Restaurants strain to keep doors open as staffing struggles deepen - Crain's Detroit Business

samasamp.blogspot.com

The Wendy's fast-food restaurant in Hazel Park closes nightly at 8 p.m. now — when it can stay open even that late.

In recent weeks, a Taco Bell in St. Clair Shores has shut off its drive-thru screen between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. during weekdays, turning away midafternoon customers before the evening dinner rush ensues.

Jim Brady's restaurant — a Royal Oak institution — is open only for dinner and is dark at lunchtime.

In Waterford Township, the Fork n' Pint restaurant overlooking Cass Lake is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.

On a daily basis, the labor shortages become more pronounced as the restaurant industry struggles to meet the demands of customers venturing out of pandemic isolation to resume dining in or pulling through a drive-thru on their way to in-person work for the first time in over a year.

"We're definitely short on staff right now," said Bill Schwab, general manager of Fork n' Pint. "But everybody's short on staff right now."

Industry leaders blame the labor shortage on a host of factors, ranging from continued concerns from workers about contracting COVID-19 on the job to child care issues for working parents and uncertainty in hours from potential government restrictions.

But most business owners and managers say it's hard to compete with Congress' extension of pandemic-related unemployment benefits and an additional $300-per-week federal benefit that's in place until Sept. 4.

The added benefit has some restaurateurs and fast-food operators bracing for a punishing summer of labor shortages for entry-level positions.

Michigan's maximum unemployment benefit is $362 per week. The additional $300 per week boosts potential benefits to $662, or $16.55 per hour for a 40-hour work week.

All 846,960 active unemployment claimants are receiving the $300 additional weekly payment as part of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan that President Joe Biden signed into law in March, according to Michigan's Unemployment Insurance Agency.

Restaurateurs say that added benefit has slowed hiring and recovery, especially since Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's administration has continued to waive the requirement that workers claiming unemployment benefits actively search for work.

"If people are just making $362 a week, I guarantee they'd be coming looking for jobs," said Tom Brady, owner of the Jim Brady's Bar & Grill restaurants in Royal Oak and Ann Arbor. "The floor right now is $16 (per hour). Paying dishwashers $16 an hour is hard."

The scarcity of labor for open positions in the restaurant industry was on full display May 4 during a virtual job fair hosted by the Macomb/St. Clair Michigan Works! Office.

There were 570 available jobs advertised from more than 30 bars and restaurants in both counties, ranging from entry level servers and hosts to cooks and supervisors.

Just four participants logged online to apply for jobs, according to Michigan Works! web and communication specialist Jordan Geml.

"When the search-for-work requirement returns, and additional unemployment benefits end, we expect an increase in traffic for these events," Geml said.

At the end of this month, the state Unemployment Insurance Agency will reinstate the work search requirement.

Unemployment claimants will have to show proof that they've applied for at least one job per week, UIA spokeswoman Lynda Robinson said.

The labor shortage comes as restaurants are facing pent-up demand from freshly vaccinated patrons who recently received a $1,400 stimulus check from the U.S. Treasury and are eager to get inside a restaurant again.

"People got stimulus checks in April and they're surging to restaurants," said Justin Winslow, president and CEO of the Michigan Restaurant and Lodging Association.

Over the past 14 months, dine-in service inside bars, breweries, taprooms and restaurants small and large was prohibited for 159 days.

Adding to the uncertainty is restaurants and bars may remain limited to 50 percent of indoor capacity and have to close at 11 p.m. until 60 percent individuals over age 16 have been received at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine under Whitmer's latest reopening plan.

As of May 6, Michigan was nearly 711,000 individuals short of meeting that 60 percent vaccination threshold, state data show.

"We don't have a clear sense of a timeline of when we're going to be back (at full capacity)," Winslow said.

Restaurants and fast-food chains are getting more creative — and desperate — to find good help.

Last week, McShane's Irish Pub & Whiskey Bar in Detroit's Corktown neighborhood was offering a $500 hiring bonus for a new line cook.

An Applebee's restaurant at 11 Mile and Van Dyke Avenue in Warren was advertising $200 signing bonuses for all positions.

In an effort to weed out bad applicants, Aberrant Brewing Co. in Howell has a banner above its front entrance on Grand River Avenue that reads, "Are you awesome? We're hiring," with an asterisk that says "if you're not, maybe try down the street..."

At Fork n' Pint on Cass Lake, Schwab has ads on Craigslist advertising wages of a minimum $200 per shift for servers — an ad that's aimed at people who already have a serving job and want to make more money.

"That's an advertisement directly at people who are in the business," Schwab said. "That's for a server who knows what kind of money they can make."

The more entry-level positions are proving to be the hardest to fill, particularly in fast food.

Brady, the third-generation owner of Jim Brady's, said he needs 14 people to fill jobs in his two restaurants in order to open for lunch again and be flexible if an employee calls in sick.

"It's that thin," he said.

Brady said he's spending hundreds of dollars each week advertising jobs on Indeed and Craigslist. In the past, Jim Brady's has recruited workers based on reputation and word-of-mouth, Brady said.

Detroit-based Tayven Food Corp., the owner-operator of 13 Wendy's franchises in metro Detroit, is hiring 15-year-olds for the first time ever to help fill shifts, even after scaling back hours at some locations such as the Hazel Park restaurant, company president and CEO Steven Taylor said.

"I've never seen it like this in 26 years of trying to find people to come to work," said Taylor, who needs 125 workers "today" to fill vacancies in his Wendy's restaurants. "We have tons of jobs and opportunities for anybody willing to work."

The labor troubles don't just end with recruitment.

Taylor said his managers have lost track of how many people don't show up for interviews, ghosting his staff and creating more human resources headaches.

"You can offer a person a job, they say they're going to take it and their start date is a few days later, and they don't show up," he said.

Tayven Food Corp. has Wendy's restaurants in Detroit, Warren, Highland Park, Southfield, Dearborn, Ferndale, Hazel Park and Madison Heights.

Transportation remains a major impediment to filling shifts each day at the suburban restaurants, which rely heavily on workers from Detroit, Taylor said.

"But now people are like, 'It's not worth it' to pay for an Uber there and back or take two or three buses to get to your job because you have free money," said Taylor, referencing the $300-a-week added unemployment benefit. "It was a struggle (to fill jobs) prior to this last payout. But this last payout really did it."

Crain's Staff Reporter Jay Davis contributed to this report.

Adblock test (Why?)

"open" - Google News
May 09, 2021 at 11:13AM
https://ift.tt/3xWXi3n

Restaurants strain to keep doors open as staffing struggles deepen - Crain's Detroit Business
"open" - Google News
https://ift.tt/3bYShMr
https://ift.tt/3d2SYUY

Bagikan Berita Ini