The recent worker shortages have left businesses struggling to remain open.
CNBC says there are 10.9 million job openings unfilled across the country, which has strongly impacted the Omaha area. The Nebraska Restaurant Association gives a number of reasons for this, such as increased unemployment benefits to employees not wanting to go back to work.
One of the servers at Charleston’s in West Omaha, Corey Gauthier, shares some insights on what the restaurant is doing to keep their guests happy during this time of uncertainty.
“I think that Charleston’s has done so well with the worker shortage and finding employees because we have a strong culture here of teamwork, people get along well and we’ve always just had a good set of people here first and foremost,” said Gauthier. “Secondary things that we might do to keep people employed would be things like the referral bonus that we offer. We also offer a sign-on bonus at $400, which basically says you have to stay for a month or two to receive that.”
Charleston’s has kept itself together throughout this situation by being an established business. This massive turnover has been tough, but the people who have been here longer have been working hard to keep it what it was.
“We definitely had a pretty big staff shortage when this all started, but overtime we’ve restaffed. I never had to work more hours necessarily, but I did have to work a lot harder by taking more tables and other things I wouldn’t normally do,” said Ball. “It has gotten a lot better as time went on.”
Several businesses have said they have not seen anything like this. Managers in local restaurants spend a lot of time interviewing people who just never go back in for a second interview.
Restaurant owners have been working extremely hard to keep up with the high demand, but with the holidays coming up they are only going to get busier. It is a challenge to please customers with very little staff.
