Photo by Louis Hansel on Unsplash
Many restaurants are looking to hire more staff. It's been difficult.
With warmer weather, the easing of COVID-19 restrictions and an increase in vaccinations, more Madison area residents are coming out to drink and dine, whether indoors or on an outdoor patio. But many local brewpubs and restaurants are finding it difficult to hire enough staff. This is true even though some restaurants and bars are open reduced hours, and for a fewer number of days per week than they were before the pandemic.
The food and beverage hospitality industry is struggling nationally with a labor shortage, and it’s no different for local brewpubs and restaurants, confirms Marc LaPierre of Clock’d, a Madison firm that specializes in helping hospitality businesses find employees.
“Businesses have been adjusting for the past year and had to change how they operate,” says LaPierre. “Now as they try to increase things, they are finding it a challenge to attract staff. The workforce that they had to let go isn’t coming back.”
Some service workers found work outside of the hospitality industry, while others are still not comfortable returning to jobs where they are face-to-face with the public. Restaurants are in stiff competition with each other in particular to fill the busy Friday and Saturday slots.
Wisconsin’s largest brewpub, The Great Dane Pub and Brewing Company, operates four locations in Dane County and is finding it difficult to fill current shifts. That’s worrisome to co-owner Eliot Butler, who says it’s hard even to get people to apply right now, “especially for positions that interact with guests.” These front of the house positions include hosts, servers and bartenders.
“People are applying to a lot of different restaurants and once they find a job they aren’t even bothering to contact the other places they made arrangements for interviews,” says Butler, adding that at one of the Great Dane’s locations, there were six no-shows in one week for scheduled interviews, even though Butler says the Great Dane is "competitive or industry-leading" in starting wages and benefits.
In Madison, many brewpubs, bars and restaurants fill service positions with young adults who move to the city to attend the UW-Madison and other area colleges. Butler thinks some of that labor pool has dried up as schools closed and then re-opened with COVID-19 testing policies. Many who otherwise may have sought part-time work as a bartender or waiter are reluctant to come back to work over fears of getting COVID-19, being quarantined, unable to attend classes and of course the threat of becoming seriously ill.
Butler says more staff returned for spring, but he estimates he’s currently down three to six employees at each of his brewpubs, making it challenging to fully staff some shifts. He’s not sure what to expect for summer and fall.
Vintage Brewing Company and Full Mile Beer Company in Sun Prairie are experiencing similar problems with ramping up employment for summer. In Mount Horeb the Grumpy Troll Brewpub had been operating two kitchens, one for the main downstairs dining room and bar, and a second kitchen upstairs for its pizzeria. “We’re struggling,” says co-owner Robin Pharo. “In this age of COVID, it’s been impossible to operate two kitchens. It’s hard enough to get staff for one, let alone two.” Pharo recently closed the pizzeria and consolidated into a single kitchen on the main floor.
The Grumpy Troll has been lucky enough to attract a new bartender who is returning to the hospitality industry. Michael Toth, 26, will start next week.
Toth has been working full time from home for Therma-Stor in Madison throughout COVID-19. He recently started thinking about supplementing his income. “I’m interested in getting back out into the community and meeting people and making a little extra money,” he says. Toth says he got COVID-19 in late December and was fortunate that his symptoms were mostly similar to a cold, and with the COVID-related loss in his sense of smell and taste eventually returning. “I’m not too worried because I know how my body reacted to [COVID], but I am glad to be working in a place that takes it seriously and is prepared,” he says. The Grumpy Troll staff wear masks and patrons must follow social distancing guidelines.
While there are more jobs than people willing to fill them, it’s not quite an employee’s market. It’s not clear if the current surplus of jobs means workers will start seeing higher hourly wages, at least in jobs that also receive tips. Competition in the market has resulted in some wage increases for certain jobs and levels of experience, mostly for kitchen and management positions. Hourly rates for front of house staff haven’t changed much.
LaPierre of Clock’d says that may be true for the moment, but might change if competition remains stiff for service workers. LaPierre has seen some employers sweetening offers to prospective employees, with such benefits as free meals on workdays, greater scheduling flexibility, guaranteed minimum amounts per shift, health care, and contributions to a 401(k) retirement plan.
Says LaPierre: “To get an employee, you have to be creative right now and pay a living wage.”
