This thread started in another direction… however the discussion took it toward employee recruiting… so what the heck… the edit feature can be used for many things including bowing to momentum. I deleted my original post here and reposted in a new topic in hopes that it will become a discussion on what I wanted to talk about in the first place.
In the mean time, the discussion moved toward how to find employees. Hopefully good ideas here will help operators who are trying to find employees.
I agree completely with your points. Unfortunately finding that person has not been a reality for me. It took me 6 months to find 1 counter person, and it ended up not being a high school or college kid like i would have normally hired.
I would love to devote more time to actually building my business, but the reality is the labor pool/market around here is practically non existent. Kids do not have to work, do not want to work because their parents pay for everything. Which has now turned into college kids who’s parents still pay for everything.
Add to this the fact that no one can actually afford to live around here anymore. Even i have to move out of the area to afford rent next year. If i had 400k to buy a starter house i could think about staying, but no thanks.
I hear you! My first house was in Nederland and it cost $100,000… and that was 26 years ago. That same home would be nearly 400K now I bet.
The staffing question is a bit off-topic from my post, but I see you are in Gunbarrel. I know from when my daughter went to school in Boulder (graduated 2 years ago) that the local places were offering $8 and hour and she would not work for that. I don’t blame her. She made more than that when she we 14 years old bussing tables.
How much are you paying? You can’t get the job done without help… How much business are you missing? I was just looking at Craigslist in your area and it appears line cooks are being offered $12 per hour. You might get pizza cooks for a dollar less but if you are not offering something close to that it would explain why you can’t get help.
Not looking for cooks, just counter people to answer the phones and do customer service during the night rush. But i have always started above min wage + tips. Tips average an extra 2 to 3 per hour.
My market is exactly like d9. Spoiled kids, liberal state, everyone wants cash under the table. High housing costs, unaffordable property taxes. I have people that make $15+ per hour and it isn’t enough.
I cant wait to exit the business. It’s been a very long painful ride
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I am in a market where pizza cooks make $13-$15. Phone people make $10 plus tips. Rents are $600-$800 per bedroom and hard to come by so I sympathize… but bottom line is if need people you have to pay what it takes to get them. Your competitors have the same reality you do so if you are finding you need to raise prices as a result it is a good bet your competition will do raising prices too.
Does anyone use online hiring sites like Snagajob. I never have so I have no idea if the work or not. We rarely get walk in applications. Maybe 1 a month. We use employee recommendations primarily. If we hire someone good we bend over backwards to keep them. The kids in our neck of the woods are all about having flexibility in their schedule. Time off for school, for trips, or what ever they are doing. There are a few limitations but not much.
This is all Greek to me. In my day you never asked for a day off of work.
I find that using sites like craigslist and snagajob bring a ton of applicants and about 95% aren’t looking for a job they are just doing the bare minimum to keep their unemployment. you can find a few people worth your time if you weed through all the applicants. all my best employees have come from recommendations and a sign in the window. Most of the people I have gotten for the internet don’t last long or are just warm bodies to have here.
Not the case here. Craigslist is where people go that are looking for work. Unemployment here is probably actually negative. i.e., I would bet good money that there are more jobs open than people looking for them.
We require all applicants to come in person and do not provide a phone number or even email contact with our craigslist post.
We also do paid help wanted posts on FB targeted at the age range we are looking for. That has been very effective too.
I should have started a new thread. My bad
My apologizes for helping it get derailed! I think the original post was the start of a great thread…
That’s funny, I found the Facebook help wanted post to be a complete waste of my time. I guess things work differently across the US. We also ask people to come in person to apply still got tons of applications electronically and tons of phone calls.
We definitely have applicants mention they saw the FB post and I have noticed that people will tag the post with names of people they know are looking for jobs. With respect to the craigslist applications, we do not allow electronic response. That is a setting when you create the craigslist ad. There is no email response possible. Nor do we include a phone number. If people call to ask they are told whether we are still looking and to please come in to the store in person.
I’ve had some luck with indeed and Craigslist. Mainly indeed. I use the word luck loosely.
Tried Facebook (boosted for 35 bucks too) and got crap results.
It all seems so random now a days. Just got to get the right person who happens to be looking at the right place at the right time…
We hire on employee recommendations on nearly all of our new people. We have the " now hiring" signs but rarely do we get an applicant that we hire and, they also work out. We hire around 15 - 20 people per year now. I just wonder if we should expand our reach to find more applicants.
I honestly think the problem comes down to one thing, choice. There are far too many job sites, craiglists, etc for both the employer and the employee to find each other.
Back in the day there was really only one place to look, the news paper. Or just walk/drive around town and look for now hiring signs.
And with each site wanting to charge for posting, and some sites even charge job seekers for getting results, it has become one huge game of the perfect ad at the perfect time for the perfect applicant.
We do it all and sometimes it works better than other. Mostly we do recommendations and craigslist. We also have a sign that we put in the window. A majority of our hiring has been through the recommendations and then craigslist I have found a couple of drivers and one of my pizza makers from the window sign. I also recruit from other places if I’m at another rstaurant or business and see a hard worker I ask if they want another job I’ve had a few bites this way and hired another pizza maker from this approach. Tried Facebook and instagram with no success. Luckily for now we are fully staffed but with summer coming and being in a beach town I know I will need extra help so next I will try box topper and see if that works.
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