Luca Piacentini
1851 Franchise Managing Editor
Harri is an employee experience platform created by hospitality professionals for hospitality professionals. After 20-plus years of firsthand quick-service restaurant experience, Luke Fryer, Harri’s founder and CEO, knew the challenges of hiring and retaining staff all too well. He knew that the solutions available to him weren’t made for the hospitality world, so he made something that was.
“An entire industry has been built on taking a hiring and retention model designed for a desk worker and trying to retrofit it to support the frontline workforce and say, ‘That works,’” said Jennifer Ravalli, chief marketing officer at Harri. “That’s the antithesis of what Harri is. Harri is a product built specifically for the needs of frontline hospitality and restaurant teams. The hiring process is streamlined, managers don’t have to worry about compliance or the prospect of making a mistake that could have deep impacts on the margin of the business, and business outcomes are improved.”
Staying laser-focused on the hospitality-specific solution, Harri has built an incredible resource that helps some of the world’s biggest hospitality brands strengthen the experience of their frontline teams, creating more engaged, satisfied staff that deliver an even better end-user experience.
Harri now serves over 55,000 restaurant and hotel locations with an innovative, person-first approach, focusing on employee engagement, compliance, scheduling and coaching.
Luca Piacentini
1851 Franchise Managing Editor
Chris Irby
Copy Editor
Erica Inman
Staff Writer
1851 Franchise: How do you fall into this industry that we’re in? Give a little bit of background on your story.
Keegan Conrey: I've always had an affinity toward working with service industries. I got into software and continued to work with the service industry and with field service companies on how they go out and optimize their staff. Now this is my second restaurant and technology company that I've been at, and I will not be going anywhere else. I love getting to work with hospitality, especially with franchise operators, more than anything else that I've had the chance to do.
1851: How quickly did you see the problem that Harri could solve?
Conrey: I could see it before I came here. I was in another company and lots of things kept coming up, especially for franchisees who get into this business because they want a roadmap to success. I saw that Harri was doing something so important, and that’s what drew me to a conversation with our founder and CEO. I knew, before I ever had a conversation with him, that Harri was doing something really special. What I didn’t know was the entire approach it takes from when you first attract someone, hire them, onboarding, expectation-setting and engagement.
1851: In the most simplistic terms, what is Harri?
Conrey: Harri is an employee experience platform, and we help operators build their teams, manage their teams and, ultimately, engage and retain them. What does that all mean? A lot of times, people say “workforce management” and they mean “labor scheduling.” This is everything from communicating with a team to providing a place for employees to review their schedules and communicate with managers. It includes time and attendance and automated check-ins that are done at the time clock in the flow of work for employees.
At the end of the day, we believe that the employee experience should never never exceed the customer experience, and we know that your employees drive everything you’re trying to do. We look at everything through that lens.
We’re also solving for short-cycle turnover. Why are people leaving? How can you, as a franchise operator, get in front of that and realize that there are some pretty easy things you can do to listen and implement changes that will get people over that 90-day hump?
When you can get people more productive, staying longer and more engaged — now we're talking about the real magic that happens. And this is where your profits go up.
1851: What is the first thing about Harri that connects with a brand?
Conrey: The top two things are compliance and short cycle turnover.
Why are all of the McDonald’s restaurants in California choosing Harri? It’s what we’re solving for with automated compliance to reduce the risk and make it as easy as possible to answer a PAGA [Private Attorneys General Act] claim.
Number two is that there is just such a drain on the margins to have people come on board and never get productive. People think it’s just something they have to live with in the industry, but there are competitors with half the turnover. What are they doing differently? That’s where we start the conversation.
1851: How can these support systems impact the business over time?
Conrey: In terms of doing business, you have to be able to solve for compliance and turnover.
So many times, it’s all about the leadership. This isn’t just about buying software that people are going to use day in and day out. People need to understand which problems you’re trying to help solve for them. As an executive, I love to jump on anything — “We need to do this,” “This is what we need to do.” But the frontline folks need to be included so they feel like they’ve got more stake in the game. They know the big picture. And more satisfied, engaged employees with less turnover can better contribute to that big picture.
The goal is to remove friction for those most important people in your organization. No one wants to sit down and do paper onboarding. No one wants to do paperwork for sending out schedules or making timecard adjustments. As a manager, I don’t want to be a paperwork manager. I want to train people and interact with customers. My job is to drive the customer experience by removing all of this other stuff.
Harri has all the delightful little things that remove that friction. We’re here to figure out what your priorities are and show you how we can help. We’re here to solve some of the biggest business challenges with you.
