Photo credit: Helping Hands
With unemployment at the lowest point in eight years and new immigration rules placing further pressure on the hospitality industry’s ability to find staff, employers are looking at new ways to be proactive and maintain a high quality team. Helping Hands, a hospitality recruitment tool, flips the traditional recruitment methods on its head, allowing employers to immediately access over 10,000 jobseeker profiles and contact jobseekers directly. With the tool costing as little as $50 per month and saving employers the time involved in placing advertisements and sifting through endless resumes, Helping Hands is gaining significant traction against the more ‘traditional’ job sites.
WINNIE BAGOES – Christchurch
LENA – was on the Helping Hands site for three weeks before she got offered a job with Christchurch’s premier pizza place, Winnie Bagoes. Snooping around online for job opportunities led her to the site, which boasts a total turn-around for jobseekers and employers alike. Instead of having to physically run around with her CV, hat in hand, Lena was able to create a profile (an online CV), at no cost and wait for employers to contact her. Mike Knowles of Winnie Bagoes shortlisted Lena and she says that direct contact was great, it made her feel more confident. “It was a lot less stressful than going door to door,” explains Lena, who says that her favourite part of working at Winnie Bagoes is getting to serve the wonderful regular customers that frequent this popular joint.
MIKE KNOWLES – was looking for a part time waiter with some experience and a good personality. Turning to Helping Hands after a number of on line job sites left him trawling through piles of irrelevant CV’s, he found Lena. “She was easy to get on with, had the basics down: turned up on time, took pride in her appearance…old school things that actually make a difference!” Happy with the calibre of people he’s hired via Helping Hands Mike now says it’s the only site he uses for employing staff.
PLUM
NICK – heard about Helping Hands via Facebook and figured it would be worth trying out, he’d been looking for work for about 6 months and wasn’t having any luck with applying for roles via traditional job sites. When Stephanie got in touch from Plum, Nick found that talking directly to the person who was hiring him was a major plus – no double handling, having to go through multiple interviews. “Helping Hands is the best site I’ve found for finding work in a kitchen.” During his time at Plum his favourite aspect was a great working relationship with the head chef who offered patient advice to a budding chef.
STEPH – was on the hunt for a commis chef who was enthusiastic and had the right qualifications. Using Helping Hands to fill this role was a no-brainer “over the last eight years of working in hospo and looking for staff, Helping Hands has been by far the easiest way to tackle recruitment for us.” Nick stood out from the other jobseekers as he was earnest and honest and had the right level of experience for the role.
Nick was approached because he fit Steph’s criteria; all she needed to know was if he would be keen to work at Plum. The dynamic between employer/employee was subtly shifted – they were more like partners in this endeavour – equally invested and only interacting when both of them knew that they could work well together. “The jobseeker profiles showcase all the info you need to make a good decision fast, I would 110% find staff this way again.”
