Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Alumni
  • Login
  • Volunteer
  • Clubs
  • Reunions
  • Bulletin
  • Class Notes
  • Help
  • Give Now
  • Stories
  • Alumni Directory
  • Lifelong Learning
  • Careers
  • Programs & Events
  • Giving
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Alumni→
  • Stories→

Stories

Stories

04 Feb 2022

Hour by Hour

Rahkeem Morris (MBA 2018) is saving businesses money with every hire they make—and giving hourly employees flexibility and extra cash along the way
Re: Rahkeem Morris (MBA 2017)
Topics: Entrepreneurship-GeneralLabor-Human CapitalCompetency and Skills-Talent and Talent Management
ShareBar

Courtesy Rahkeem Morris

Rahkeem Morris (MBA 2018) spent the first 10 years of his work life as an hourly wage earner, moving from one minimum wage job to the next, often without transferable skills or training. The cycle wasn’t good for businesses or for hourly workers, Morris realized: Companies lost money on training, and employees often started right back at minimum wage with each new job.

This insight is at the heart of HourWork (formerly Syrg), which Morris founded in 2018 to bring together employers and their former employees so that both can benefit. The company uses a web-based application to connect employers and former workers in good standing, and allow employers to automate and manage their interactions with former employees. HourWork’s model—pooling and then nurturing former talent for future permanent and temporary “on-demand” positions—has helped businesses save more than $1,000 per permanent hire by bypassing recruitment, background checks, and training. It has also helped hourly employees pick up extra work.

“You can imagine that if you’re a store manager, you want somebody who’s familiar with your systems and your culture,” notes Morris. “And we’re trying to get people who have had that training, to be able to use it to earn additional income.” HourWork also specializes in improving retention rates, surveying employees who leave a company and using that data to help businesses address issues that contribute to turnover. The company also has recently started applying relationship management to former applicants and current employees.

“Work is an experience in which virtually everyone partakes to support themselves and their families, yet ‘work’ is so fundamentally broken for millions, especially hourly workers,” observes Morris. “HourWork is all about giving back to the people who gave me a chance, making possibility scalable while breaking the cycle that leads to poor outcomes for everyone involved.”

Support the next generation of leaders Make a gift now
ShareBar

Featured Alumni

Rahkeem Morris
MBA 2017
Login to send a message

Post a Comment

Featured Alumni

Rahkeem Morris
MBA 2017
Login to send a message

Related Stories

    • 01 Dec 2023
    • HBS Alumni Bulletin

    Thinking Ahead

    Re: Simin Lee (MBA 2016); Julian De Freitas (Assistant Professor of Business Administration); Jeremy Yang (Assistant Professor of Business Administration); Julia B. Austin (Senior Lecturer of Business Administration); Thomas W. Graeber (Assistant Professor of Business Administration); Seth Neel (Assistant Professor of Business Administration); David C. Edelman (Senior Lecturer of Business Administration); Brian J. Hall (Albert H. Gordon Professor of Business Administration); By: Julia Hanna; Illustrations by Chris Gash
    • 02 Nov 2023
    • HBS Alumni News

    Seeding Startups

    Re: Shirish Nadkarni (MBA 1987); By: April White
    • 01 Sep 2023
    • HBS Alumni Bulletin

    Startup Success Beyond Silicon Valley

    Re: Paul A. Gompers (Eugene Holman Professor of Business Administration); By: Jennifer Mele
    • 01 Sep 2023
    • HBS Alumni Bulletin

    Wheel Change

    Re: Paris Wallace (MBA 2007); By: Julia Hanna

More Related Stories

 
 
 
 
ǁ
Campus Map
External Relations
Harvard Business School
Teele Hall
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
Phone: 1.617.495.6890
Email: alumni+hbs.edu
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
  • Terms of Use
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College