As the economy has shaken loose of the 2020 shutdown and attempted to get back online, staffing shortages have been a consistent problem among local businesses.
Staffing problems are especially present in restaurants, where customers see the effects of a shortage in plain view. Some restaurants are responding by cutting back on operating hours, and others are displaying “help wanted” signs for cooks, wait staff and other positions.
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Area Wife Saver restaurants are now closed on extra days, and Gary’s Hamburgers is hiring cooks and cashiers while now closing at 3 p.m.
Bonefish Grill of Augusta is holding a two-day hiring event next week in hopes of filling some of the empty positions.
Tiffany Belding is a manager at Oliviana Bar Italiano and Pizzeria. That restaurant is one of many that has cut back operating hours.
“We are closed on Sunday evenings and all day Monday, and we’ve never had to do that before,” she said. “We are starting to get some applications, so we’re hoping that in the next few weeks we can roll that back.”
Belding said the restaurant has been closing on Monday for about a month, and the Sunday closing has just started within the last two weeks. Kitchen positions have been especially hard to fill, she added.
“I have heard of a lot of people having the staffing issue,” she said. “It’s not always getting so bad where they are cutting operating hours but many have had to shut down parts of the restaurants because there aren’t servers to fill those areas.”
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Gov. Brian Kemp announced that effective June 26, Georgia would no longer participate in the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC), which provides for an additional $300 weekly payment to recipients of unemployment compensation.
One restaurant manager who asked to remain anonymous believes that some employees were taking advantage of those unemployment programs.
“We paid people while we were closed last year in hopes of not losing all our staff, and there were some people that didn’t come back to work when we re-opened because they were either scared or they could make more money just staying at home,” the manager said. “With Georgia’s underemployment laws, I have some kitchen guys that say they can only work a set number of hours or they will call out sick one day a week to stay under a certain threshold to still qualify for underemployment benefits. Some people are playing the game, and it can be very calculated.”
The same manager said that in addition to trying to retain employees, it’s also been difficult to find new help.
“I can set up five interviews and one person will show. If people fill out an application, they might not complete the paperwork needed to actually get an interview,” he said. “It’s gotten to the point where I’ve even hired people on the spot, and they still don’t show for orientation. I hired four servers a while back, and none of them made it through training.”
Walter Clay is the owner of Rae’s Coastal Cafe and French Market Grille. He said he devotes a lot of time to training and meeting with his employees, even holding “managers’ and supervisors’ summits” with his restaurant staff that are meant to strategize for success and collect feedback on how to improve business operations.
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He said those feedback sessions have aided in finding solid employees based on staff recommendations, and the employees are also able to voice their concerns.
“It’s important for me to look internally. ‘What can I do to provide a good environment for my staff?'” Clay said. “I don’t spend time trying to squeeze every last penny out of my employees. I spend time trying to figure out how I can make my employees more successful, which will pay dividends back to me in the end.”
Clay mentioned one aspect of reduced hours that was actually a positive for his staff.
“Both my restaurants that used to run six days a week are down to five,” Clay said. “I still have both staff shortages and some customer shortages as well. If I can do the same amount of business in five days and just have that business less spread out, I can now offer something to my staff that nobody in the restaurant business really has: a weekend. It’s amazing how hard people will work when they know they can get two days off in a row.”
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Clay’s son works at one of his restaurants and offered some perspective on what the concept of a weekend means for a food and beverage employee.
“My son said, “Dad, now I can actually wash my clothes and dry my clothes before I go back to work,'” said Clay.
Tyler Strong is the Business Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach him at tyler@theaugustapress.com.
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