Driven by a smaller industry labor pool, labor force participation rates, and historic trends in industry recruitment, retention, and absenteeism — the most impactful movement in foodservice and hospitality will be operators embracing new technologies to improve the odds of winning in the war for talent and employee retention — which has never had higher stakes (a $146B problem pre-pandemic).
For example, the majority of business execs are championing the integration of the contractor/gig-economy into their respective labor models to make up for the 3 million workers that have left the industry. Total teen labor force participation has dropped further, so enabling a more fluid working arrangement while staying compliant, means operators in foodservice and hospitality can benefit greatly.
By evolving how they handle labor shortages from reactive to proactive, they will see positive improvements in their worker recruitment, employee retention, and ultimately the guest experience. Tech-enabled management and optimization of worker staffing and scheduling, POWERED BY the gig-economy, will become ESSENTIAL in order to compete and stay solvent in 2021 and beyond.
