Getting a leg up on hiring qualified people in the hospitality space, a couple of new startups are hoping to solve the problem of connecting skilled hospitality workers with the businesses that need them on-demand. Here’s a brief take on how apps and services are intersecting the hiring space too.
A new Australian app called “Squaddle” allows hospitality businesses to post jobs to get access a pool of skilled local workers, who in turn offer quotations for their services. For business owners, especially rental businesses in the Airbnb matrix, being able to select from among qualified locals may bring a boom of remote property investment. But let’s not get ahead here, just the logic here bears scrutiny first. What Craigslist did for localization based digital commerce, ideas like Squaddle can go “on up” on.
According to the news on Squaddle, hospitality workers with an ABN including bartenders, baristas, front and back-of-house, and chefs can set up profiles with their skills and receive notifications when a suitable gig comes up. Founded by Perth IT professionals Adam Sarris and James Hill about 18 months ago, Sqauaddle is already being billed as the “Uber for hospitality”. The only downside I see here is that of scaling, the same rub that rubbed Uber and Airbnb to begin with. Of course, Squaddle is so far intended to bolster the temporary workspace right now, but it’s easy to imagine it morphing into something bigger fast.
And speaking of scalability, a brand new startup called “hyre” has started off with tighter focus withing the same genre. This new startup solves the points of pain of events organizers by connecting qualified staff with said organizers. If scalability was ever an issue, then innovating and providing a service on a local and case-by-case basis is brilliant. Hyre’s President and CEO Eropa Stein proudly accepted HFTP’s Entrepreneur 20X (E20X) both the Judge’s Award and the People’s Startup Award at the inaugural HITEC Amsterdam event late last month.
As someone who’s helped organize events, I can attest to the dire need to be able to get help in making memorable experiences for attendees. Like any other “hospitable” enterprise, conferences and shows leave either a good or bad taste in the mouths of guests. These hiring aids are, for me, a big booster in the arms of “would be” conference organizers in particular. There’s nothing like competition to improve the customer experience, and tools like these certainly do enable.
So hyre is trying to revolutionize event staffing “one event at a time”, while Squaddle fills in the gaps with the right staff at the right time, but they are not alone. The service industry is about to burst open with effective platforms along these lines. Take “Housejoy” for instance. This Bangalore-based startup offers an online portal and a mobile app for customers to discover and book home services locally. Air conditioning services to zookeeping, ideas like those Housejoy is capitalizing on create a whole new meaning for the digital economy. For one thing, the sharing economy can absolutely use the support mechanisms suggested here. Evidence the space is heating up comes from the New Orleans startup “Acrew” as well. What began as an idea to create a “resume-less” job marketplace for hourly workers, has now materialized for its founders. Acrew lets employers get a first impression for potential workers before the hiring process goes any deeper.
Another model presented by UK startup “Harri” leverages a suite of hospitality-specific recruitment and workforce management tools to help midsized businesses reduce hiring costs and lower hurdles. Supposedly, Harri supplies “clients full control and visibility over every stage of the employee’s lifecycle: from recruitment, onboarding, employment, to retirement”, though I have not personally tested the service. Harri does lead us into what you might call “enterpise level” innovation to come.
I can only imagine some synthesis of these and more innovations coming out in the next months. Providing a stunning tool that solves for employers and for staff is kind of a “no-brainer” if you think about it. Stay tuned as I contact these and other companies that are creating hiring (or hyring) perfection.
