both workers and employers. The construction and service industries need more skilled labor and it’s impacting their ability to get work done. The Real Work web application needed to include license and certification information from multiple states, and be built to scale. Employers needed to be able to customize and post job opportunities and workers needed to be able to add licenses and additional resume information to their profiles.

The Outcome

The Real Work web app is built for people in the trades and those who employ them. On the worker side, users can receive notifications about licenses about to expire and new jobs that may match their skill set, and customize their profile to reflect their work preferences and experience. Employers can post job openings, review candidates, and find the skilled workers they need. Both sides of the Real Work are simple to navigate and make connections through the platform.

Awards and Recognition

Web Excellence Award

Websites – Employment

Flower Press Interactive validated Real Work’s system design with several rounds of research, resulting in a powerful network to connect employers and workers. – Real Work Founder

Read Full Review

Our Approach

Real Work approached Flower Press Interactive to help design a hiring platform for the trades. The Founder, Tracy Teutsch, spent her career in construction working as an operations manager. She experienced first-hand the difficulties associated with hiring for the trades. Traditional hiring platforms lack features necessary to find, and retain trade talent. States require different licenses and certifications – even to be on a jobsite without risk of a fine. Roles are often seasonal, with odd hours. Recruiting relies on a mishmash of tools, none designed for the space.

Before they approached us, Real Work had conducted extensive market research, identified gaps in the current offerings, and developed a target feature list for MVP.

We conducted a series of stakeholder interviews and created a workflow diagram to capture high-level features. Next, we conducted interviews with hiring managers, operations managers and safety managers on the
employer side.

We talked with trade school career counselors, experienced and newer trades workers on the candidate side. We created a prototype capturing high-level concepts and conducted a series of end-user interviews to validate direction. Real Work turns traditional user profiles on their head focusing primarily on skills, work output, licenses and certifications over job history or college. Search includes filtering by skills, licenses and certifications and allows preferences for shift choice. Job and candidate matching notify users when to interact with the system making it easy to stay on top of the latest opportunities.

Our design team took Real Work’s existing brand identity and expanded the color palette bringing in cool tones to compliment the orange and yellow. We opted for a responsive, mobile-friendly web app, built in React for MVP. We engineered the back-end in NodeJS, integrating data sources for licenses, certifications and job roles across industries.

Ongoing Growth

Real Work is building connections with trade schools in Washington and Oregon to assist with onboarding users to the platform. The tool is growing its beta user base within the fire alarm and construction industries where the Founder has personal connections. Real Work is attracting large employers in the PNW and has a growing base of candidates. Employer subscription fees are helping to fund the next wave of outreach as the platform continues to scale.

Real Work is going to do amazing things for the trades industries. It has big plans to expand its reach and services. Addressing ongoing infrastructure needs by streamlining the process for workers and employers to connect will have a lasting impact, and we are excited to be a part of it!