How technology can help attract and retain talent in hospitality

According to the latest Labour Market Overview, UK: June 2022​​, from the Office for National Statistics, the number of job vacancies in March to May 2022 rose to a new record of 1,300,000, a staggering increase of 503,900 from its pre-coronavirus January to March 2020 level. Disturbingly, for the same period, the ratio of vacancies to every 100 employee jobs continued to rise, reaching a record high of 4.3, with the majority of industry sectors displaying record high ratios.

How are we doing in hospitality? Sadly, not well, as recently highlighted by UKHospitality.​​ Current vacancies in hospitality are more than 100% higher than the corresponding pre-Covid period, with vacancies across the industry now double, up 102% on what they were before the pandemic. 

So, what role can technology play in the battle to attract employees to our industry and once we’ve attracted them, how do we retain them? Let’s firstly face the facts. When things go wrong in a customer’s dining experience, it’s usually a member of the front-of-house team to be the first in the firing line to deal with frustrations. This can be anything from limited seating capacities and longer than usual wait times, to incorrect orders and dishes which simply don't meet expectations. Inevitably, this leads to stress, burnout and a high turnover in employees for operators.

It’s a fact; technology alleviates stress, which in turn helps operators to retain talented teams and for customers to have a more fulfilling, consistent, dining experience. Today, consumer demand means everything needs to be achieved at the touch of a button, or indeed a scan of a QR code. Smart front-of-house hosting will digitise much of the customer experience, whilst also reducing the number of employees required across each service. To give you an example, one feature of our ConnectSmart Host technology creates a QR code especially for walk-in diners, which they simply scan to be added to a waitlist and then receive a notification when their table is ready. Quick, simple and no hosting required. 

The real secret is to invest in technology which ensures stress levels are kept to an absolute minimum. Operators should be thinking about investing in front and back-of-house technology that can intuitively speak to one another. Our ConnectSmart Host seamlessly integrates with ConnectSmart Kitchen and other technologies to ensure back-of-house deliver consistent, quality plates of food every time and front-of-house has a real-time visual into every step of the dining process to allow them to communicate effectively with customers to deliver an exceptional experience. 

Ultimately, technology is a win, win for operators. Why? Because by alleviating stress it equates to a happy team. A happy team means happy customers and happy customers equate to repeat business and increased revenue.