Microjobbing platform Money4Jam (M4Jam) has enabled a mine to more deeply and substantively engage with communities in the vicinity of the mine by providing them with direct employment opportunities and helping to develop local suppliers, says M4Jam CEO Georgie Midgley.

The impact of the six-month trial is such that M4Jam is in discussions to extend the programme to additional mines in South Africa.

The mining community engagement project started with a handful of people and was an attempt by the mine to more effectively and substantively meet Mining Charter obligations. The number of people involved in the project has grown fivefold within six months.

There are always external and nonmining-related jobs that need to be done at mines, as well as various supplier and service opportunities that are suited to local industries, she explains.

However, the lack of visibility of expenditure and its resultant impact often push mines to outsource such jobs to large or corporate entities, despite the local communities being able to meet many of these needs, and often at a lower price point.

“Our platform facilitates direct engagement with the local community, including work. A key benefit is that the mine can monitor in high detail the impact of the funds it is expending for community outreach and employment opportunities, as well as for supplier development.”

An important function of the platform is its ability to segment the job offers, such as to target only youths, women or those who have the requisite skill profiles. It also allows jobbers to develop new skills through training modules.

The project can serve as a model for direct engagement with local communities, and ensure that spending directly benefits the local people, says Midgley.

“One of the key changes we had to make was to ensure that the payments took no longer than a few days; jobbers and microenterprises cannot wait 60 or even 30 days to receive payment. Once this issue was resolved, the project led to more than R1-million being paid to local people for work performed over just a few months.”

This represents direct and measurable improvements of community members’ lives, and illustrates the potential developmental impact of work performed for one mine, she emphasises.

The platform is fair and easy to use. There have not been any issues regarding a lack of access to devices suited to the platform, as some jobbers share smartphones, while others use various devices, such as Internet-connected computers, details Midgley.

All jobs on the platform are checked after completion and jobbers must typically upload a photo or acknowledgement of a completed job. Further, completed jobs are then checked and vetted by either the company providing the work or other jobbers.

The platform also reduces ancillary costs, for example, by providing a host of training modules, which registered jobbers get paid to complete.

“This may seem odd, but it is significantly cheaper to pay people to complete training than to hire a venue to train and test people.

“We are almost always as surprised at the novel uses of the M4Jam platform as are our users. In this case, the positive feedback from the community and the mine has reinforced our belief that we can make a significant and fundamental change in the communities in which we and our partners work,” says Midgley.

The goal of M4Jam is not to replace formal employment, but it does act as an effective way of providing work opportunities and experience and, thereby, improves the prospects and employability of the jobbers, she says.

A significant boost for the project was the zero rating of data charges by a network operator for data used by the app. M4Jam is in discussions with other network operators to either zero-rate or sponsor the data required by the local jobbers.

M4Jam is maintaining its focus on serving grassroots needs and playing a key role in bridging the gap between small and large businesses, and informal and formal sectors, Midgley concludes.