How are St. Louis restaurants dealing with the shortage of workers? —Harry H., St. Louis
As the restaurant world emerges from a dreadful and demanding year, the shortage of restaurant labor has become the most common concern, forcing chefs and owners to get creative all over again. The customer floodgates are opening and, at the present time, there are few workers to cook for, wait on, and clean up after. The reasons for the labor shortage are many, and some say the extension of additional unemployment benefits (lasting at least through September) could be playing a role as well.
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There are several obvious solutions to the problem: pay employees more, limit seating capacity and/or reduce hours to match staffing levels, switch to a less labor intensive format or concept (like fast casual), or have the owners and salaried staff work more hours. Larger restaurant groups are holding job fairs, while smaller companies have engaged in innovative recruiting methods.
For instance, Salt+Smoke owner Tom Schmidt, who is opening a fifth location at Ballpark Village in the next few weeks, currently needs 200 employees for his stores by May 15 and engaged in a three-day marketing blitz. “It’s working,” he reports.
We asked operators big and small to share their thoughts and possible solutions.
John Perkins, Juniper: “I was surprised that so many people left the industry, but we made our peace with it. We learned how to operate with fewer people and to focus on quality over quantity, which was a positive. This year, customer demand will be a function of where you are located, so some areas of the metro may be slower to recover. But I can’t worry about what I can’t control. Our industry is going through a radical shift and the staffing shortage is part of that, requiring creative adjustments. And because we are creative folk, we will adjust. It’ll be fine.”
Brant Baldanza, The Tavern Kitchen & Bar, Shack, The Corner Pub & Grill: “Back in February, we saw this problem coming, so we started the hiring process then. As of now, we are very fortunate to be at about 85–90 percent where we need to be when we are allowed to open fully in St. Louis County. We are also fortunate to have a breakfast concept and a dinner concept, where many of our Shack staff members moonlight at our Corner Pubs at night.”
Travis Howard, Retreat Gastropub, Yellowbelly, Lazy Tiger: “That’s definitely a puzzle we haven’t been able to solve. At Retreat, it prevented us from being able to expand our hours… We even had to scale back our hours, because we can’t find enough people to work. We’re spending a lot more time and money on websites like Indeed and still not getting results. I posted on a community college job board, and have gotten zero responses… Staffing a kitchen is always difficult, but now is far worse than normal, and I’m worried the pandemic has pulled a lot of people out of the industry permanently. There are so many people who work in our industry temporarily, while they are working on school or a different career path. We had a handful of those folks who fast-tracked their exit, saying they were done with restaurants permanently.”
Charlie Downs, Cyrano’s Café, Sugarfire Smoke House, Chicken Out, Boathouse at Forest Park: “We offer employees a $100 referral fee and another $200 after the person stays 90 days. College students returning for the summer will also help short-term.”
Gerard Craft, Niche Food Group: “We are focusing on our Niche Food Group culture and letting that help us recruit. People want to work in places that treated their workers well and with respect during the pandemic. Restaurants that chose that path will see more employees come back when they feel ready, and currently not everyone is ready. It’s going to take some time.”
Tom Schmidt, Salt+Smoke: “We realized that first and foremost we needed to create a sustainable working environment and offer a career, not just a job, so we started offering a 401(k), in addition to our existing health benefits package. We emphasized that we promote from within. We offer a $250 bonus after six months of employment. Employees get a referral fee. And we gave every hourly and salaried employee who stayed with us over the winter a bonus, as a thank-you for hanging in there with us.”
Adam Tilford, Mission Taco Joint: “We thought we should take care of our existing employees first, so we sponsored an Employee Appreciation Day, when we gave $250 to every hourly staffer. We pay employees for any new recruit who stays 90 days. In addition, every non-tipped employee now makes $15 per hour; everyone else got an incremental raise. All those things build loyalty.”
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