Harri’s Pete Willis Talks Talent & Tech at The Caterer’s People Summit

Pete Willis, commercial Director for Harri was interviewed at The Caterer’s People Summit on the topic of using technology to hire, retain and engage talent.

Pete talked about the White Paper which Harri have recently carried out interviews and covers the effects of Brexit and COVID-19, having interviewed 30 Operators and People Directors in the hospitality industry.

One client reported that when they recalled employees to work, a staggering 40% had left the country or got another job. Hotels and Bar Groups reported that 20-25% of staff had found other jobs in places like Deliveroo or Amazon and people are staying there. Bear in mind that Brexit hasn’t had the full impact yet; statistics in hospitality show that 24% of hospitality workers were from the EU, but in London it was up to 60%. If they have left the country and want to come back, they will need to be earning a minimum of £20,500.

How Can Companies Access Talent Using Technology?

Everyone talks about hiring, but companies with foresight are looking at how they can retain their staff. In exit interviews, we found that 46% of employees leave a job because of changed in their rotas. When hiring, you need to look at other pools of talent too. One option is digitised social referral; if you send out a job link to your staff, they can push it out to their 500 Facebook friends. They may not be looking for a job but because they know their friend loves working for that company, they may well apply. Some 80% of people are likely to stay for at least a year if they’ve been referred by a friend.

Young people associate with the brands they love, and what could tempt them to become attracted to the Employer Brand would be a job advert in their view when purchasing their chicken at KFC – it could have a logo saying “Finger-licking good jobs” – they scan the QR Code and the AI Chatbot, helps them find and apply to the right job for them within minutes, and books them an interview!

The National Living Wage and also the need to acutely manage operational costs means that every hour counts, so Operators need to create productive rota’s and give people the flexibility they need and deserve at work. Think about “hot-filling” if you are understaffed, with no need to go to an on-demand agency; you can offer the shift to someone within two miles, working for the same brand.


The hospitality operators who nurtured their employees during COVID-19 and communicated well will have an easier time in the recovery process. We’ve had clients who have communicated consistently to their teams and have managed to retain a higher percentage of their staff than others.