Sinergia: A Platform Cooperative for Mexican Women

Assuring Mexican women fair and flexible working conditions in the hospitality sector by a platform cooperative that lowers job entry barriers, reduces transaction costs, and builds collective power.

Sinergia is a platform cooperative that brings together women seeking part-time jobs with employers in the hospitality industry needing short-term staff.

We prioritize workers’ interests both in our technological approach and our ownership/governance structure. Our mission is to ensure our members (female workers) the suitability, reliability, and mutual protection of their working conditions.

Suitability. Sinergia provides members access to relevant information about employers (shift schedule, hourly rate, employer's location) so workers can select their most suitable vacancies. The app enables members to rate their work experiences. Thus, if a restaurant treats workers poorly its rating diminishes over time, preventing other members from (re)selecting bad employers while incentivizing managers to improve their working conditions.

Reliability. Sinergia assures the transparency of contractual terms, so workers know in advance the number of hours they will work, their shifts, and expected income. We secure workers' financial solvency by assuring them weekly deposits (even if employers take longer in transferring due payments) and a minimum income (Sinergia pre-establishes a minimum hourly rate).

Mutual-Protection. In the future, Sinergia aims to provide social-security services to our members like retirement and injury benefits, up-skill training, and subsidized daycare.

The hospitality industry, a female-predominant sector, was severely affected by COVID19 due to the recurring lock-downs. As the Mexican economy recuperates, employers are demanding more female-workforce, posing two challenges: (1)How to accelerate the rematching of labor’s supply and demand to bring women out of unemployment? (2)And how to do so while avoiding the precarity of the gig economy?

Unemployment Context: Mexico’s post-pandemic unemployment has a female face: 84% of those losses were undergone by women.This situation is partially explained by the downsizing of the hospitality sector, which employed 4.3 million people (57% women), making it Mexico’s second-biggest women-employer sector by 2018.

Industry Context:  Waitresses, kitchen helpers, hostesses are becoming more demanded, as the hospitality sector adapts to ever-changing COVID regulations. A recovery sign is that employers are offering relatively higher wages (e.g. for the US 13-15% higher than in pre-pandemic times) to encourage workers (particularly women) to retake these positions. Nevertheless, these incentives haven't been enough as traditional job-matching platforms (newspaper ads or employment agencies) are not responding to the sector’s current needs. On the one hand, they cannot provide the flexibility required by employers who are only willing to recruit workforce on-demand. On the other, they neglect the particular conditions that prevent many women from taking full-time daily jobs (for every 12 Mexican women unemployed because of domestic work there is only one man in this situation).

Sinergia targets urban young women living in low-income and moderate-income communities, characterized by financial distress, low training, and scant professional experience. The target population is subcategorized in two profiles:

A-Profile: Unemployed Women Because of Domestic Labor 

(Primary Target)

•  Women performing unpaid care services and domestic labor, which prevents them from finding and maintaining a regular job.
• They would accept eventual jobs if were flexible enough to match their changing availability. However, existing part-time jobs either demand daily regularity on conflicting schedules or professional skills that these women lack (e.g. home-office jobs).

B-Profile: Women Seeking Better Part-time Jobs 

(Secondary Target)

• These women have a relatively easier entry into the labor market. However, they seek a part-time job either because of their academic/vocational commitments (e.g. college students) or because they simply need an additional income.
• Given the opportunity, they would move to less exploitative and better-remunerated jobs. However, the transaction costs are relatively high,  as job transitioning requires resources (time, information, and money) for screening, comparing, and applying to new jobs.

Our cooperative addresses the needs of both profiles by offering them flexible job opportunities in the hospitality sector adapted to the skills they possess. We reduce transaction costs so that they can select the most profitable, closest, and fairest job offers. Furthermore, we prevent the precarity nature of most gig-work platforms by setting minimum standards (hourly pay rate and weekly deposits) and by including our members in the governance/ownership of the platform.

1.Exploratory Research (Sep/2020). We started Synergia as a university project. Our college team gathered 83 online surveys from waitresses and restaurant owners in Mexico City to understand COVID's economic impact

2.Action Group (Nov/2020). We launched WhatsApp and Facebook groups where we started posting job offers coming mainly from the hospitality industry. In December, we decided that the groups would be exclusive for women and that apart from job notifications we would also share practical information about safety at the workplace

3.First Partnership (Jan/2021). We reached out to “Acción Colectiva.” This progressive think-tank was running an advocacy campaign to ask the government to support gig workers during COVID with a “relief fund.” Sinergia became part of the campaign and participated in organizing workers, collecting petition signatures, and lobbying state representatives

4.In-depth Research (Mar/2021). With the financial support and academic guidance of Acción Colectiva, we conducted 39 semi-structured interviews

• Female workers:28
• Hospitality Employers:11

These interviews were crucial to validate the needs and value expectations of potential Sinergia’s users. 

5.Founding the Cooperative (Jul/2021). We incorporated “Sinergia Feminist Cooperative,” where we integrated some female workers that had collaborated with us in the Facebook and WhatsApp groups and in-field activities. They've been valuable members, as they have tested Sinergia's web-based prototype (Sinergia 1.0), guiding its development with their feedback and design needs.

We selected prototype as our development stage for two reasons:

1. First, we already have a Minimum Viable Product (Sinergia1.0) by which we tested and validated the core of our value proposition: find a suitable job in less than 24hrs.
2. Second, we are currently prototyping our app version (Sinergia2.0), which is being designed closely with our current users.

The MVP allowed us to validate the following hypothesis:

• Target members (workers) accept to be deducted a percentage of their income for having access to eventual job opportunities.
• Target clients (employers) accept to be charged a fixed fee for having access to an on-demand workforce.
• Target members possess the minimum technology literacy to successfully navigate our timetable interface.
• Target members appreciate the payment intermediation of the app, as they experienced cases of unpaid shifts in previous jobs.

The MVP allowed us to identify potential challenges and required changes:

• Not all target members have access to financial services.
• Employers cannot know their available shifts with more than 1-2 weeks of anticipation, so we require the matching process to become highly automatized and very responsive.
• Target members pay little attention to email notifications and medium attention to SMS.

Current MVP: Sinergia1.0

Sinergia operates on a licensed cloud-based Project Management Software (PMS). Its functionality consists of two calendars (weekly timetables). In the first one, employers record their workforce requirements, which could be for one person one shift or many people many shifts (a shift has a minimum of 4 hours). In the second calendar, female workers record their preferred time slots based on their daily availability. The matching process is currently performed by our staff, also responsible for sending alerts via email and text messages to both parties. Financial transactions are completed through an online payment gateway, yet some payments to workers are still delivered in cash due to their lack of bank accounts.

Coming Mobile App – Sinergia 2.0 (planned launch on May-2022)

New Features

Work Validation. Both employer and worker can validate the performed work. For workers, validation is performed through GPS, which certifies the time they arrive and leave the workplace.

Rating System. After completing their shifts, workers can rate employers on various categories (and vice-versa). Such ratings automatically become public to other users.

Centralized Communication. Workers and employers receive automatized notifications directly from the app.

Dynamic Pay Rate. Every employer can decide how much they want to pay per hour (over the minimum).

Technology Consideration. Back-end Frameworks (React Native, Laravel); Programming Languages (PHP, JavaScript); Cloud Services: AWSM; Database: MySQL; Miscellaneous Tools (Google Maps, Elastic Search, Twilio, Goggle Analytics).

Categories

1. Registered Members: Female workers who have signed up in Sinergia1.0

1.1 Effective Members:  Registered members who have performed at least one shift in the last month, and have been paid for that.

2. Registered Clients: Employers in the hospitality sector who have signed up in Sinergia1.0

2.1 Effective Clients: Registered Clients who have posted at least one shift in the last month and have validated and paid for such service.

Current Beneficiaries (2020-2021)

1. Registered Members: 83

1.1 Effective Members: 26

2. Registered Clients: 22

2.1 Effective Clients: 14

Expected Beneficiaries (2022-2023)

1. Registered Members: 1,000

1.1 Effective Members: 313

2. Registered Clients: 265

2.1 Effective Clients: 168

How did we estimate potential beneficiaries for next year?

1. We started considering the possibility of acquiring 1,000 users (registered members) in six months after the app is launched (July-December 2022).
2. The above consideration was a rule of thumb, given that the tactics we will use with our early adopters (first 1,000 users) will probably be different from the ones we'll use for our next 10,000.
3. We transposed the current distribution of Beneficiaries to the next year, assuming 1,000 registered members. For example, currently, our Activation Rate (Registered Members/Effective Members) is 31%, applying this rate to our expected 1,000 members, we get 313 effective members for 2022.

Goal 1. Reducing unemployment among Mexican Women

By reducing the transaction costs between employers and workers and customizing the matching process according to women's needs, we contribute to reducing the number of unemployed women in Mexico. By 2027, Sinergia expects to serve +100,000 women.

Goal 2. Achieving Gender Equality

Research shows that women’s economic empowerment is a prerequisite to achieving gender equality. So, we expect that by helping women attain a reliable income source, we can catalyze women’s empowerment in their households.

As a result of their economic empowerment, women will have the economic means to renegotiate the division of labor with their male partners, and voice their needs, desires, and expectation. This new position could provide women opportunities for up-skilling (ideally with Sinergia's accompaniment). As our platform evolves, we expect to offer not only entry-level jobs but also managerial positions in the hospitality industry.

Goal 3. Mitigating power asymmetries between capital and workers in the gig economy

Thomas Kochan, from MIT, suggested that ranking the quality of employers in an industry and region would provide workers with a new source of power. We believe that our platform contributes to that mission. By providing female workers more information about employers and making the contractual conditions pre-fixed and transparent we expect to see more competition and a general improvement of the hospitality sector.

Goal 1. Reducing unemployment among Mexican Women

SDG Target 8.5 Achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men

Progress Indicator

• Number of Effective Members (data analytics from the app)
• The total amount of revenue passed through the platform (Source: data analytics from the app) 

SDG Target 8.2 Achieve higher levels of economic productivity through diversification, technological upgrading, and innovation, including through a focus on labor-intensive sectors

Progress Indicator

• Changes on Annual Sales Performance (survey to employers)

Goal 2. Achieving Gender Equality

SDG Target 5.4 Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work 

Progress Indicator: Hours spent on unpaid domestic labor by Registered Members (Source: a survey to female workers) 

SDG Target 5.b Enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology, to promote the empowerment of women

• Progress Indicators: Number of Registered Members (Source: Data analytics from the app) 

Goal 3. Mitigating power asymmetries between capital and workers in the gig economy

SDG Target 8.8 Protect labor rights and promote safe and secure working environments for all workers, in particular, women migrants, and those in precarious employment

Progress Indicators:

• Average hourly earnings of members (Source: data analytics from the app)
• Average rating of employers (Source: data analytics from the app)
• Qualitative Reports the Hospitality Sector Working Conditions (Source: text analysis of worker’s comments on employers provided on the app, and in-depth interviews)

Financial: We need to capture about 30,000 USD of investment so that we are able to develop and launch our mobile app Sinergia 2.0. We also need a significant amount of money to position our cooperative among other job recruitment solutions. An advantage is that although many job-recruitment apps exist in Mexico, currently there is no specialized on temporary in-site jobs.

Technical: As previously mentioned, some women do not possess a bank account. We are currently paying them in cash but scaling our project will require providing them a prepaid card for deposits or facilitating members to open a bank account by partnering with a fin-tech company.

Legal/Accounting: Cooperatives fall in a particular fiscal scheme with many incentives but also less standardized procedures. As Sinergia grows we will require accounting specialized services. 

Cultural: In Mexico, inherited patriarchal values hold women back.  For instance, women who have a spouse or a partner are less likely to be employed in a paid job or be actively looking for one. This can often arise from a “male breadwinner” bias in some marital arrangements.

Ana Gutiérrez (CEO & Founder): She is majoring in Sociology. Ana started working when she was 15 years old in the hospitality sector (first as a McDonald crew member, then as a kitchen helper in a small restaurant). In her own experience as a worker, Ana realized that the hospitality industry is plagued with pernicious management practices such as unpaid shifts, sexual harassment, precarity, and exploitation. The situation is even worse for women, as gender plays another layer of power imbalance and discrimination in the workplace. Since then, Ana became interested in improving the working conditions for women in the sector.

Before Sinergia, Ana had a two-year experience as a volunteer of “Colectiva de Cuidados” a daycare cooperative for women. Her involvement in this organization was crucial in her understanding of how women’s cooperatives can contribute to non-exploitative economic configurations, where women can support and empower each other.

Alejandro Soriano (Technology Strategist): He is majoring in Engineering in Innovation and Development and has previous experience with tech start-ups. Two years ago Alejandro founded CEMPA, an online fair-trade platform that connects Mexican artisans directly with buyers. Given his tech experience, he has helped Sinergia in developing the essential online tools of our Minimum Viable Product to test our value proposition. 

Nancy Vega (Marketing Strategist): She is majoring in Design & Communications. Nancy has experience in religious organizations, implementing social campaigns to help them communicate their mission and social impact. In this sense, Nancy has helped Sinergia in creating marketing strategies tailored to our potential users  (young women from underserved communities in Mexico City). Her expertise in the communications field has helped us to identify the best communication channels to reach potential users and potential customers (hospitality employers).

Acción Colectiva: They have provided funding and technical guidance to the project.  

Colectiva de Cuidados: Feminist cooperative that provides subsidized daycare for women in vulnerable situations. We refer our female members to them when they need daycare services for their children.

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México: Our Project was incubated in this university. Since then, we have received important support from professors, some even have accepted to join Sinergia’s board.

Jóvenes COPARMEX: COPARMEX is one of the major commerce chambers in Mexico. We are currently establishing an agreement with them to offer our services to some of their employers (particularly cleaning services for restaurants).

We answered NO in the above question

We qualify for this prize given that our solution aims to improve the quality of life for Mexican women. We found a niche market where the female workforce has a competitive advantage (the hospitality sector) and a particular juncture (post COVID times), which offers the unique opportunity to reshape this industry creating more decent and better-paid jobs.

 To attain this objective, we need the most human-centered and user-driven technology to provide women the flexibility to enter the labor market. Furthermore, our technology, as previously explained, will help bring accountability to an industry that relies heavily on part-time and occasional work and whose female employees have few options for responding to workplace conflict.

 We already have a product and a strong team, and with funding from The Pozen Social Innovation Prize, we will be able to launch this year our mobile app, Sinergia 2.0, and scale it up nationwide. We also appreciate the reputation and value that the prize carries with it. And we are convinced that it will leverage our opportunities to access other funding sources.