Hospitality and foodservice providers are struggling to find workers and are using tech on their mission to solve the complex challenges of the industry.
The great resignation. The labor shortage. Low wages. Every company is facing these issues, which have only been exacerbated by the pandemic. On the contrary, hospitality innovators and investors see these challenges in a different light: as an opportunity to have a transformative impact on foodservice.
Over 47 million Americans quit their jobs in 2021, leading to a near record of open jobs in leisure and hospitality. While it’s been over two years since the pandemic began, there are still many reasons why those in hospitality are hesitant to return to work. The average restaurant employee is in their mid-20s, many still living with their parents and see the risks of working a front-line job. Despite endangering their lives in the height of the pandemic, restaurant workers do not receive the same incentives and benefits as other industries such as a sign-on bonus or paid time off. And, to properly recruit new workers takes time and resources that mom-and-pop shops with only one location do not have.
Just to get employees in the door, restaurant workers will need to be compensated at a higher rate than ever before. Wages in the industry have grown exponentially since the start of the pandemic, but the hospitality industry still has the lowest paid workers with an average earning of $19.20. The labor shortage in the industry is also being affected by the strong desire of people to work from home and working from home isn’t an option when you’re serving others. More than half of U.S. hospitality workers said they wouldn’t go back to their jobs, while over a third said they aren’t even considering reentering the industry.
In contrast to the labor shortages throughout the hospitality industry, hotel and restaurant delivery sales are surpassing pre-Covid levels as the middle-class added to their savings during the pandemic and are ready to spend. During the pandemic, Americans saved trillions of dollars, but compared to 2021, there has been a 15% drop in non-retirement savings. Online food delivery sales are projected to reach $66.6 billion in 2022 compared to 2021 where revenues reached $56.9 billion. And in April 2022, the spend on travel was 3% higher than it was in 2019.
Branded has two partners that are working to help both the operators and workers get back to business in a fair and flexible way.
Take Time and Bias Out of Recruiting Talent with Humanly
Accelerated by Y Combinator and Microsoft for Startups, Humanly is a unified conversational AI recruiting platform that brings automation and people together seamlessly to find the most qualified, diverse applicant pool. Humanly saves an average of 60 hours in screening and scheduling per job position and increases the volume of diverse applicants to the top of the funnel.
Humanly voice captures, transcribes and analyzes each interview conversation to create a more standardized interview process. They can learn and improve on interview techniques by gathering data from each stage of the interview process, showing how much time is spent on each topic and provide a suggestion to create fair candidate experiences.
Create a Schedule that Works for Your Needs with Clockedin
For a network of restaurants and hourly job opportunities, Clockedin is the place to go. In response to the rising gig economy the founders of Clockedin are making it easier for employees everywhere who are looking for the same experience of a traditional job with more flexibility.
The workforce management solution gives hourly employees the ability to leverage their brand specific skills at different companies. Businesses can retain prior employees to fill shifts and open positions across their network of locations. ClockedIn is a unique time and attendance platform that meets the high demands of a range of industries from Hospitality, Retail, Healthcare and more.
The app shows the labor market in real time with open shifts and part time positions that can be narrowed down based on their preferences such as skills, brand experience and location. Similarly, to how LinkedIn users can connect with people and businesses in their industry, operators can use Clockedin to virtually eliminate turnover by retaining workers in their brand networks for on demand shifts. Businesses benefit from using Clockedin as it can reduce turnover costs, increase productivity rates, increase labor capacity, and support store operations.
If you haven’t been focusing on hiring, now is the time as the tools to help hospitality businesses capitalize on American spending are readily available. While Covid may still not be a distant memory, restaurants can achieve pre-pandemic highs.