Hiring in COVID-times: How Has the Game Changed

It is no secret that the restaurant and hospitality industry has historically faced problems with its labor force. This “talent crisis”, as it is commonly referred to, is nothing new. Turnover and retention problems have always been part of the business. Now, there are too many restaurants, leading to a massive job growth, despite the current health crisis. Employers need strong employee communications during COVID-19 in order to retain existing and new talent alike.

According to QSR Magazine, there has been a 61% increase in restaurant jobs since 2009. However, the biggest culprits of the current restaurant struggles is the rise in minimum wage and COVID-19. Restaurant365 put out a survey that said only 28.4% of operators said they still employ 81-100% of their pre-COVID employees. It has proven to be very difficult for restaurant operators to rehire, retain, and manage your team members. 

On top of this, COVID-19 presented a loyalty challenge that affects these displaced workers’ sentiment to return. Our Employee Impact Survey showed that displacement resulted in a negative perception regarding job security, apprehension around health and safety practices, and a shift towards long-term hiring in the surging “essential” industries.

Yum! Brand

Although, some restaurant brands have found ways to thrive in these difficult times. Yum! is taking this time to focus on creating opportunities for their team and community while committing to being a business of equity and inclusion. One element the brand does particularly well is giving their hourly employees a visible career ladder to reach for. This is successful because when people see the finish line, they run faster. Showing their employees exactly how they can climb the ladder, if they choose, instills a better work ethic and level of commitment.

As an employer, Yum! Is incredibly far-reaching, with clients such as Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC, and Habit Grill. The brand noted that purpose-driven efforts are critical in today’s uncertain landscape, because they unlock opportunities for frontline employees and communities alike.

Yum! acquired Heartstyles back in March, and this has proven to be even more successful than they could have imagined. Heartstyles provided the brand with a leadership development program that allowed them to promote talent from within. Heartstyles has an “indicator” that is an online self-assessment tool for employees that analyzes personality and identifies how one can grow. This provides employees with an opportunity to grow and a visible path on how to get there.

At the wake of COVID-19 and response to the Black Lives Matter movement, Yum! set 5 goals for their business:

• Increase BIPOC and female representation among executive and management ranks, franchisees, and suppliers
• Incorporate anti-racism training and inclusive leadership across the company and franchise restaurants
• Implement “unlocking opportunity initiatives”, expand involvement in Yum!’s inclusion advisory group council (Leading Inclusion for Today and Tomorrow)
• Increase BIPOC representation across teams and corporate leadership
• Invest in entrepreneurship, education, and social justice in historically marginalized communities where corporate offices are located.

The brand has really found their social purpose, and donated over $66 Million in 2019 to several communities and organizations across the country. The Yum! Foundation provides domestic employee matching gifts and disaster relief to international support. What sets Yum! apart from other restaurant brands across the country is their ability to listen to their people and invest in a better future for them and their communities. They have managed to keep their teams happy, engaged, and empowered, even through incredibly difficult times.

Harri’s Pre-Hire Solutions

Harri is best positioned to help restaurants source, attract, and hire great talent and ensure their health and safety. Not only does our technology assist your company with everything from talent attraction to scheduling and communication, but we also have the leading COVID-19 Employee Health Check solution. Data-driven tools and HR automation tie everything together for superior operational capability.

Our talent attraction software allows you to easily sort through applications to find the right candidate for your team. Our platform allows you to easily reach, recruit, and engage with your potential candidates. Engage with our applicant tracking software to streamline your recruitment efforts to improve the candidate journey. Once you have assembled your team, let us handle the onboarding process. Digitize this experience so that your new recruits can easily access and complete onboarding from any device. Our software is all about making your experience easier so that your team can feel supported and connected. At Harri, we recognize that turnover and retention are two of the most difficult components of operating a successful hospitality business, so we built solutions that directly combat those challenges.

To speak to workforce automation, COVID-19 lit a fire under companies looking for predictability during the ever-changing new normal. Technology adoption, namely HR automation tools like Harri, was the natural next step. With the right technology, businesses benefit from streamlined hiring processes and hires that are a better fit. When a group like Yum! processes massive amounts of candidates each day, time-saving software is absolutely necessary for the brand’s continued success.

Now more than ever there is an emphasis on video interviews. Workstream recently put out a survey that found that over 93% of hiring managers easily adopted virtual interview technology, and 50% even preferred it. At Harri, we recognize how crucial this is to your business’s survival, so we have come up with ways to make video interviews as successful as possible. 

The Employee Health Check Platform came out of the need to keep our teams and customers as safe as possible. Anxieties surrounding COVID-19 are at an all time high, so we doubled down on tools to ensure the safety of all parties. Our platform is easily accessible through the Harri Live mobile app. Guided by the latest CDC regulations, our COVID-19 solution makes maintaining compliance and following guidelines as easy as possible. With this device, managers are able to lead and validate health checks in order to guarantee that all employees have been successfully screened and passed. 

This ties in directly with our employee communication platforms. Faced with temporary closures or cuts in hours, we saw that businesses needed a way to relay critical updates to their employees. If an employee was potentially exposed, that information can be quickly relayed to the entire team. Similarly, those that were furloughed needed to be kept in the loop on rehiring initiatives. Hospitality brands relied on our multi-channel communication tools for full transparency, and in return saw an increase in employee sentiment — a small step towards building a workplace community like Yum! did.  Let’s continue to hold each other accountable and create safe spaces for our teams.

To learn more about how you can take your company’s pre-hire solutions to the next level, click here.