What is the name of your solution?
Symplifica
Provide a one-line summary of your solution.
HR, Payroll and Benefits Platform for Domestic Workers
What specific problem are you solving?
There are 20 million domestic workers in Latin America. It represents 7.6% of total employment in the region. But only 2 out of 10 are formally hired. More than 90% of domestic workers are women. And these workers have low incomes and no power to obtain balanced working conditions since they are acting individually against the market. This imbalance holds back these workers in areas such as decent income, access to social security benefits and access to credit.
On the other hand, we have the employers, households that are obliged to contract formally, but complying with what the system demands, sometimes exceeds the knowledge, capacity and will to do so. The process can be so complex that companies require legal, payroll and human resources teams.
What is your solution?
We came up with a business model and a tech platform to solve the pains of employers and workers. We are not an agency; we do not hire workers to provide services in people's homes. We are an HR, Payroll and benefits platform. As an HR and payroll platform, Symplifica eliminates the complexity of hiring and managing employees. We take care of creating labour contracts, paying payroll and social security, guaranteeing social benefits, managing vacations, disability settlements, etc.
Since we are managing the worker´s payroll, we can negotiate or provide products and services to them such as payroll advances, loans, small insurance, education, entertainment, and many others in conditions they couldn't get outside of Symplifica (in some cases it is the employer who grants the benefits and in others it may be the worker who requests them). In the end, our goal is to improve the quality of life of those domestic workers.
Our technology allows both, employers and workers, to access our platform via web or app.
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
As we mentioned before, we are targeting and generating value to employers and workers.
Domestic workers: Women between 18 and 60 years old who find in domestic service an opportunity to generate income. The majority are heads of households, have children, and have low income. They seek information that is easy to digest and reliable and services to save money and improve their quality of life. Are mainly 3 segments
- Local: women with basic education and whose families have lived in poverty and find in domestic labors a way to generates incomes for them and their families. They typically live in their hometowns
- Displaced by political violence: Women whose families have been threatened or a member of their families had been killed as a consequence of the armed conflict in their hometowns and are forced to migrate.
- Migrants for economic downturns: Woman who decided to move to major cities within their country or from another country (Ex. Venezuela) to have a better life. Sometimes they come along with their family and in other times they travel alone and transfer money to their families.
Employers Any person who hires domestic workers directly in his/hers home. Households composed of families, with a medium-high and high socioeconomic level, located in the main cities of the country. People with a sensibility to do things correctly and who want to avoid exposing their patrimony in possible future lawsuits, who are generally in an age range of 35 to 65 years old, and it is usually the woman who is linked to us as an employer in a proportion of 65%. We have identified 4 segments that demand our services:
- Executives without children: Single men, women or other, successful in their work between the ages of 30 and 40. Their occupations are divided between their work and social lives, as they are busy people they look for quick and practical solutions to meet their needs.
- Families or mothers: Generally, it is the woman who makes the decision to feel responsible for the home, they seek help at home especially with children. Some are workers, others are housewives between the ages of 30-50. They like to know the details of what they are paying for and the certainty that they are doing things right, but they don't want to complicate themselves with paperwork if someone else can do it for them.
- Elderly people: People aged 60+, pensioners, who hire employees for their homes and caregivers for older adults and nurses, often they or their children are linked as employers in our system. They are looking for someone to explain to them what they need to do. They feel good about doing things right.
- Foreigners: People temporarily living in the country, who want to act in the right way but do not seek to understand the local legal system. They prefer someone who tells them what to do, how much to pay, and make things easier to them.
How are you and your team well-positioned to deliver this solution?
We (the founders), started this venture because we felt the pain directly.
On the one hand, as domestic service employers ourselves, we were forced to comply with a new and complex law that we were not aware before. And on the other hand, we question why our employees and people who were once in our home do not have the same rights and access to benefits that other workers have. At that time, we wondered if with the tech knowledge we had we could create something that would change the situation. That's where it all started.
Which dimension of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?
Ensuring decent working conditions and basic rights for care workers, particularly migrant or domestic workers whose labor may be exploited.
Where our solution team is headquartered or located:
Bogotá, ColombiaOur solution's stage of development:
GrowthHow many people does your solution currently serve?
9200
Why are you applying to Solve?
We are looking for expertice, advise and networking to land in new countries (currently in Colombia, starting in Mexico and planning new geographies)
We also would like to have an IT assesment of our platform.
In which of the following areas do you most need partners or support?
Technology (e.g. software or hardware, web development/design, data analysis, etc.)
Who is the Team Lead for your solution?
Omar Perdomo CEO
What makes your solution innovative?
We are the first company in Latin America to create a tech platform to solve labour relationship between employers and domestic workers.
We find out, that with our solution, not only we manage to solve the problem of the employers but it also allows us to provide benefits to the workers.
For a 20 million size market entering in a new legal framework for domestic workers, Symplifica is a must have tool.
What are your impact goals for the next year and the next five years, and how will you achieve them?
# of workers who were paid for rights (e.g. vacation, overwork, sick leave, severance), by type of right
# of workers who accessed at least one informational or educational resources in person or through partners or through the platform
# of workers who enrolled in the social security system for the first time, by demographics (e.g. sex, gender, nationality, ethnicity, race, age)
# of workers who are more aware about unionizing as an employee (possibilities, benefits, costs, challenges)
# of workers who are more knowledgeable about their rights and how to exercise them
Other related metrics
Number of employees, clients and subscriptions, by type of employment agreement (full or part-time)
Change in number of subscriptions, by type of employment agreement (full or part-time) and by movement type (e.g. liquidation, cancellation, returning customer, new customer)
Net Client Churn rate.
Gross Merchandise Value (total payroll, and % processed by Symplifica)
Total social security paid, by payee (employers or employee), by type of employment agreement (full or part-time), and % processed by Symplifica
Number of employees that use auxiliary services of Symplifica, by type (e.g. loans, insurance) and employment type (full or part-time)
Number, average amount and average pricing of outstanding financial auxiliary services (payroll advances and loans)
# of Symplifica employees, by demographics (e.g. sex, gender, nationality, ethnicity, race, age), split between management and non-management
Average days worked by part-time employees
# of employees who reach out to Symplifica for guidance and information around their rights and how to exercise them, by category (e.g. safety, harassment, pay, social security)
Average gross income, by type of employment agreement (full or part-time) and demographics (e.g. sex, gender, nationality, ethnicity, race, age)
# of employees, by type of employment agreement (full or part-time) and demographics (e.g. sex, gender, nationality, race, ethnicity and age)
Average length of job retention for Symplifica´s managed workers. Disaggregated by gender.
# and type of actors Symplifica engaged through dialogue (e.g. gov, CSO)
# of partnerships delivering benefits to Symplifica workers (e.g. financial products, discounts)
Changes in the Company’s ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) policy nad Management System during the past year
Number and explanation of breaches of the Company’s ESG policy during the past year
Changes in key staff members involved with ESG topics during the past year
Training of staff members regarding ESG topics during the past year
Number and explanation of complaints received during the past year
Number and explanation of negative media reports and/or campaigns and/or boycotts that took place in the past year
Number and explanation of punitive fines and/or penalties incurred during the past year
ESG related incidents (in particular forced and child labour, corporal punishments, injuries and accidents, environmental impact)
How are you measuring your progress toward your impact goals?
We are using internal data and 60 Decibles survey https://60decibels.com/
What is your theory of change?
Symplifica will be a facilitating tool for labor formalization and access to better working conditions for domestic employees. We have already demonstrated this with more than 17,000 labor relations that we have formalized in our history.
Thanks to Simplifica, labor informality in domestic employment will be significantly reduced and access to financial services, education and other benefits will be increased for domestic workers
Describe the core technology that powers your solution.
For our web applications we use Ruby on Rails as a core technology, and for the high loaded real-time systems we use Erlang. For persistent data storage we use PostgreSQL. As a Key-value storage we prefer Redis, and for messaging - RabbitMQ. We also have extensive experience with cloud based hosting,Digital Ocean is our main cloud provider.
In each particular case we design a specific technological stack to sustain needs of the application, as well as to make it stable and fast.
We’re always on the edge of the technology trends and now actively using Swift and Kotlin in our mobile projects.
Which of the following categories best describes your solution?
A new business model or process that relies on technology to be successful
Please select the technologies currently used in your solution:
Which of the UN Sustainable Development Goals does your solution address?
In which countries do you currently operate?
In which countries will you be operating within the next year?
What type of organization is your solution team?
For-profit, including B-Corp or similar models
How many people work on your solution team?
85 full time, 20 contractors
How long have you been working on your solution?
7 years
What is your approach to incorporating diversity, equity, and inclusivity into your work?
we value diversity as part of the core of our culture.
We especially work hard on gender issues.
Co-funders: 1 man - 1 woman
C-Level: 2 men, 2 women)
Management team: 4 men - 4 women
Rest of the team: 60% women 40% men
We are consulting with Value 4 Woman to implement policies that will lead us to a certification.
Additionally, we carry out workshops with the entire team on topics such as: new masculinities, valuing diversity, etc.
What is your business model?
We make money by charging a monthly recurrent fee to the employer, (ranges from 8 to 10 us dollars) we also charge some one time services such as back ground checkings, medical exams etc. and also we will start making money with services that we are going to provide to the workers. (payroll advances, loans, insuranses and so on) each of this has their own particular way of monetization, but we expect to monetize around 4% of the total domestic worker salary (it could be charged to the employer, to the worker, or gain from third parties negotiations)
Do you primarily provide products or services directly to individuals, to other organizations, or to the government?
Individual consumers or stakeholders (B2C)What is your plan for becoming financially sustainable?
We hava a solid for profit business plan.
Solution Team
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Omar Perdomo CEO, Symplifica
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Our Organization
Symplifica