PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Coronavirus-related restrictions are easing more and more across the state. Suburban counties can anticipate all mitigation orders lifted, aside from masking, by Memorial Day.
But as area employers open up more, some are having difficultly finding workers to fill their open positions.
Al Lucas, partner with Defined Hospitality, which owns Suraya and Pizzeria Beddia, said the struggle to find employees at his restaurants is all to do with timing.
“Suddenly all at once, everyone has a tremendous need to staff their restaurants,” he said. “I think everyone is always looking for good people, but not at this number all at the same time.”
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For back-of-house jobs, he’s offering $2,000 sign-on bonuses as well as a 3% service charge, which will flow directly to all the kitchen staff. The company is also trying to entice workers with a health benefits package.
“With the health care, that starts making it feel like a career, not just a job,” he noted. “Enhanced unemployment benefits at this point are scheduled to end around September, so the question becomes are we going to see a rise in salaries and payroll short-term and then see an increase of people hitting the workforce, and then maybe things will level off?”
Kevin Nolan, CEO of Nolan Painting, believes employers need to think beyond the paycheck to attract workers, which is why his company is kicking off an employee benefits program called Operation Re-engagement for Growth.
“We’re going to have clubs, we’re going to have hiking trips, we’re going to have Phillies games, coffee houses, wine and cheese parties,” he said.
Nolan hopes enticing workers with a pleasant work culture will give him a boost.
“You have a storm here where immigration has been tight, the millennials are aging out of this type of entry-level jobs, and you do not have that much of a population to fill that void,” he added.
Economist Diane Lim said the worker shortage was anticipated, but it has been made worse by the pandemic.
“The aging of our population, and the fact that we haven’t had generations as big as the baby boom ever since, means that we’re going to have fewer workers supporting a larger population,” she explained.
Worker shortages will continue post-pandemic, she estimated.
“The 2020 census, the first results came out and we saw that population growth rate is slowing,” she said.
With so many people re-evaluating their priorities after being home for so long, Lim said it will take a lot more creativity for companies to attract new workers.
“There’s going to have to be a much kind of broader notion of what makes a job a high-quality job,” she said. “They’re going to have to think of what makes their company more attractive than other companies.”