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Paying higher wages may impact profitability at first, but over the long term it will generate loyalty among existing workers and better position the industry to attract new talent, said Michael Lastoria, founder and CEO of Washington, D.C.-based &Pizza.
“Getting up to $15 [an hour] is mandatory if you want to be able to be able to staff your restaurant,” he said. “Just as the industry faced massive technological disruption, this is wage disruption. Other industries are paying more.”
Lastoria said many restaurant workers simply decided during the pandemic that they have not been adequately compensated for the hardships that often come with restaurant work. The restaurant industry needs to address this issue in order to better compete in the labor market, he added.
Effective labor strategies must also offer benefits beyond wages to attract and keep workers, said Damola Adamolekun, CEO of Scottsdale, Ariz.-based P.F. Chang’s.
“I have really focused on work-life balance,” he said. “I think people should have some time for themselves, and their families. They should not be working 24/7 and should not be thinking about their job 24/7.”
Giving the entire staff the day off on the Fourth of July for the first time this year was one example of this, and one that was appreciated by workers, Adamolekun said.
The company is also looking into the possibility of offering paid time off for hourly workers, and recently launched graduate school tuition reimbursement for corporate employees.
“There’s no silver bullet,” Adamolekun said. “It’s making sure you are thoughtful about your employees as people and as contributors, and in a holistic way rather than just the dollar amount in each week’s paycheck.”
Stephan Harman, founder of fast-casual sushi chain Fusian, said the Columbus, Ohio-based company’s service-oriented culture helped it retain workers during the pandemic and has better positioned it for future growth.
“We looked inward, and we realized we were here to serve, and that was our rallying cry,” he said. “We are here to serve our guests, and here to serve each other.”
The company pledged not only to do whatever it could to retain staff during the pandemic, but also to create more jobs, said Mike Speck, CEO and partner.
“That was a huge success for us, because what it inevitably enabled us to do was maintain our pipeline for future growth,” Harman said. “I don’t even know how you would restart that, if you had to.”
Creating opportunities to help workers build their careers is also essential for discovering and nurturing talent, said Carin Stutz, president and CEO of Chicago-based Native Foods.
The plant-based chain has formalized a mentorship program that seeks to develop leadership among disadvantaged people in the industry, she said.
“We can all think of times in our career where we had a pivotal moment that a mentor came along at the right time and made a huge difference,” Stutz said. “We want to find and create a pathway for people to figure out how they can have that conversation with their boss and be considered for a management role.”
The restaurant industry as a whole has the opportunity to reposition itself as an attractive opportunity for employment and reverse the exodus of workers it has experienced during the past year, said Lastoria of &Pizza.
“Instead of pushing back against the inevitable, let’s embrace it and think about the things we can offer that no other industry can offer,” he said, citing potential opportunities to offer discounts for employees at other restaurants as an example.
“The industry needs to solve for what the next 10 years will look like as an ‘employer brand,’ as the most important industry in the United States as it relates to employment and as it relates to good jobs,” Lastoria said.
