New jobs board to link hospitality workers with positions in other sectors

A free new jobs portal has launched today to help redeploy hospitality workers out of work due to coronavirus to sectors in desperate need of extra staff.

The portal, which is supported by UKHospitality, will provide links to temporary employment in sectors such as food retail and supply, health care and delivery.

Peter Martin, who has been working alongside the team at Harri to create the portal, said: "While hospitality has received vital support from government, the sector is also playing its part in trying to mitigate the hardship that so many of our people have suffered at this time and will suffer in the weeks and months to come – and at the same time help those parts of the economy that now need extra labour to keep the country running."

The portal will not be visible to the public, instead only being visible to the hospitality community through a link provided by participating companies.

"HospitalityUnite already has a commitment from the likes of Lidl, Amazon, Planet Organic, Just Eat, Co-op, Waitrose, Care UK, Morrisons, Balhousie Care Group and logistics companies who need additional staff and who see skilled hospitality workers as ideal recruits. Right now we have 4,000 vacancies at Amazon and 2,500 vacancies with Lidl ready to go onto the website," said Pete Willis, Director at Harri, the hospitality workforce platform.

Martin added: "It will be up to individuals and their companies how they want to use this resource, but it is designed to be another option for them in these challenging times – and we are grateful for the support provided by UKHospitality in getting it off the ground."

To secure access for your staff, email: hospitalityunite@harri.com

The Caterer has also collated information from those looking to hire hospitality workers and created an advice hub to help operators and individuals during the coronavirus crisis.