USERS CAN APPLY TO MULTIPLE JOBS VIA ONE APPLICATION

There’s a new app to help people find a retail, restaurant, or hourly service industry job in Dallas-Fort Worth.

The Workpop app launched two years ago in Los Angeles, but it just hit North Texas and Houston in mid May. The job-finding app is the brainchild of Chris Ovitz and Reed Shaffner, who are no strangers in the startup community.

Chris Ovitz (Courtesy photo)

Ovitz was co-founder of the mobile social video app, Viddy, in 2011 while Shaffner has worked with social video game developer Zynga. Both served stints with the touchscreen entertainment network, Scopely.

EARLY ADOPTION

“We’ve already had very early adoption and it’s only been a few weeks,” Ovitz said.

The app is available for both Android and Apple devices. There’s also a web version.

Like any entrepreneur, Ovitz found a niche that had seen little innovation in 20 years and made an app to solve the problem. Many companies still post hourly job listings on Craigslist while employees “fire their resume into a blackhole,” Ovitz explained.

“We wanted to build modern software to bring it out of the dark ages,” Ovitz said.

APP GIVES BUSINESSES ACCESS TO HIRING TOOLS

Workpop allows job seekers to create a profile, list their job qualifications, when they can work and even post a video resumé. They can get feedback from experts to improve their resumé. And they only have to fill out one application for all the jobs.

Workpop has its own digital HR suite that can handle the entire hiring process, from screening to onboarding, in a totally paperless and transparent process.For small businesses, Workpop levels the playing field, giving them access to hiring tools that are typically only utilized by larger corporations that have a separate human resources department.

“Employers previously had limited options when searching for candidates,” Shaffner said. “They were forced to rely on incomplete information and had very little insight into applicants. And they waste tons of time on the process of hiring and managing employees. We exist to change that.”

FREE FOR JOB SEEKERS

Potential customers include restaurant franchises, local chains, and retail stores with anywhere from 10 employees to a few thousand, Ovitz said.

It’s not intended for the bigger chains, such as Wal-Mart, which already have access to HR tools. However, a franchisee who owns 15 McDonald’s in a community could use it.

“We have everyone from a mom and pop store to a high-end restaurant with 10 to 12 fine dining concepts and retail stores using us.” Chris Orvitz

“We have everyone from a mom and pop store to a high-end restaurant with 10 to 12 fine-dining concepts and retail stores using us,” Ovitz said.

It’s free for job seekers, but employers will pay a subscription fee and could pay to drive traffic to their post.

HEAVY HITTERS ON BOARD

Workpop has some heavy hitters on board, including Trinity Ventures, which provided Series A funding, and Twitter co-founder Biz Stone joined Workpop’s board of directors last year.

For a daily dose of what’s new and next in Dallas-Fort Worth innovation, subscribe to our Dallas Innovates e-newsletter.