GoKawiilThe takeaway: Manufacturing jobs have long been built around fixed schedules and predictable shifts. At a GE Appliances plant in northwest Georgia, that structure is starting to loosen, replaced by a system where workers pick their hours through an app. The setup is run through staffing firm MyWorkChoice, which maintains a pool of more than 900 people trained to handle different roles across the plant.
The employees log in to an app and choose when to work, signing up for four-hour blocks that fit their schedules. In a typical week, roughly half the pool – around 450 workers – pick up shifts, averaging about 24 hours.
The model took shape during the pandemic, when demand for appliances surged, but the company struggled to keep its lines staffed. "People were buying appliances in record numbers, because they were staying at home and they were cooking," Tony Gabbert, the plant's director of manufacturing operations, told NPR. "It was a great time, great problem to have when you're just selling product so fast that you can't hardly make them quick enough."
The bigger issue was labor. Absences and resignations left the plant short by hundreds of workers on some days, forcing salaried staff to step in to keep production moving. That pressure pushed the company to consider alternatives, including MyWorkChoice's app-based staffing model.
The idea was not an easy sell. "I did say this is crazy," says Bill Good, vice president of manufacturing. After decades in the industry, he was used to a system built on consistency. Letting workers sign up for short shifts, sometimes just a few hours at a time, raised concerns about stability. "The two-hour increments scared the heck out of me, because I was envisioning people coming and going at a rate that we could not control," Good says. The company ultimately landed on four-hour shifts and rolled the program out gradually.
The system now operates more like a gig platform than a traditional factory schedule. Workers choose shifts, build their own schedules and are rated on reliability. Those with stronger ratings get first access to available hours. "This is like the Uber of manufacturing," says Darcy Duvall, the plant's director of human resources operations.
Their contributions have been key to GE Appliances' $180 million expansion of the Georgia plant, completed last year, which added 600 new jobs. It has also changed who the jobs appeal to.
Some workers are not looking for full-time roles at all. Ruth Ransom, 68, had considered herself retired before joining the program. She now picks shifts that fit her schedule, often choosing quality-control work over more physically demanding assembly-line roles. "It's your choice," she says. "I love it."
Others use the flexibility to balance multiple jobs. Kwame Crockett started picking up shifts to supplement his work managing and remodeling properties in a mobile home park. He now often works close to full-time at the plant but has chosen not to convert to a permanent role with benefits. "I've thought about it," he says. "But I never know when my other remodeling or anything might kick up. So I might need a vacation or a little time off, you know?"
The trade-off is lower pay and almost no benefits, though MyWorkChoice employees can opt into a group healthcare plan. Duvall says many workers prize flexibility, even with those trade-offs.
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