Imagine if communications broke down between your servers and your kitchen staff. Or, if your hotel managers never spoke to housekeeping. That’s what happens when you invest in technologies that don’t fluently and collaboratively “talk” to each other.

We often hear about integrated systems, tech stacks, and seamlessness, but those can be empty buzzwords and sales jargon. 

People are the most important aspect of our industry -- and a significant investment. True integration is a three-way partnership:

1. Technologies need to do multiple things well -- and the company that delivers them must be familiar with the industry and on top of its game -- legislation, hiring trends, and more

2. The companies you contract with must respect and communicate with each other

3. Your technology service providers need to put YOU -- the customer -- at the center of their universe.

The partnership that Harri has created with ADP checks all three boxes. But let’s focus for now on #3.

What frustrates many hospitality decision-makers, operators, managers, and even employees is the fact that they have to work with multiple systems to do basic tasks. The role of automation should be streamlining, cost-savings, and employee satisfaction and retention. You chose to work in hospitality because you like people, food, and entertainment. Although technology is your backbone and enabler, it shouldn’t be a headache or stress factor.

From the minute you start looking to fill a position to the moment that person walks out the door (hopefully not too soon), your focus needs to be on that employee and employer experience. When you have multiple locations and franchisees, those challenges grow exponentially. Why layer on to that relationship a wide variety of technology solutions and providers too?

“Talenttech” in the hospitality industry should create a seamless solution for:

1. Reviewing candidates quickly and easily -- and exposing hiring managers to new applicants

2. Scheduling interviews

3. Hiring systems -- including the most important one -- getting people on payroll quickly and efficiently

4. Training and other onboarding processes

5. Knowing all the time when people are available to work and managing schedules in a way that ensures they feel informed, respected, and valued

6. Estimating -- accurately -- staff expenses and managing overtime and reporting

7. POS integration, so you know when to staff-up and for what positions

8. Communication within your team and sharing of best practices

9. Feedback throughout the employment process

10. Exit interviews 

But as important as the functionality of apps (which, by the way, is seamless between ADP and Harri, as the below chart illustrates) are the people you’re contracting with to manage your technology throughout the process.

The proliferation of technologies is the hospitality space has accelerated rapidly over the past five years and the number of companies that claim to have the ultimate solution is staggering. As you’re making choices, you should be looking for several key attributes:

• Experience in the hospitality industry

• Multiple functionalities within as few systems as possible (see the “Top 10” checklist, above

• Service providers who work together seamlessly and efficiently

• Integrations with your current systems, including your POS

• Customization of solutions for multi-location brands, who need to deal with the complexities of state labor laws and pay scales

Partnerships and trust -- whether among your employees, between employees and management, or between you and the team that manages your critically-important hiring, payroll, and talent retention systems have become as important as the quality of the food you serve.