Hospitality businesses are facing a big problem with staffing right now. Many people are leaving their jobs in the wake of the pandemic and companies are struggling to get more people to fill those positions. When staff numbers are low, the customer experience suffers and it can seriously affect your bottom line. If you are struggling with understaffing issues, there are some measures you can take to attract more people and fill empty positions.
Pay A Competitive Wage
Many people are leaving low-paid hospitality jobs because they don’t feel that they are being compensated fairly. Many customer-facing jobs in hospitality can be incredibly demanding and if you don’t pay a good wage, people simply won’t do the jobs. So, look at what other businesses in the area are paying and take a look at your own finances so you can work out how much you can realistically afford to pay. Increasing your wages a little could make a huge difference when you are trying to fill empty positions.
Invest In Technology To Help Servers
If you invest in technology that makes life easier for servers, you make the job a lot more attractive. For example, if you can accept payments at your restaurant at the table using contactless machines, that speeds things up. If you have integrated ordering systems so servers can take orders on a tablet and immediately print tickets, that makes things easier too. Investing in these solutions to improve the job will make it far easier to hire new people because it takes a lot of stress out of the job.
Offer Employee Perks
Employee perks are one of the best ways to attract new talent but a lot of hospitality businesses fail to offer them to staff. Offering good health insurance, a fair amount of vacation days, and good discounts can all encourage people to apply for open positions. Although this comes at an added cost, it means that you will attract more experienced staff and your employee turnover will be reduced. If you start offering great benefits, you will be a much more attractive prospect than other hospitality businesses in the area.
Deal With Tips Fairly
Most servers rely on tips to supplement their income but, unfortunately, a lot of businesses don’t handle them fairly. In many cases, the servers do not get an equal share of all of the tips and a large percentage is taken by the business. So, if the business is making more sales, the servers don’t benefit from that, even though they are the ones putting in all the hard work. Word soon gets around and businesses that don’t distribute tips fairly will get a bad reputation. When you are trying to hire people, nobody will want to apply. So, make sure that tips are always split evenly between all of your servers and you give out bonuses when they are deserved.
A staff shortage can seriously damage your business, but as long as you make these changes, you’ll get plenty of applications when you post a job advert.