Setting up of a community for employees within easyswap

easyswap offers companies the possibility to build a community of employees within easyswap, aiming to

• reinforce collaboration and sharing among the various staff members,
• give value to or create new social links between different employees,
• reinforce the organizational culture by making available within the company, a fun and efficient tool, allowing employees to better satisfy their needs regarding goods and services,
• position the company in a framework of active contribution toward a sustainable use of already existing goods, and thus contribute effectively to reducing their ecological footprint, as well as, participate in the urban, local or regional economical activity, by encouraging secondary consumption of already manufactured goods.

Characteristics of the created community

The easyswap service made available by a company to its employees is considered a justified commercial expense.

Only company employees (and under specific circumstances certain family members) are authorized to register in this community.

The default parameters are not geographically restricted to a specific territory, but to the specific employee community. However with a simple click, every employee can at his leisure extend easyswap's domain.

The partner’s intranet can be equipped with an easyswap pull-down (in the form of a plug-in)

The activation of the plug-in on the partner’s intranet will automatically redirect the user to the tabbed community, such as easyswap/company. The consultation of the pages can thus be carried out directly from the partner’s website, adding to its attractiveness, or through easyswap.

In the latter case, the product is entirely developed by easyswap and delivered ready to use. The source code will be provided to the partner. easyswap and the partner's IT department might answer specific requests, by working together for designing a plug-in, adapted to the partner's needs.

Services in relation with the implementation of the plug-in, information and staff training for management, or media exposure of this partnership, will be invoiced by easyswap to its partner. The partner is entitled to oversee and criticize all material directly connected with the promotion or the communication of the aforementioned partnership

In the event of a plenary partnership with integrated plug-in on the partner's intranet, any improvements brought to the original source code by the partner, whether linguistic, functional or communicational, belong legitimately to easyswap which reserves the right to implement these improvements on easyswap in a definitive manner.

In return for this partnership easyswap agrees

• to entirely moderate the exchanges of the concerned community and to efficiently manage the global amount of provided swaps;
• to improve the continuity and functionality of the product defined by the partnership;
• to display the partner's logo on its website, with special mention on the page dedicated to partnerships, and under certain conditions on the homepage itself;
• to promote the partner, through advantageous featuring;
• to regularly inform the partner of the obtained results.

Most employees are very aware of current hardships

Unless they live in a vacuum employees face the same issues as excluded classes to a varying extent. When budgets get tighter - whether useful or needed - purchases get postponed, if made at all, and access to services becomes increasingly more difficult.

• The purchase and use of goods is related to buying power. Even employees might not be able to afford certain goods.
• The usage of goods decreases as time progresses. Many goods are not sold by their owners, often due to a real, yet sporadic need.
• An increasing part of the population, including employees, expresses an interest (if not a necessity), to consume differently, which manifests itself as use without ownership.
  
• Access to services is gradually limited. Few are the employees not faced with having difficulties making ends meet, or confronted with tough choices just trying to "get by".
• Many employees have valuable knowledge and skills of which they cannot take advantage, even outside their work place.

Within the same company co-exist individuals who

• own certain goods yet cannot fully or frequently enjoy them;
• have untapped knowledge and skills.

This leads to two questions

• How to inform company members of the availability of potential goods and services within the company?
• How to organize and promote the trade of these goods and services among the members?

Employee loyalty and Development of social networking within the company

Most companies with a long term vision seek not only to develop employee loyalty but to foster human bonds which can harmonize personal development and corporate culture. This is reflected by already traditional means, such as company parties, sports clubs, bulletin boards, etc.

A company concierge to facilitate employee's life has shown some increase in employee satisfaction. Yet how much does this really contribute to developing/reinforcing social bonds?

Strong bonds should be the objectives, be it at the managerial or the rank and file level. One can argue that people are not interested in this. The exponential growth of the web might disprove that.

The idea is not to order employees to get along but to catalyze affinities which would not otherwise be revealed, as employees are the repository to real goods and (often unused) services that could be shared more efficiently and to everyone's benefit.

The company has everything to gain by sponsoring such catalysis.

easyswap: a novel approach

On easyswap there are no divisions between users: Being a basic employee, senior executive or member of the direction is irrelevant. Each user is a swapper who is offering or seeking knowledge, skills, and goods. Thus, by reducing stereotypes and stigmas, easyswap promotes exchanges between individuals of different socio-economic milieus, therefore positioning itself as a network capable of transcending social divisions.

easyswap gives worth to unexploited skills by addressing the individual directly. easyswap does not act as an institutional intermediary, but encourages each individual to think lucidly about his/her skills and gives him/her the possibility to make them available to others. With this simple system of putting individuals into contact, easyswap promotes everyone's social empowerment. In fact, to post on easyswap is to be ready to play the game and to demonstrate the claimed knowledge and skills, in due course.

Finally, easyswap allows a "wholistic" personal development of the individual, by allowing diverse social roles. Such employee will be a 60% part-time secretary, a wife and mother, active in different associations, and will gain a sense of self-worth by offering to colleagues the specific competences she has. A top executive will not only be in charge of a number of employees, but also be perceived as an individual making available to others a good that he does not use on a daily basis.

At the economical level, easyswap, by offering the possibility to use or acquire unused goods, engenders an added value to the economic system by encouraging after market consumption of already manufactured goods.

At the environmental level, easyswap, by fostering a better circulation of unused consumer goods contributes to a sustainable use of already manufactured products, thus promoting a reduction of their ecological footprint.

This combination of the economic and environmental aspects positions easyswap as an actor who enhances the market economy, by combining two apparently contradictory principles: growth and sustainability.

Conclusions and projections

• easyswap is a highly innovative site with no equivalent. Many internet sites practice the exchange of goods and services but or by using a real currency, with lucrative goals, or in the form of barter.
  
• The first nine months of activity clearly reveal an interest and strong will in participating and using such a network in Switzerland and abroad.
• The media generally show great interest in easyswap and more specifically, the different considerations leading to its foundation. International media coverage can only lead to increase the number of users.
• The association easyswap, which now endowed with significant competences in management of a network dedicated to exchange of goods and services, intends to position itself as an effective and reliable interlocutor toward future partners. Consequently, easyswap is not only a product available to businesses, but also a constantly evolving know-how dedicated to making this network live.
• Finally, easyswap is a tool fostering empowerment of each and all user. Indeed, every swapper offers benefits and/or goods and must take responsibility for it. A source of social links between employees, easyswap is an authentic, fun and teaching tool, at the disposal of partner companies.
  

Consequently, a local and international implementation through corporate networks is fundamental.

Indeed, such a platform can only grow with the help of local networks, which it can contribute to creating, necessitating a certain proximity and population density. Because of their human concentration and geographical spread, corporations fit perfectly in easyswap's growth model and are to be privileged.

Whatever the size of your company, the prices will never exceed 9 Euros per employee.

For further information, please write to us through the form:  Contact. Thank you.

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