Kateryna Eisen is creating a more flexible path between experienced parents ready to work and businesses ready to hire.
For many parents, returning to work, changing careers, or simply finding a job that fits the realities of family life can feel unnecessarily complicated. Kateryna Eisen, former business owner, mom of two, and founder of Momploy, is working to change that. Her Toronto-based HR-tech platform connects experienced parents seeking flexible, temporary, and part-time opportunities with small and medium-sized businesses searching for skilled, vetted talent. In this conversation, Kateryna shares the inspiration behind Momploy, the challenges parents face in today’s workforce, and why flexibility and professional experience should never be viewed as mutually exclusive.
Momploy was inspired by your perspective as both a former business owner and a mother of two. What personal and professional experiences made you recognize the disconnect between parents seeking flexible employment and small-to-medium-sized businesses struggling to find experienced talent, and when did you realize that gap could become a viable business solution?
The first time I experienced this problem was when I had to hire someone for the windows and doors company my brother and I ran. We were a small local business in Toronto growing pretty fast. I was covering sales, HR and marketing, while my brother managed installations, vendors and everything else. I needed immediate help.
I tried the popular hiring platforms and quickly learned it was basically, “Good luck plowing through those 200 applicants.” People often didn’t pay attention to what I was asking for in the job description. I needed a few people for just a few hours a week, but traditional platforms weren’t built that way. Headhunters were way too expensive for a company with fewer than 20 employees, so I ended up adding more hours and covering most of the work myself. The result was burnout.
We eventually sold the company when I knew I was going to be a mother. I wanted to devote my time to my baby. I had two sons, and a few years went by, and it was time to get back on the horse. Guess what? Now I find that traditional hiring platforms are not built for parents either.
The more moms and dads I spoke to at parks, cafés, mommy-and-me groups and other social settings, the more I noticed the same problem: there were plenty of educated, experienced parents who could work a few hours a week, but there was no trusted, local place in GTA Toronto to showcase their skills.
So I started manually matching a few parents with opportunities and began building Momploy. That’s when I realized the demand was there. The solution just didn’t exist yet.
For many parents, returning to the workforce after maternity or parental leave can come with challenges that go far beyond simply finding an available position. What barriers have you seen parents face when trying to re-enter the workforce, change careers, rebuild confidence, or maintain professional skills, and how was Momploy intentionally designed to address those realities?
The more parents I spoke with, the more I confirmed something many of us go through: the disconnect from the professional world, and sometimes just from talking to adults like we used to before the isolation of having a baby.
I loved every minute (or almost:) with my babies, but sometimes I missed connecting with someone about something other than feedings, mastitis or diapers. Your brain and body need something else too. After enough “1-2-3,” “If You’re Happy and You Know It” and “A-B-C,” I started to feel like me, myself and I was fading away.
My skills, my education, my experience were still there. I just wanted to feel appreciated, valued and paid, even if it was only for a few hours a week.
I heard the same thing from other moms. Some felt anxious about going straight back into full-time work. Others had completely changed their perspective on full-time work after having a baby. I can’t tell you how many times I heard, “I wish there was just something built around a family schedule.”
That is what I wanted Momploy to provide: a way for parents to work a few hours a week, on their terms and when they can, while continuing to use and sharpen their skills.
I also wanted it to feel local, vetted and trusted. Parents are already vulnerable during this transition. I didn’t want them to have to navigate another impersonal job platform on top of everything else.
There is still a tendency to view flexible, temporary, or part-time employment as less significant than traditional full-time work. How do you hope Momploy can help change that perception, particularly when many parents seeking flexibility bring years of education, professional experience, leadership skills, and industry knowledge to the workplace?
I have personally worked eight-hour shifts with a punch card, those shifts where you can’t stand on your feet afterward and need a bucket of ice. I’ve also worked jobs where I spent a few hours a day on the phone and had a few meetings a week. Take a guess where I felt more productive, happier, climbed the success ladder faster, felt more appreciated and got a significant raise?
I think we’ve been taught to measure commitment by hours instead of what someone actually brings to the work.
Even after I became a mother of two, I worked as a Patient Care Assistant at a colorectal institute. And yes, when I told people where I did my placement hours, I got plenty of “reactions”. I didn’t care. I was thirsty for brain food. I would show up half an hour before my shift, take on extra tasks at the front desk and come in for surgeries to observe whenever I could. I wanted the difficult tasks. Give me something and let me figure it out.
That experience reinforced something I already believed: a person’s value isn’t measured by how many hours they are available. Parents can have years of education, professional experience, leadership skills and industry knowledge and still need flexible or part-time work.
That’s what Momploy is trying to change. We connect businesses with skilled parents for flexible, part-time and project-based work that fits real family schedules. For small businesses especially, sometimes the right person for the job is the parent who can give you four focused hours, not someone who can sit there for eight.
I want us to stop asking, “How many hours can you work?” and start asking, “What can you do?”
Momploy serves two audiences with very different pain points: parents who need employment to work around the realities of family life and businesses that need qualified talent without a lengthy hiring process. How do you balance the needs of both groups while ensuring flexibility does not come at the expense of fair opportunities, meaningful work, or quality talent?
Momploy is not meant to replace traditional 9-5 work. It is meant to solve two problems: helping parents, whether they are on maternity or paternity leave or simply looking for flexible work that fits around their family lifestyle, and helping employers find qualified, reliable talent when they need it for ultra-part-time, seasonal or project-based work.
Momploy is a matching platform for both sides. We bring parents and businesses together based on category, skills and availability, rather than forcing both sides into a traditional hiring model that may not fit.
The flexibility does not mean lowering the standard. A parent can be highly experienced, educated and skilled and still only have a few hours available. At the same time, a business may not need a full-time employee to solve a particular problem.
And if the relationship grows into a contract, permanent or full-time position, that’s absolutely an option. Momploy simply creates the connection. From there, the terms are between the job seeker and the employer.
Our niche is very specific: meaningful work for parents who need flexibility, and qualified talent for businesses that need help without committing to a traditional full-time hire.
Momploy emphasizes local, vetted and verified talent along with intelligent-based matching that allows businesses and job seekers to connect more efficiently. How does your matching process work, and what factors are most important when determining whether a candidate and business are truly a good fit beyond simply having the appropriate skills on paper?
Momploy looks beyond a resume. We match based on category, skills, availability, location and the type of work arrangement the person is looking for. That gives us the practical side of the match, but I think the human side is just as important.
Someone can have all the right skills on paper and still not be the right fit for a particular business. Are their hours actually compatible? Do they want project work, seasonal work or something ongoing? Does the business need someone for two hours a week or someone who can eventually take on more? Those details matter.
And then there is trust. I wanted Momploy to feel different from a giant job board where you post a resume and hope someone notices. We focus on local, vetted talent and verification because businesses want to know who they are connecting with, and parents want to know that the opportunity is legitimate.
I also believe that sometimes you can learn more from a conversation than from a resume. The way someone communicates, thinks through a problem and approaches work can tell you a lot about whether the relationship will actually work.
At the end of the day, a good match is not just, “Can this person do the job?” It’s, “Can this person do this job, for this business, under these circumstances, and will it work well for both sides?”
As a former business owner, you understand firsthand how staffing shortages, limited resources, hiring costs, and lengthy recruitment processes can affect smaller companies. How is Momploy approaching these challenges differently from traditional recruitment platforms, and why was eliminating the subscription model important to the kind of experience you wanted to create for business owners?
Great question. When I first started talking to business owners about Momploy, I heard a lot of, “How are you going to make money?” People suggested agency pricing, subscriptions, and all the traditional ways of doing it. But my goal was to solve a staffing problem, not create another one.
Small businesses may need to hire one person, or perhaps two or three, but that does not mean they need a monthly subscription. With Momploy, employers can post a job on Momploy for free, browse candidates, and unlock someone they are genuinely interested in for a one-time fee. I believe businesses should pay when there is real value and a real reason to make the connection.
Momploy is built around part-time hiring and flexible work, where businesses often have specific staffing needs without needing a traditional recruitment process.
We will also offer an optional Elite Plan for employers who want additional screening, including background checks, employment history, education verification, and reference checks, priced reasonably based on individual needs.
For me, it is about keeping hiring simple, transparent, and fair, especially for small businesses. And honestly, having no subscriptions does make Momploy stand out.
When you look at the future of Momploy and the larger conversation surrounding women, parenthood, employment, and workplace flexibility, what change would you most like to see? And ultimately, what do you hope a parent who once wondered, “Where do I fit professionally now?” will be able to say after finding an opportunity through Momploy?
My goal with Momploy is to change the way we think about parents in the workforce. Parents are valuable, experienced, and educated just like any other employees. They just happen to be raising a little human at this stage of their lives, and they still need meaningful work and income.
Whether you are a mom on maternity leave, a dad who needs a few hours of work a week, a parent returning to work and wanting to start slowly, or simply looking to pick up an extra shift, I want Momploy to become your trusted local community for flexible work.
For employers, I want Momploy to create the trust and confidence to say, “I need someone for a project, seasonal work, part-time or flexible work, and I need them quickly and reliably. Momploy.”
And for parents, I want that same recognition: “I’m looking for a few hours a week, I’m transitioning back to work, or I just need something flexible. Momploy.”
Ultimately, I want a parent who once wondered, “Where do I fit professionally now?” to realize that they never stopped being valuable. They just needed an opportunity that fit their life.
Where can our readers connect?
Instagram: momploy2025
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61589975176959
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/momploy/?viewAsMember=true
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