‘Just can’t find anybody’: Hiring still a struggle for restaurants
Columbus donut shop Dragon Donuts seemed to be riding high during the pandemic, opening its third location in Easton Town Center in December 2020.
Unfortunately, co-owner Courtney Butcher said finding and keeping staff has been an issue throughout the pandemic and was one of the main reasons for shutting down the location where it got its start, in Grove City, this past winter.
For every restaurant that has closed in the two-plus years after Gov. Mike Dewine closed many businesses to limit the spread of COVID19 in March 2020, there are others that have struggled to hold on despite every pandemic shutdown, mandate or shortage.
Dragon Donuts is just one small business that is still struggling with the staffing shortage.
Butcher said the company has tried multiple avenues to get the word out, including on social media and sponsored postings on job boards, which adds another expense for the small business.
“I would say probably 97% of the interviews I scheduled don’t show up,” she said. The shop dropped its preferred customer service work experience and now reaches out to every person who applies, regardless of experience.
The problem has particularly plagued the Easton location, which earlier this year had a sign on its door asking customers to be patient with staff who had shown up.
“There have been multiple restaurants around Easton and places that on short notice had to close their store because there’s nobody to work,” she said. That situation hadn’t happened to Dragon Donuts until March.
Candidates don’t always show up for job interviews
At Tee Jaye’s Country Place, president Dayna Sokol Sandsten said the restaurant is having similar struggles.
“The first question out of everybody’s mouth is what’s the pay? That’s all they’re concerned about,” she said. “In my 47 years in business, I’ve never seen what I’ve seen in the last couple of years.”
She said candidates often don’t show up for interviews. She feels restaurant workers have moved on to other industries, vying for a job with more weekend flexibility.
The issue is at Tee Jaye’s locations across the board, including its newest location in Clintonville, which surprised her.
“I didn’t think it would be such a problem up here, but it is,” Sandsten said.
Butcher said Dragon Donuts is lucky to have been able to survive this long, running its shops with just one or two people. But for her small business, it’s hard to meet competitors’ wages and also try to manage price increases on everything else.
“I even hear from bigger companies that they just can’t find anybody,” said Butcher. “Now you have all these businesses trying to stay open and offering sign-on bonuses, or their hourly wage rate went from where originally minimum wage, paying $17 an hour.”
White Castle, other local chains have an easier time hiring
The staffing situation seems to be faring much better for restaurant and coffee shop chains in Greater Columbus.
Columbus-based fast-food chain White Castle is seeing lower employee turnover and longer tenures at its stores compared with the wider industry, said Lynn Blashford, chief marketing officer at White Castle, though the pandemic did cause more difficulties in hiring.
“The pandemic did create more challenges to hiring, which resulted in staffing shortages at some locations in some markets throughout the last two years,” said Blashford. “Castles that were once 24-hour locations occasionally had to limit hours of operations, but most have been getting back to normal hours recently.”
Earlier this year, the company expanded its partnership with Miso Robotics and its frying robot Flippy, which introduced technology that can take over the work of an entire fry station to a Chicago-area White Castle location in 2020.
Blashford said Flippy 2 is able to perform tasks that are time-consuming and require precision, helping alleviate staffing deployment within restaurant operations.
“Using Flippy allows our team members to focus on other food preparation and expediting food orders as well as spend more time directly with customers,” she said.
Crimson Cup was dealing with staffing issues up until four months ago, but Amber Kuehn, regional retail manager at Crimson Cup, said the company has slowly filled positions at all of its locations.
“I don’t want to jinx us, but we have we have fought quite a bit over the past probably two years,” she said. “It’s definitely a slow and steady climb...to get people back engaged and working.”
The company concentrated on promoting job openings through its own channels and word of mouth, rather than paid job sites, which would put openings in front of people who were not as good a fit.
To retain and bring in new employees, the company was able to implement more competitive pay, a bonus structure and a better scheduling system, and it set aside more time for training employees in the slower winter months.
Coffee shop chain Crimson Cup is keeping some of its hiring signs up because it doesn’t want to be in a crunch for staffing again.
“There’s so many things that could happen,” said Kuehn. “We want to have the opportunity to talk to people that are interested in us, and also we’ll make room for someone who’s a great candidate.”
Staffing has been a struggle at Piada, said Stephanie Bauer, director of marketing with the Columbus-based fast-casual chain. With its competition aggressively recruiting, the company hired a talent acquisition manager, started offering competitive pay and bonuses, is reviewing benefits and is rolling out daily pay.
As a result, staffing has stabilized and the company is seeing an increased application flow, Bauer said.
“It’s been a huge asset for us. Those benefits, I think, are what’s helping us stand apart,” said Bauer. “The biggest things for us are just working on how we can [drive] retention and differentiate ourselves.”
Trying everything and making do
In March, Bob Szuter, co-owner of Wolf’s Ridge Brewing, said the brewing company has adjusted its hours to open later and close earlier to reduce burnout, and it raised wages for employees, which was offset by raising its prices.
“There might be a little bit more of that as we go through this year depending on how things shift,” said Szuter. “We’re looking for anything that that’s going to work and help make this a little easier for them. We’re trying to be adaptable and figure out what the next best thing to do [is].”
As of late, staffing continues to be an issue, he said, with candidates ghosting interviews, but employee retention has improved. And for every bit of bad news — the company is down 45 percent in sales compared to 2019 — there have been bright spots: The company announced last month it would be returning to a full menu and would be bringing back lunch and brunch.
“Underlying all that is still a really tight kind of labor situation that does make it difficult to give everybody the time and space that they need to really do their jobs,” Szuter said, adding that he’s trying to be optimistic going into the summer.
Dragon Donuts is trying different strategies to alleviate its staffing issues. The company began opening up opportunities to younger applicants, where before it didn’t hire employees under 18. But not much has changed lately.
“At this rate, we’re just really (looking for) anybody that wants to work,” Butcher said.
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