Hire caregivers like a marketplace, not a call centre
A multi-vendor marketplace to hire caregivers — families post work, caregivers apply and propose, then both sides chat and start a contract: hourly, weekly, or full-time.
A multi-vendor marketplace to hire caregivers — families post work, caregivers apply and propose, then both sides chat and start a contract: hourly, weekly, or full-time.
Ivory Cradle is not a brochure for a care agency. It is a marketplace: families (and facilities) hire caregivers the way a client hires talent — by posting a job, reviewing applications and proposals, talking in-thread, and starting a contract. Developera built that full loop: vendor-side caregivers, buyer-side hiring, and the operator layer that keeps a care marketplace trustworthy.
The challenge
Care hiring is a two-sided market. Families need different engagement types — hourly help, a weekly rhythm, or a full-time caregiver — not a single “book now” button. Caregivers need a job portal they can apply to, room to send a proposal, and a way to converse before committing. Off-the-shelf booking tools skip proposals, chat, and contracts; generic freelance marketplaces skip care-specific hiring. Ivory Cradle needed both.
Approach
Modelled families/clients and caregivers as marketplace sides with distinct dashboards
Built a job portal: post care work, apply, and submit proposals
Supported multiple contract types — hourly, weekly, full-time, and related hiring options
Added in-platform chat and conversations before and during an engagement
Wired “start contract” so agreement is a product event, not a side email
A multi-vendor care marketplace
Ivory Cradle treats caregivers as vendors on a shared platform: profiles, availability, and the ability to compete for work. Clients are the other side of the market — they describe the care they need and hire from the pool, rather than being assigned a single in-house roster with no choice.
That is the same structural problem as a multi-vendor store, except the “catalog” is people and the “order” is a care contract. We built roles, listings, and operator tools accordingly.
Hiring options that match how care is bought
Care is not one SKU. A family might need a few hours, a weekly pattern, or a full-time caregiver. Ivory Cradle supports those engagement types in the product — so the job, the proposal, and the contract all speak the same language instead of forcing every hire into a one-hour timeslot.
Jobs, apply, propose
The job portal is the marketplace feed: clients post caregiving work; caregivers browse, apply, and send proposals. Applications and proposals are first-class objects — not a contact form dumped into an inbox — so both sides can compare fit before anyone is on the clock.
Chat, then start the contract
High-trust hiring needs conversation. Ivory Cradle includes chat and conversation threads so details (hours, household context, expectations) can be settled in the product. When both sides are ready, they start a contract in-platform — hourly, weekly, full-time, or another supported option — so the engagement is recorded, not reconstructed from WhatsApp later.
