HARRI TO SHOWCASE THE FUTURE OF MULTI-UNIT LABOR MANAGEMENT AND UNVEIL TEAMLIVE AT NRA CHICAGO

Chicago, IL: Harri, the end-to-end human capital management solution designed for the unique needs of the hospitality industry, will showcase its revolutionary platform and unveil its latest product at the largest annual gathering of the restaurant, foodservice, and hospitality industry, the NRA Show, in Chicago May 20-23, at booth #7077.

As it becomes increasingly expensive to find, retain, and manage staff, Harri reduces overall labor management costs by ensuring clients get the right people in the right roles and maximizing their employees’ performance and efficiency.

With Harri’s mobile-first, cloud-based platform, they’ve enabled major hospitality brands to attract the best talent for their business needs while eliminating paperwork using their digital onboarding process and reducing time-to-hire and hiring costs by 68% and 48%, respectively.

Harri’s revolutionary new labor management tool, TeamLive, was designed to provide value for the entire spectrum of hospitality business stakeholders by consolidating up to 10 operational systems into a single, mission-critical platform; including instant team communications, team scheduling overlaid with labor costs, and live sales performance data - providing operators with greatly enhanced profit visibility.

TeamLive also features a revolutionary time clock feature with facial recognition, capable of gathering data from individual team members and reducing wage discrepancies.

Currently operating in New York, Los Angeles, London, Chicago, Las Vegas, Washington DC, Miami and Orlando, Harri partners with more than 8,000 top hospitality brands ranging from fast casual to upscale, full-service dining. Some of Harri’s partners include CAVA Grill, Nandos Peri Peri, TAO Group, Chef Jose Andrea’s ThinkFoodGroup, Chef Michael White’s Altamarea Group, Chef Andrew Carmelini’s NoHo Hospitality Group and The Savoy Hotel London.

ABOUT HARRI

Harri is a platform built to help the hospitality industry source, hire, and manage their employees more effectively and efficiently.  With Harri’s all-in-one digital platform, employers can find and onboard top talent for their business using media-rich profiles and streamlined tools, all while reducing costs, saving time, and enabling long-term success of teams with best-in-class cloud-based management systems.

To date, more than 3,000,000 applications from chefs, bartenders, servers, hostesses, and managers have been submitted to 53,000 jobs posted on Harri.

Harri has more than 370,000 members and 8,000 employers spanning the USA and UK markets. It is the number one marketplace for hospitality talent in NYC.

For more information, visit harri.com.

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5 Reasons Why You Should Train Cooks from Within

Staffing a competent BOH team is a constant uphill climb, and just when you think your core crew is established - one of your best cooks gets a “better job” somewhere else or your AM prep guy gets drunk on cooking wine and found sleeping in the kitchen bathroom (true story).  Every restaurant is different, whether it’s full service or fast casual it’s a guarantee that all of them need cooks. The perfect line or prep cook is the unique mix of a work-horse, with killer execution experience, can work 50+ HRs and all for low pay.  Cooks are either amazing and passionate about the job or they’re forced into the profession by life circumstances. Then once you get a good one you do your best to retain them or you’re back in the weeds again.  Which is why training from within is the best way to maintain your BOH Team.

1) They Already Know the Restaurant

    Your dishwashers, runners, bussers and porters are untapped talent, they already know their way around the kitchen. No time wasted with “Where is _____?” and “Where do we put _________ during/ after/ before service?”.  If you need them to put some mise en place in the walkin, they already know where to find the quart containers, tape and markers.  This could take some time for a newer employee to adapt, whereas a current employee already knows this information.

2)  High Accountability

There’s a certain sense of accountability instilled in an employee being promoted from within, and the pressure to not mess up the opportunity is much higher.  Nothing grows the perception of ownership than cross training.  If anyone calls out then everyone can work the same stations because they have done it before, and loyalty grows from there. Training your dishwashers and porters seem tedious, but if you want to build a team who started from the bottom and worked their way up together - it’s the way to go!

3) Creates a Stronger Team

In food pairings there’s a saying, “if grows together goes together”, the saying is the same for strong BOH teams.  Cooks grown from mastering stations from the bottom, build solid teams who have seen it all before, this only occurs with longevity.  It also lights a fire under your current dishwashers’ and porters’ butts to get their careers to the next level.  Also nothing talks like taking off the rubber gloves, putting a knife in someone’s hand and increasing his or her pay rate.  If they really want to learn and your current cooks are about to burnout at 60+ hrs a week, then it’s well worth the extra time for your team’s sake.  
 

4) Shows off Your Leadership Skills

Taking the time to cultivate in house talent, shows you genuinely care about your people beyond your labor costs and just barely pushing through service. If you’re still worried about wasting your time, then this is a serious test of your leadership skills as well. Chefs and kitchen managers, before believing you’re “too busy” to train a dishwasher or  remember that many of really great chefs began as dishwashers, John Besh, Thomas Keller, Gabrielle Hamilton and Anthony Bourdain to name a few.  You think you’re a strong leader? Turn your most tenured dishwashers into your top line and prep crew.  Chef Daniel Angerer of By Chloe says a good Chef “needs to be an authority, leader, motivator, spokesman, a person to look up to”.

True leaders don’t create followers, they create more leaders or in this case great cooks.  

5)  Cultivates a Better Work Culture

As entrepreneur and blonde golden raisin, Richard Branson, once said, “Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don't want to”.  The key to retention is solid training and acting in the best interest of your entire team.  A major plus is you never have to worry about fixing flawed training because you trained them all YOUR way. So, there’s no team dividing arguments on how much acid goes on the ceviche or how soft a scramble should be a brunch. The potential of growth is also the easiest way to recruit more dishwashers and runners, then the of challenge of hiring the most eager dishwashers and porters is 86’ed.      

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The 3 Best Ways to Find Cooks

      Finding excellent cooks is one of the most challenging of the restaurant industry.  Cooks are the backbone of every restaurant, they are usually the ones executing the food that brings in revenue. Good cooks are essential to any thriving restaurant.  The best cooks are able to follow instructions accordingly to their respective chefs’ recipes, have some experience (but no ego), know that creativity is reserved for after they prove themselves in the kitchen - all for hourly wages and low pay.  Some of the usual obstacles of recruiting for these difficult positions include: no shows for interviews and training, candidates not looking to stay for a long period of time.  With all of these challenges turnover is high and all chefs need competent cooks - fast! There are better ways than posting on every individual job board and waiting for candidates to come to you.

1. Referrals

    When a position is open, referrals are usually the first route chefs and managers take to get someone through the door, especially for finding skilled cooks.  If your guy on grill is killing it every night and has never called out once, chances are he might know other hard working people like him.  You get his friend through the door from his old job, and she happens to be a beast in prep - problem solved!  However, referrals can be risky just as they are successful.  Be wary of hiring just anyone your employees ask to hire.  Set some parameters and restrictions on who can be referred.  The last thing you want is a husband and wife working in the same space arguing about the kids, while you’re waiting at expo for a steak on the fly because table 12 ordered steak tartare and didn’t know it was supposed to be “raw”.  Referrals are a pretty safe bet for filling a few positions, but if you hire referrals only because you need a “body on the floor” it could be a disaster.   

2. Proper Job Promotion

    Posting on job boards is very effective but posting to multiple job boards is a painstaking process.  If your job happens to be posted on the wrong board then great candidates can miss an opportunity to work for you.  Cooks have hectic schedules and a limited amount of time to apply for new jobs, so more exposure is always better. Harri’s Job Distributor takes all of the strengths of Craigslist, Indeed, ZipRecruiter, CareerJet, Jooble and more, then posts them all at once. You will be able to see your jobs (host, waiter, and chef jobs) right away. You receive the volume and quality of all of the job boards in one place, and it saves you time from posting on each one.  As an extra plus, candidates can use their smartphones to apply through the application, so they can come through your restaurant doors quickly!

Courtesy of @lupulonyc Instagram 

3. Social Media

    Much like referrals this could be a hit or miss.  Being aware of peak times to post is key for having job ads on social media.  This takes a little more preparation than posting an ad on a job board or asking a cook if he has any friend or past co-workers for referrals.  A good job post on social media must be very image driven.  Usually restaurants collaborate with their marketing or PR Teams to get this completed, then they can use the same ads whenever there are positions to be filled.  For example Chipotle went all out by dedicating an entire Facebook page to gain more candidates, while Lupulo kept it simple with an Instagram post with the positions available.  When posting on Facebook remember to do so with with images and video.  Studies have shown that have 39% more post engagement, than just posting text alone.  If you go the Instagram route then note the most successful times to post are Mon-Thurs from 6AM -12PM. One of the largest drawbacks can be that expense if you don’t have internal resources to create these posts.  Overall, posting positions on social media is effective because almost everyone has a cell phone and the reach is not only instantaneous but shareable.   

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FIND US AT START UP ALLEY AT THE NRA SHOW 2016 BOOTH #8427G

Find out how the top brands like Tao Group, Eataly, sweetgreen, Nobu, Soho House, The Meatball Shop and more source, hire and manage talent with Harri's TOTAL TALENT SOLUTION, an all-in-one platform built specifically for the hospitality.

With Harri’s digital platform, employers can find and on-board top talent for their business while maximizing productivity, reducing costs and saving time. Harri clients save up to 68% in hiring time and save up to 48% in hiring costs.

Harri’s Total Talent Solution empowers employers to easily:

• Post unlimited jobs to Harri's network plus post to multiple job boards and receive up to 37MM views with one click.
• Manage applicants throughout the hiring process on one seamless platform designed for the hospitality industry.
• Send offer letters and on boarding document digitally to new hires.
• Create media rich, on-line profiles showcasing their company's culture and therefore, attracting the right type of talent. 

Harri has over 210,000 members and over 3,500 employers based in New York City, Los Angeles, London, Chicago, Las Vegas, and Washington DC. It is the number one marketplace for hospitality talent in NYC.

Harri will be showcasing our best-in-class Total Talent Solution at Start Up Alley at the NRA Show in Chicago May 21-24. If interested in learning more about how Harri can help you with your hiring needs, contact us to schedule a demo.

How Your Response Rate Effects Your Overall Profile Score

If you're a hospitality professional dedicated to taking the next step in your career on Harri, here's an important factor that will help you stand out from the crowd: your response rate to employers.

Oftentimes, hiring managers are in a rush to fill the spot of a server, chef, or manager. If a new employee needs to be hired ASAP, a delayed response can greatly decrease your chances of joining their team. So when you're applying to a job or receive an invitation to apply, it's in your best interest to answer in a timely manner, even if you are not interested in the offer.

Your Harri dashboard contains both a Profile Score as well as a Response Rate, which feeds into your overall score. This number will indicate how much of superstar you are when it comes to the job hunt. Having a high Profile Score means you:

• Are ranked higher on candidate searches
• Show up as a suggested candidate to employers more often
• Can become a Harri featured member

Your Response Rate score is dependent on two factors:

1. How quickly you get back to employers
   1. If you respond within 0-24 hours, you will be rated as Outstanding.
   2. Reply back to a hiring manager after 25-48 hours, and you will be rated as Good.
   3. Messaging employers 48+ hours will result in a Poor rating.
   4. Your job interview attendance record
      1. Your score improves or is maintained each time you show up to a job interview.
      2. If you accept an invite, but do not attend and inform your interviewer 24 hours in advance,  your score will not be effected.
      3. For your first no-show offense, you will receive a warning email. A second offense means your profile will be tagged as 'No Show'. Your third offense will lead to the suspension of your account.

Fortunately, ratings are not set in stone; you can always work your way back up. To achieve an Outstanding score again, you will need to respond within a day's time for three separate occasions, or successfully attend a job interview.

When you communicate to employers (and always make sure to do so professionally), responding as quickly as possible shows that you're punctual and excited about the opportunity. Even if you're not interested in the job, it's always better to politely decline the offer than to not respond at all. It is basic etiquette to show that you are being a true professional. This will not only help you in your career, but also help you stand out on Harri!

Login to your Harri account to see your Profile Score now.

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