27 Mar 2022

Platform connects workers to hospitality businesses facing shortages

8:12 am on 27 March 2022

Some hospitality businesses struggling to cover shifts while their staff are in isolation are plugging the gaps with an employee-sharing website.

small business, people and service concept - man or bartender serving customer at coffee shop

Photo: 123rf

An Aucklander has created a platform where staff can put their hands up for extra shifts in similar roles at other venues.

Hospo Hours founder Marino Mariner said about 100 people have offered their help so far.

He said they ranged from current hospitality workers, to former hospitality workers, as well as people wanting to give it a go.

"We've had a lot of people signing up with all levels of experience. But then we had more and more people signing up like, 'I want to help out the community' or 'I'd like to get out of the house because I work from home in my corporate role, and a bit of cafe work would be fun'," he said.

Mariner, a former hospitality worker, said he came up with the idea after seeing "all these Facebook posts from local cafes and restaurants" in his area, who were having trouble with staffing.

He said he had a bit of spare time, so he decided to try and create a short term solution that would be quicker, free, and more flexible than a temp agency or recruitment agency.

"It seemed to me that there was urgent help needed, and having been through recruitment agencies in the past, there's a bit of a process to go through," he said.

However, Mariner said at least one person had moved into a full time role with the business they helped.

He said venues had responded positively.

"It was just an idea to help out with the limited knowledge that I had ... there's been heaps of great feedback from venues," he said.

"Being able to see they were quite stoked, that was really quite cool."

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