Hospitality – our future is the perfect blend of innovative tech and classic service

Harri is helping restaurants, hotels and retailers to build, manage, and engage their most important resource. Their teams.

While we’ve never strayed too far for the ideas of classic service, the recent global health crisis has pushed us to embrace innovation more quickly than ever. Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen hospitality businesses completely overhauling their operational models; placing tech at the forefront of how we do things across the sector. Self-service check-out? Not just for the big brands anymore! Self-service ordering? No longer just a necessity – it’s a must-have for many guests now. 

However, this doesn’t mean that we’ve lost our service-oriented mindset. In fact, quite the opposite. We’re now experiencing a cultural shift where technology is used to automate and simplify labour intensive tasks, meaning our outstanding people can concentrate on what they do best – adding the human-touch. And, at a time where the skills shortage is more challenging than ever – this shift couldn’t come at a better time…

Within this blog, we’re exploring how we’ll see tech influencing hospitality’s people strategy over the coming months. 

Automating tasks = reduced staffing requirements 

We’re all experiencing how difficult it is to recruit right now. 

So, imagine a world where repeat tasks are automated, meaning you’ll need less people on shift at any time? The dream, right?

There’s nothing but positivity to be had with adding automation into your operations. Not only does it relieve pressure surrounding hiring requirements, but it also means it’s much easier to hire for personality over skillset, meaning you’ll also have access to a whole new talent pool from which to recruit. We’re certain we’ll see more automation in our operation in the coming months, with us placing our best people where they do their best work; engaging with guests! 

We built our Talent Acquisition Suite to support leaders in every area of hiring great people, with diversity, personality and smooth onboarding in mind, in order to align with the values that hospitality deserves.

A flexible approach to scheduling 

The pandemic hasn’t just accelerated tech trends. It’s also had a major impact on employee’s motivators and beliefs surrounding work. One of the biggest areas where we’re seeing a shift is surrounding desired working hours of talent as a result of the increase of the side-hustle and more importance being placed on work-life balance. 

In order to accommodate flexibility from employers in this area, advanced scheduling tech will have to become more of a priority to those employers who want to continue to attract the best talent. 

Why? Talent doesn’t want written schedules on noticeboards. They want their shifts at their fingertips, the ability to swap shifts digitally with their peers and the opportunity to work extra shifts if desired with the click of a button. Oh, and coincidentally, that’s exactly what Harri offers! We’re seeing an increase in employers taking advantage of our scheduling tech since the pandemic – and differing employee expectations in 2021 is a huge driver as to why. Our scheduling platform automates rotas and takes into consideration compliance and labour spend, giving full transparency on schedules that work for both managers, by making their lives easier, and employees, who can access their schedules at any time. 

Taking the pain out of hiring 

You’ve met Harri. But have you yet heard of Carri? Originally designed to act as a conduit between businesses and their team members through Carri’s ability to answer questions, send messages and drive meaningful engagement – now? Carri will be facilitating applications via an intelligent AI chatbot. Impressive huh?

Not only will this appeal to the shifting desires of candidates (and truly wow them), but it frees up the time of your recruitment team, meaning they can concentrate on what’s really needed right now – direct sourcing for hard-to-reach talent to fill your hard-to-fill roles. Plus, there are huge added benefits to be had, including achieving better equality (think inclusively programmed language and questioning) and consistency (programmed updates when moving through the hiring funnel), in addition to providing a ton of data for which to analyse and improve your business approach to recruitment. This is a trend that is absolutely here to stay. 

Want to find out more about how Harri (and Carri!) is the perfect innovative tech for you? Get in touch today for a demo! 

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