As government restrictions in response to the COVID-19 threat close pubs, clubs, hotels and restaurants across the country, UKWA is working with Harri – a next-generation workforce recruitment platform – to help redeploy redundant workers from the hospitality sector into the warehousing and logistics industry, to assist with the shortage of labour. Sourcing sufficient labour has been an ongoing challenge for the industry, but the additional pressures on supply chains and deliveries driven by the current pandemic has made this already challenging situation considerably worse. Harri has designed a free to use, non-profit jobs portal to help find temporary jobs for hospitality workers with employers in other sectors who are in urgent need of extra staff during these tough times. Pete Willis, Director at Harri, explains: “The portal is being populated with jobs from employers in sectors such as food retail, warehousing & distribution, delivery and care, while hospitality employers are directing any employees they are making redundant to this page as a means of supporting them. UKWA members looking for additional workers can join employers including Amazon, Lidl, Care UK, Co-Op, Just Eat, Balhousie Care Group, Compassionate Care Group and others to feature their jobs – free of charge – on this portal to target hourly paid workers.” He continues, “All we need from employers is permission to scrape your jobs and put them on this portal so we can support those who need it most right now and have the right attributes for your recruitment needs too.” The portal will not be visible to the public, only to the hospitality community through a link provided by participating companies. UKWA CEO Peter Ward comments, “This is an excellent opportunity for warehousing and logistics businesses struggling to find workers in this difficult period to have instant access to a new pool of potential labour, while hospitality workers – suddenly without a job – are helped to find alternative employment, at least for the duration of the crisis. We are delighted to be working with Harri on this positive initiative, which should be a win-win situation for our sector and for the hospitality industry too.” www.ukwa.org.uk