Staffing Problems

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wa_dave

New member
Sorry guys just having a 5 a.m. rant after a sleepless night trying to find a way out of staff shortages at the moment.
Got a customer service / driver off with a disclocated collarbone, down to one driver on Saturdays, another driver who does Fri, Sat & Sun leaving in 2 weeks and both customer service people off sick tonight with no-one able to pick up their shifts - 1 sick, 1 on school camp for the weekend, 1 with technical college 3 day on site project and 3 with other committments. Hoping only other available one can cover otherwise we are up sh1t creek without a paddle on our businest night of the week. Just one of those rare times where the brown stuff hits the fan.
We can cover 1 person with my daughter (manager) doing customer service which leaves us short, but manageable in the kitchen and in worst case scenario take the guy off the end of the oven to cover customer service and bring our junior prep guy to cover the oven cutting pizzas and dispensing to customers. It can work out but not the best situation to be in.
We have been advertising for drivers for weeks and have had only 2 replies and both not suitable - 1 can hardly speak English. He wouldn’t be able to converse with customers, be able to fix any problems if they arose or assist in the front of shop. I tried similar ones before when in desperate situations and it was a nightmare. We found that they are new to the area desipte telling different at interview time, have little idea of where to go or how to get there and need constant supervision to do other jobs the drivers do. Also both were adults where wages are so high now with weekend penalty rates ($19.72 per hour M-F, $25.64 on Sat and $29.58 on Sun and $49.30 on Public Holidays) that we cannot afford to employ them. We need teens where wage rates are much lower. As it is our delivery fees are not covering the costs with employing teens let alone adults and we charge upwards of $5.50 for delivery. Most deliveries are costing us over $6 to do with hourly rates and delivery allowances and with adults this would skyrocket to around $8 - $10. Sorry I’m not in the business of losing money so someone can have the comfort of getting a pizza delivered to them.
We are also finding that it is getting harder to find staff due to Australia, and particular Western Australia back in boom time. Mining is taking off hugely again with massive pay checks and everyone expects that they should be paid a lot more than they are worth despite having any skills or training. Hospitality enjoyed some employment relief during the GFC but this is now evaporating rapidly as employers are throwing money around to get staff.
Oh I wish we had your your wage system and high unemployment. Life would be a lot easier.
Ah, that feels better getting it off my chest so maybe I can now get some sleep.
Sorry for the rant but I had to do something.
Mods - feel free to delete 😃

Dave
 
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Went back to bed after posting this and went into a deep sleep. Guess I just needed to get it out of my thought process and clear my mind.
Doesn’t fix tonights problem but I had the good sleep anyway so mods you can delete it now 😃
Sorry for the boring rant guys but sometimes you are the only ones we can turn to.

Dave
 
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What about calling past employees who might just like to work for a day for some extra cash…you might be surprised.
 
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Best of Luck Dave, Your not the only one with staffing problems.
We all have them.
 
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48.png
pizzapirate:
Ha, finding people is no easier even given the unemployment levels.
Click to expand...
I was going to post the exact same thing. I have floods of applications coming in, but the number of “qualified” people has dwindled. Plus, I think the extended unemployment benefits have left many people perfectly willing to sit at home until they find the right job instead of being desperate for work.

I recently posted an ad on Craigslist for a driver. I received 60 responses in 12 hours, and only ONE of them followed the directions in the post - we use that as a weed out factor. I ended up hiring back a former employee looking for a little extra cash.
 
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Thanks for the positive comments. I know we all go through it sometimes. Actually I did try and get a former employee back but she acepted another job the day before (where she started her employment before coming to us). All the others have moved on now except one whose sister is now working for us but she had prior commitments for tonight. It is just one of those once a year episodes that we will get over.
Funny thing is despite our low unemployment (5%) we still pay cretins good money to sit at home and take drugs, break into houses, bash people for their hard earned money and property, while many businesses struggle to get staff.
Nt that I would want to hire these cretins anyway.

Dave
 
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I did 3K day with just one cook a green driver and me. It was not a whole lot of fun but we made it through. On the bright side my labor costs were only 8% :lol:
 
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I have the opposite problem. My phone blows up in the afternoons with good potential employees checking in on their applications. I’m going to assume you’re not close to a university, as we are, but there has to be a group of good people in your area that are looking for extra work.

What about bouncers or bartenders at local bars? Could they work on their off nights for you? Grocery store clerks or bag boys wanting a second job for 15-20 hours a week?

I have great crew, but am going to have to work some brutal shifts for the next 3 months because they ALL managed to get the same night classes. Then again, my labor % is going to be awesome and I can afford to take the family to do some fun stuff later as a result.
 
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