Upshift started by staffing banquet servers and BOH kitchen staff for events at the hotel. After seeing success in this area, the Marriott enlisted Upshift’s assistance in finding staff for positions in their housekeeping department with extremely variable labor needs – Laundry Attendant. Less than 12 hours after posting their first Laundry Attendant shifts, they were filled, and the Marriott Cincinnati Airport continues to utilize Upshift for both banquet servers and laundry services. Upshift was also able to help Marriott Cincinnati Airport bring down costs. Before Upshift, they were billed at set bill rates by the agencies they were working with. This resulted in perverse incentives.

For example, Marriott Cincinnati Airport was paying $21/hr for a temporary dishwasher but did not know what the dishwasher was making. When the dishwashers were asked, they said they were making $9/hr. Using bill rate based billing incentivizes agencies to charge clients the highest possible amount and pay the worker the least amount possible.

Upshift utilizes a markup-based model that aligns the incentives of all parties involved. In the above scenario with Upshift, the client raised their pay to $12/hr, resulting in a $16.8/hr bill rate. This saved Marriott Cincinnati Airport $4.2/hr in bill rate and allowed them to attract and retain higher quality talent through a pay rate 33% higher than the agencies were offering prior.

Thanks to Upshift, Marriott Cincinnati Airport has attracted much higher quality workers for their events due to Upshift’s industry-leading digital platform. The transparency in wages allows Marriott to pay what they want to attract the best talent. The willingness of those traditionally outside of the temporary labor sphere to pick up these shifts has resulted in a large increase in worker’s quality!