SnapShyft benefits its hometown with hiring options for convention surges

Indianapolis has enjoyed the fruits of successful convention centers, but capitalizing on that trend is going to involve an odd obstacle: ensuring that the city's establishments downtown are able to accommodate.

"Sometimes when a large convention comes into town ... we may not have full-time employees to cover the amount of surge shifts that we need covered," said Jason Benish, a vice president for the corporate owner of St. Elmo Steak House, Burger Study and Harry & Izzy's.

Facing that reality, Benish's employer, Huse Culinary, has joined roughly 280 other Indianapolis restaurants, bars and caterers using a labor marketplace app called SnapShyft.

The app, created in Indianapolis, is used by local restaurants, bars and caterers to quickly post and fill shift openings that arise due to turnover, employee illnesses and — of particular interest to Indy's tourism industry — business surges caused by visiting conventions.

The partnership

Huse's first big test of the app and its gig-based business model arrived when the National FFA Organization hosted tens of thousands of young convention-goers and President Donald Trump in Indianapolis in October.

The restaurant group's executives identified Burger Study as the best concept in their company to use the app on a trial basis. They pondered the best way to utilize temporary workers during surges and eventually settled on advertising for positions that didn't require a lot of menu knowledge, such as dishwashers, server assistants and second or third prep cooks.

"We really found that the app was very useful for really helping us find some support positions to the more skilled positions that are on our more permanent roster," Benish said.

Visit Indy, the city's tourism arm, is hoping SnapShyft can make planning for customer surges a little easier for companies like Huse.

The tourism agency in February formalized a partnership to supply SnapShyft with detailed information on conventions, including the demographics and consumer preferences of attendees.

It would discern whether convention-goers attending a specific event prefer hamburgers and fries over steak and baked potato, drink wine and beer or milkshakes and smoothies and how much they're willing to spend.

Read more here.

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