Gen Z: A New Kind of Applicant, A New Kind of Job Market

Demographics constantly shift. Just consider the rising chorus of “OK Boomer,” a meme-phrase which recently floated into the internet mainstream, that hints at the very real generational differences that arise depending on when teenagers become adults. The oldest of Generation Z, born roughly between 1996 and 2015, are just turning 24, which means they are likely the newest wave of applicants knocking on your door. 

Experts are clamoring to define this newest generation and have settled on some different terms that are useful to know. On the one hand, Gen Zers are likely risk-averse and practical when it comes to employment and money after having witnessed their millennial siblings and Gen X parents endure a tough job market. And while they are definitely tech-savvy, they also prioritize authentic, face-to-face interactions more than other generations.

Gen Z applicants are also entering a very different job market than their predecessors. Whereas millennial graduates were wrought with anxiety about whether they could even land one job after college, these latest grads are more likely to be evaluating several offers from a handful of companies thanks to an unemployment rate that is at a 50-year low. To put it another way: It’s a buyers’ market.

Recent surveys point to just how different Gen Z really is: In one such survey, 26% of Gen Z candidates said they would not accept a job offer if they thought the company’s hiring process lacked technology while only 15% of millennials and 13% of Gen X reported the same. What’s more, 46% of Gen Z candidates have applied for a full-time job or internship on a mobile device. Compared that to 38% of employed millennials and 26% of Gen X that have applied that way.

Lastly, considering 54% of Gen Z won’t complete a job application if a company’s recruiting methods are outdated, it’s high time those in the hospitality industry make sure their own recruiting and hiring process makes the most of the power of mobile technology. Here are apps that can help:

Harri Hire: Your Personal HR Assistant

More than ever, applicants will expect a seamless digital experience. An app like Harri Hire can help create a smooth mobile experience for both the candidate and the recruiting manager. After all, the very nature of the hospitality industry is that personnel are not likely sitting at a computer all day – they’re out face-timing with guests or busy providing guest services. 

With Harri Hire, managers can discover top talent, communicate with applicants, keep track of interviews – all from the mobile device in their pocket while they’re on the go. Firstly, hiring managers can use the app to quickly post a job opening with a choice of what listing platform to use and for how long. Then they can search the app’s hospitality network for the type of talent their business needs and invite candidates to apply to the open positions. 

Next, managers can use Harri Hire to communicate with applicants using SMS (and it’s worth noting that text is the preferred communication platform of Gen Z). With the app’s interview assistant, managers can then schedule, conduct and keep track of interviews, again all from their mobile device. 

Harri Hire also enables managers to progress candidates through the recruitment and onboarding process seamlessly by enabling the sending and receiving of required onboarding documents on the app platform. 

While managers at any establishment will find Harri Hire streamlines what can be a mentally taxing and time-consuming process, those working with large-scale operators with multiple venues will find it immensely helpful to have a consistent, scalable and mobile process in place. It’s like having a HR personal assistant right in your pocket.

Swipe Right With Job Seeker App

Just as Harri Hire allows managers to easily reach and onboard Gen Z applicants, Harri’s Job Seeker apps assists candidates with finding the best opportunity. They simply upload a job seeker profile with the option to include videos or photos to create a media-rich profile that will stand out amongst outdated resumes. Such a personalized profile will help businesses understand who candidates are and how they can contribute to their company.

With the profile created, the app will notify job seekers about tailored job openings nearby based on their information. Applicants can either swipe right to save the job to their saved shortlist or swipe left to pass on the opportunity. Think of Job Seeker as the matchmaker. 

Staying connected and responsive as applicants live their lives means they won’t miss out on any opportunities if they’re not anchored to their computers. Throughout their job search, Gen Z applicants can easily search and save jobs from the convenience of their smartphone and they can also easily apply, interview, accept and onboard with just a few screen taps. 

The Three-Step Process to Create an Outstanding Job Description

How To Attract The Right Candidate For The Right Job

The U.S. economy is soaring due to record high growth . The food service industry is benefitting as more people are eating out. Though business is booming, low unemployment and high turnover is keeping the food service industry from converting growth into profits. The shortage of talent has sparked a hiring frenzy. Right now your ideal candidate is being recruited by as many as 20 competitors every day.

Your competitors can match your salaries, benefits, and flexible schedules most job-seekers crave. So what can do you to get staffed?

You can hire as many people that will apply, but that will lead to higher costs and turnover. Get into a bidding war and drive hourly candidates salaries beyond sustainable. You can find a way to get the attention of the right candidates for right jobs.

1. You can hire as many people that will apply, but that will lead to higher costs and turnover.

2. Get into a bidding war and drive hourly candidates salaries beyond sustainable.

3. You can find a way to get the attention of the right candidates for right jobs.

If you chose answer “3”, keep reading to reap the rewards of lower turnover and higher profits.  If you chose “1” or “2”, please finish reading after you’ve learned money alone will not solve your labor problem.

So, how can you attract your ideal candidates to get staffed fast?

Create an Outstanding Job Description

Creating an outstanding job description sends a personal message to your ideal candidates and eliminates wasted time spent on unqualified applicants. It “speaks” to the needs of your applicants by highlighting the benefits they love. As a result, the right applicants visualize working for you and ignore your competition. To write an outstanding job description follow this 2-step process.

STEP 1: Craft the basic needs of your job description 

Whether you are starting a new job description or need to refresh your current one, follow these basic steps.

• Briefly explain your vision, mission, and values of your company. 

• Explain the individual jobs, roles, and responsibilities clearly and how they relate to one another.

• Balance your word count so it will explain enough for the candidate to grasp, but give you the flexibility to add details if needed. It’s better too many words than than too few.

• Choose the right tone for your descriptions. Your tone should match your principles, values, and culture.  For example: If your culture values fun and respect, then use descriptions that are nice and lively.

• Highlight the positives aspect of working for your company without over-exaggeration.

• Uses terms that are gender neutral. Neither gender should feel excluded because of the descriptions used. 

• Promote diversity and inclusion. Celebrate differences to build a strong sense of team work.

• Make it scannable (use bullet points and short sentences).

• Create a sense of urgency by listing the job start date for specific candidates. 

Step 1 gives you the basic framework to make your job description structured and relevant. The next step will grab the attention of your ideal candidates by speaking their language: “What’s in it for me?”

STEP 2: Attract and engage your best candidates

According to a recent survey conducted by Linkedin, the first thing job candidates pinpoint after reading the job title is the salary! So, wherever you list the salary, the applicant will skim the other information until it’s found. To make your job descriptions outstanding, list the sections in the order of importance to the applicants. 

• Job Title—Job titles should be clear and simple, yet distinctive.  This will eliminate any mismatches. Ex:: “Cook” vs “Line Cook”, “Chef” vs “Pastry Chef”

• Salary and Benefits—Here the applicants either stop reading or are encouraged to learn more about your positions. Be bold with salary descriptions! For example: Post “$15/hr” or “Best pay in the industry”

• Qualifications*—Make standard “musts” to work for your company, but also include specific qualifications that are job specific. Some qualifications include, but aren’t limited to:

  • Experience

  • Specialized certifications (sanitation)

  • Lifting requirements

  • Age requirements based on equipment use (18 and older)

  • Special skills

  • Literacy

  • English speaking

* Qualifications need to be verified by a licensed professional to be in compliance with regulatory agencies. EEOC, ADA, ACLU etc.

• Job Duties—List general and specific areas of responsibility.

  • Include acceptable behaviors related to your cultivating your culture (soft skills)

  • Include primary station duties relating to the standard procedures you’ve outlined.

  • Generally define any duties that are team work related activities.

  • Outline the roles and responsibilities, explaining why they are important.

  • Reinforce job duties through feedback, recognition, and rewards.

  • Connect duties to performance measures for evaluations and merit increases.

*Specific duties need to be flexible to evolve with your business.

• Company Overview:

  • Summary – What does your company want to be known for? What impact does it intends to make on customers? 

  • Mission – The mission of your company should be bold and bright.  It should include what you company hopes to achieve on a grand scale and be inspirational to employees. Your mission statement should have strong virtues aimed at serving employees, customers, and investors alike.  It should stand the test of time and change.

• Culture – Culture is the personality you expect your team to display.  If you want to convey a respectful, high energy, fun environment, then describe how managers give high-fives as positive reinforcement. Also, communicate the important rules that make your “work family” successful.

• Principles and Values – Give your idea candidate their “first taste” of what you stand for.  Ideals such as integrity, fairness, and caring give a sense of human value that most people will identify with. 

You can add more sections to your job descriptions as you need. Remember, make your sections scannable and relatable to attract the best talent for your specific jobs.

STEP 3: Creative and Innovative tips

• Use media add a creative punch to your job descriptions. Pictures and short videos leave lasting impression with candidates.

• Integrate a Spanish versions of your descriptions. The Hispanic population is an important resource of the hospitality industry. 

• Use eye-popping fonts to focus the applicants attention.

• Explain application process step-by-step.

• Segment job requirements into “Must Haves” and “Good-to-Haves”.

Creating outstanding job descriptions are the crucial first step to hire the talent you need. Focus on making job descriptions must be informative, detailed, and attractive. Our economic conditions continue to make reducing turnover a top priority to boost profits. So, recruit every qualified candidate like your future depends on it; because it does!

Keeping Track of Great Talent

The interview process can be a demoralizing experience – going through a list of not-quite-right (or clearly completely unsuitable) candidates day after day. But then you meet someone with all the right characteristics and experience for your operation – the problem is that they can only work nights and you already have a night manager. Even if you make both a mental and physical note to keep this person in mind for future opportunities, in all likelihood, your discovery of said talent will get lost in the shuffle. 

Thanks to Talent Pool, an innovative service on the Harri platform, you can “tag” such candidates so that if the night manager position is ever vacant again, you can quickly filter through all those you’ve interviewed in the past to find that very candidate. As a plus, you’ve already interviewed them and they have already expressed interest in working for you, so much of the culling process is already underway.  

Perfect for Franchise Businesses

Via three types of tags, Talent Pool lets you make the most of the interview process by vetting candidates for really any type of position in your organization even if it’s not currently open. Multi-concept or location businesses can enable the Pool’s Global Talent Tag service, which collects all tagged talent from each individual location, and creates an enterprise level pool of saved potential candidates that is visible to all locations within the enterprise. 

Say you meet a fantastic and energetic candidate who will soon leave for college and only be available around the holidays and/or over the summer. You can simply add that candidate to your Talent Pool by tagging their profile card with “Seasonal.” 

Once you’re faced with needing extra hands in the peak seasons, you can simply view the list of candidates under the Seasonal tag, select all candidates under that filter, and invite all to apply via bulk action. Much of the work has already been done on your end and stored in the Talent Pool. You haven’t even posted a public job posting yet and you have already solicited applications from a handful of very worthwhile candidates.

In addition to the Global Talent tags that are viewable across locations, users can also tag talent with Private Tags, which are only viewable from a higher-level access login, or Local Tags, which are unique to a single store location. It’s best to agree on a set of tags as an organization to make sure users won’t have to click through multiple tags to seek out a particular type of candidate. 

Other Features

In addition to filtering candidates by tags, you can also use the Talent Pool’s main search filter to look for any keywords in candidates’ profiles such as position name, availability, former employer names, and skills, for example.

The Talent Pool also tags candidates with the date they were added to the system. This is especially important to customers in the UK, where it’s only legal to store candidates’ information for 6 months after their initial application. In order to stay compliant with this privacy standard and remove the required information, users can easily filter Talent Pool candidates by their “Added On” dates and bulk delete those added before 6 months.

Just as the Talent Pool can help you store potentially great talent for your organization, it can also help filter out historically unreliable candidates so you don’t waste any more time pursuing them. For example, if a candidate hasn’t shown up two times or more to an Open Day or Scheduled Interview (and did not notify the hiring manager), the Harri system will tag them as a “No Show” under General Tags.

To help facilitate human resource decisions, each Talent Pool candidate has a SpeedyScreen interface that centralizes appropriate profile information and lists possible actions. For instance, at the top, an Invited to Apply section lists the history of who invited the candidate to apply, to what position, when and whether they ended up applying. Likewise a Notes tab compiles comments that may shed context to why they were tagged in the first place to inform future recruitment decisions. These notes are time and date stamped, and can be filtered by the location and user who wrote the note, with the user’s profile picture. 

As a cultivated internal marketplace, Harri’s Talent Pool allows businesses, especially franchise owners who are tasked with filling a variety of positions across multiple locations, the chance to tighten their hiring timeline while accessing a more optimal group of candidates from the start. It also means a better experience for potential new hires, and in the end, the hiring process is the first impression candidates have of company culture. In a recent survey, 39% of respondents say that they lose interest in a position and pursue other roles when the hiring process takes too long.

Hospitality Technology Integration: It’s About Time!

Over the past decade, technology-based solutions to restaurant and hotel management, staffing, training, scheduling, and financial management have grown as rapidly as the plant-based meat trend. 

The term “tech stack” refers to the combination of automation tools that a business uses to run its operations more smoothly. Like ingredients in a dish or amenities and services at a resort, all of the parts need to work together seamlessly. 

For owners and operators of restaurants and hotels, researching, investing in, learning, and managing multiple systems often feels like a job in itself. Technology, which should make our lives easier, enable us to deliver better service, and ultimately improve profitability has become a disorganized buffet table of confusing choices.

When talent management technology was first introduced to the industry, developers focused on solving individual and specific challenges. For example, one SaaS (software as a service) developer might focus on hiring, another on schedule management, and yet another on training. But many companies made the same mistake: They developed around a function rather than an actual human need or challenge.

Terms like UX (user experience) or OS (operating system) are devoid of heart. The human question is:

“How can I find the best people for my open positions, train, compensate, and retain them quickly, efficiently, and legally, and truly understand and manage my staffing, scheduling, and people-related expenses?”

The next obvious question is:

“How can I do all that learning coding, dealing with ten different vendors, or spending hours every day bouncing between multiple systems?”

Moving into 2020 and beyond, the hospitality industry will see a move towards technology integration. The number of companies offering solutions will shrink and the strong and practical will survive. People systems will need to “speak” to POS systems and owners and operators will have the data they need to make key decisions -- 24/7, largely from their mobile devices. 

Smart operators today need to ask the right integration questions, advises QSR Magazine. They are:

• “How many integrations does your technology platform have? And what does your network of integrations look like? (Ex. Does your POS integrate into my scheduling software? Does your KDS integrate with my guest management system?)

• What was the shortest and longest go-live times with the integrations you have completed?

• Is the system integration scalable for future restaurant expansion? And, will the system performance lag as the restaurant scales?

• How well will the system integration work with legacy systems I may already have?

• Tell me about your customer support after the implementation.

• Can you give me three customer contacts for the integrations you’ve done so that I can visit with them about their experience?”

Luke Fryer, Founder and CEO of Harri, worked in the hospitality industry and he confirms that many restaurant and hotel operators end up with disjointed and incompatible systems because they simply don’t know what to look for when investing in technology. “Our industry has been late to the game in automation, and our focus has been on the human side of the business for so long. When a salesperson pitches a restaurant on the latest and greatest tech innovation, buyers can be easily confused and wind up with more than they really need -- or systems that don’t work well with other technologies they already have in place.”

Integration of your talent technology will your POS and other business management systems will give you a better sense of what types of hiring you need to do -- and when. And the consolidation of your people management into one easy-to-use and convenient platform will streamline your talent management process. Plus, your employees will spend less time learning new systems.

Developers may continue to create hyper-specific technology solutions for our industry, but users will start demanding integration and solutions that meet multiple needs. The technology solution providers who collaborate with others in our industry, put the customers’ needs first, and see the world through the eyes of the ultimate user will be those that will reach “the top of the tech stack” in 2020 and beyond.

The DOL & NLRB “Joint Employer” Rulings Narrow Definitions for Restaurants, Important Shifts in Liability

While DOL has helped restaurant franchises clear a big obstacle by strictly defining what makes “Joint Employers”, there are still a few big hurdles left for restaurant franchises sustain a successful business model.

Understanding the impact of the joint employer ruling has on the franchises can’t be fully grasped until you understand the relationship between the franchisee and the franchisor.

The Nature of the Franchisor/Franchisee Relationship

When a business needs to grow fast, without using much of its own capital, and limiting its risk the owner may choose to franchise its operations. Acting as a franchisor, an owner seeks ambitious “franchisees” who will “buy” into its brand, creating a partnership. Through mutually-approved contracts, the franchisee agrees to execute operations that are the sole property of the franchisor. As in most cases, the franchisor “sells” franchises, collects royalties, and monitors the franchisees for compliance.  That means that the standards, policies, procedures and processes which originate from the franchisor, must be followed by the franchisee or face sanctions not limited to termination of contract, if violations are severe enough.  For franchises to be successful, both franchisee and franchisor must be clear on each other roles and responsibilities, then work to support one another. Restaurant franchises are a great example of this.

Employee Perception Becomes Franchise Reality

Part of the success of the restaurant franchise business model hinges on the synergy between the (2) main players: the franchisor and franchisee.  Although the franchisee effectively runs the operations publicly, the franchisor is the “face” of the operations with marketing and advertising. So, on the surface it appears that a brand such as McDonald’s is one entity, when in fact it’s made up of more than 36,000 franchises worldwide.

When employees are recruited, hired, and trained they aren’t interested in distinguishing franchisee from franchisor, they generally assume it’s one and the same.  As with any business, when employees feel they’ve been wronged, they look to the management team to resolve the issues fast. When restaurant franchises have failed to resolve store level issues, employees seek solutions beyond the store level. Franchisors, unanimously believe lawsuits allowing employees to sue both franchisor and franchisee, threaten the existence of the Franchise Business model.  So, a change in the joint employer law must occur to protect the Franchisor, especially one the size of McDonalds, from franchisee-level disputes.

Joint Employer Law Impact

How the joint employer law impacts the restaurant franchise business model is important because it establishes the liability a franchisor has to the employees, if any. In 2016 the NLRB (National Labor Relations Board) broadened the definition of joint employer which favored the employees right to sue both franchisee and franchisor. Franchisors warned that they would likely limit or stop franchising because of such liabilities. Since then, the International Franchise Association (IFA) has argued that the Obama standard increased lawsuits against employers, cost jobs and sapped the American economy of $33.3 billion per year. 

With the increased pressure from industries that use contracted labor, temp agencies, as well as the franchise industry itself, the DOL (Department Of Labor) recently adjusted the criteria for designating a “joint employer” only if the franchisor directly:

• Hires or fires the employee

• Supervises and controls the employee’s work schedule or conditions of employment to a substantial degree;

• Determines the employee’s rate and method of payment

• Maintains the employee’s employment records.

Although these criteria will go into effect within 60 days, the EEOC and state labor laws will need to align rules to comply with federal changes.  Current and future Franchisors expect this “4-part test” to reduce the amount of lawsuits initiated by disgruntled employees that potentially slow industry growth.

As the announcement reads from the NLRB, franchisor and franchisee will be considered joint employers “only if the two share or codetermine the employees’ essential terms and conditions of employment,” the NLRB said. Those essential terms and conditions “are exclusively defined as wages, benefits, hours of work, hiring, discharge, discipline, supervision and direction,”

As an industry, the potential to save hundreds of millions of dollars in lawsuits is huge and could provide a boost to the already low unemployment. But now that the DOL has help decide  who should be held accountable when employees are mismanaged, it is time focus on to preventing employee lawsuits.

An Ounce of Prevention Is Worth a Pound of Cure

As much as the restaurant and other industries are applauding the recent rulings to strictly define criteria of responsibility to employees, I find it irresponsible that the franchises could have avoided worker law violations, and chose not to act. The most high-profile violations that have occurred has been:

• Violation of meal breaks and overtime pay

• Sexual harassment 

• Firing $15 minimum wage participants

• Lack of employee safety measures

• Improper scheduling practices

Most lawsuits in the restaurant business can be avoided. Paying out hundreds of millions of dollars to settle employee lawsuits is like taking an aspirin to cure a toothache. The “Joint Employer” ruling may reduce the lawsuits, but as long as the violations continue it only serves to treat the “symptoms” of poor employee relations and not address the root causes. 

Companies can effectively “cure” their issues by tackling the root causes of worker violations starting with taking direct control over their cultures, to properly train, develop, engage, and retain employees in an ethical way that values them as assets. Then, hold themselves accountable when things go wrong rather, than participating in a defensive, finger-pointing game of pass the buck.  Franchisors and franchisees may battle one another over who’s most responsible for the employee experience, but they can’t let the battleground become the workplace, while the employees’ futures hang in the balance. 

Take Care of Employees and They Will Take Care of You

Employees are not motivated to sue the franchisor, franchisee, or the whole business model. Employees are only motivated to act in their best interest when they feel their rights are violated. They only want to be treated with respect, feel valued, and work in a secure environment that provides opportunity for growth.  When companies put the employees first, the employees reward them with lower turnover, food costs, and high customer satisfaction.   

The best weapon against the effects of low employee satisfaction is a workforce solution that helps avoid the “pitfalls” of workplace violations.  Harri provides best-in-class workforce management technology that initiates, tracks, and completes the necessary steps in the employee process from applicant to team member. Harri takes the guesswork out of wage compliance through its time and attendance application. Another highly-effective feature of Harri is its scheduling platform that will be the key to companies to follow the new Predictive Scheduling Law.