Harri Joins Forces with exp101

It’s a well-known fact that more than 40% of new hires in the hospitality industry leave their jobs within 90 days, causing a genuine economic crisis for operators. To help tackle the problem, Harri has joined forces with hospitality communications and engagement specialists, EXP101, to sponsor the first meeting in London this month in support of EXP101’s ‘0-90’ initiative, designed to bring industry leaders together to face the issue head on.

At the 90-minute meeting, 10 top-tier human resource experts from some of the country’s leading hospitality brands, heard from industry insiders on how incredibly important it is to engage Gen Z in hospitality, stating that it’s time to reboot our approach to recruitment and on-boarding. It’s about making hospitality a career of choice, killing the idea of basic inductions and creating brand ambassadors amongst new, young recruits to ensure they want to stay. And it starts with the managers on the ground.

The aim of 0-90 is to equip recruiters and managers with the tools they need to find the right new hires for their business and then intelligently track the on-boarding and engagement process to ensure new employees are excited about their prospects. By adopting this approach, those who move into new roles should have a real desire to succeed with that employer and in that career. It’s a much-needed, new take for the industry, one which turns the recruitment process on its head and puts the retention factor in the employee’s hands.

Roy Walker, Associate Director at Harri, said: “Recruitment has changed over the past 10 years. Gone are the days when a candidate showcases their CV and asks for an opportunity. The world of hiring has been turned on its head and hospitality employers must now demonstrate why a candidate should choose them. Recruiting the correct mentality is crucial to reducing the 0-90-day turnover. Recruitment is not a manager’s primary role – so they need support. Our research identified that 60% of leavers stated their main source of dissatisfaction was the rota, where there were sudden changes to shifts or additions to pre-agreed hours. At a cost of £1,000 to hire team members – and as much as £5,000 for managers – this is a real economic crisis for operators, which requires addressing.”

The EXP101 team agrees and hopes the discussions will produce a new live dashboard that operators can access without great expense or extensive set-up to combine the power of online recruitment platforms with digital measurement capabilities, in order for success to be tracked.

Using its online recruitment platform, Harri has launched their own form of Career Story pages, where employers can highlight their value proposition to prospective candidates, starting that brand ambassador process early and creating a mind-set where new hires want to stay. The Harri Hire app, now in the hands of thousands of restaurant and hotel managers, supports the recruitment process with consumer-style tech to engage users and ensure the right behaviours are followed during on-boarding and beyond to secure new hires and reduce staff turnover.

EXP101 founders Kieron Bailey and Chris Fletcher commented: “It’s all about collaboration between these tech solutions to produce a single hub to aid in recruitment and retention. The 0-90 initiative is designed to help young people find a rewarding career in an industry we love and where they should want to stay. Our aim is to ensure it is easy for operators to attract new recruits in the places we know they spend their time – which is online – and then to harness the power of digital to assist managers in successfully creating new brand advocates in a business everyone wants to work. A great deal is spoken about ensuring operators give the customer a great experience, however, that starts with the employee experience. We want to elevate hospitality to a place where work sells itself. Great people make great brands.”

The 0-90 challenge is scheduled to be complete in 90 days. A follow-up session will look at the new approach and the strategy behind it in July, before the third meeting in August launches the tech solution into test phase.The event was captured on film by Vidleos and is shown below.

For more information about Harri, please visit www.harri.com/uk