OHIO — An app developed in Ohio is helping hundreds of employers connect with thousands of employees across the country.

It’s called Upshift.

Upshift was founded in 2016 in Cincinnati and now has a presence in every major Ohio city. It’s expanded a lot over the years into eight other states across the country and has plans to grow even more in the New Year.

The staffing platform has proven to be mutually beneficial for businesses looking to hire and job seekers looking for flexible work.

“This is going to be the breadwinner for me," said Tracy Black.

Dishes won’t clean themselves and that's where Black comes in.

“I wouldn’t mind becoming a professional dishwasher. You don’t know too many professional dishwashers out there, you know," he said.

He’s been working at the Event Source headquarters in Cleveland for just a few months.

It’s a family-owned and operated event rental business that’s been around for 42 years.

“I normally come in five days a week," said Black.

But he’s not an Event Source employee. He’s an "Upshifter."

“Flexibility, you know," said Black. "Good pay." 

Black signed up to work for Upshift through the app on his phone.

“Upshift has been the most recent steady job that I’ve had," he said.

After going through a quick application and interview process, Upshifters can pick and choose when, where and how much they work.

“They started offering me weeks at a time," said Black. "It sounds like they’re saying “upsift”, you know what I mean? So, I’ll just see if I’m one of the keepers here," said Black.

Black likes his job at Event Source so much that he hopes to land a full-time position.

“This is a dream job for me," he said.

Black is an example of a worker who found a great fit right away. But that’s not every Upshifter's story.

This platform also works well for someone looking to pick up a few shifts a month or anyone interested in working at multiple venues.

In Cleveland, for example, there are Upshifters at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and FirstEnergy Stadium during big events and games.

“We allow people to make their own schedules and choose when they want to work, where they want to work and how much they want to work for," said Alex Pantich, the co-founder and COO of Upshift.

Upshift has been booming because it essentially fills the gap on both ends of the labor shortage issue. It connects people looking for work with businesses looking for workers.

At Event Source, for example, the director of operations said at the peak of the busy season, about 30% of workers in the warehouse were Upshifters.

“We can book as many events as we want, but if we don’t have the people to process the stuff to get the stuff ready to go out, then we’re stuck," said Matthew Moxley, director of operations at Event Source.

Moxley said without Upshift, the company wouldn’t be able to keep up with client demand.

“There's some people that we've transitioned into full-time employees. Some people were still looking to transition to full-time employees. Some people that we've wanted to transition to full-time employees, but they love the freedom of Upshift too much where they don't want to be tied down to one company, but we'll still take them any day they want to work," said Moxley.

If someone is interested in joining Upshift, there is a personality test and in-person orientation at one of the Upshift offices, but the entire process can be done in 24-hours.

Someone could start applying Monday, go to the orientation Tuesday morning and be on a job site Tuesday night.

“For the traditional application process you have to do a resume, you have to do a couple of interviews just to work one place. And in today's labor market, people don't want to do that. With Upshift, you go through one application process, no resumes involved. And once you're done, you can work at hundreds of different businesses either flexibly or full-time," said Pantich.