Businesses all across the United States are desperate for workers these days.
The numbers don’t lie. In late April, the Labor Department reported a record 9.3 million job openings.
“The worker shortage is real – and it’s getting worse by the day,” commented Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Suzanne Clark in a recent statement.
Of course, if you’re the owner of an attended laundromat, you know very well that the shortage is indeed “real.” And, if you operate a full-service laundry business – featuring such labor-intensive elements as wash-dry-fold, commercial accounts and pickup-and-delivery services – you’ve likely seen this current situation eat into your operation’s growth.
What can you do? Obviously, each laundry business is different, and markets vary – so there’s no sure-fire, one-size-fits-all solution. But there are some actions to consider that may help lessen the jolt of this current worker shortage:
Explore all avenues for recruiting employees
When it comes to methods for finding and attracting quality employees, what worked in the past may not work now. And chances are what’s working today may not work in a few weeks or months. For instance, 10 years ago, Craigslist was my go-to recruitment tool for a while. Then, I had to switch to job boards, such as Snag a Job and Indeed, to find new attendants. Currently, Craigslist and Snag a Job have not been very effective for us, but I’m getting decent results from the Indeed platform.
Reach out to local government
In my state we have the Texas Workforce Commission, which is a state agency charged with overseeing and providing workforce development services to employers and job-seekers. This organization not only manages unemployment insurance, but also is quite sympathetic to employers and will sponsor job fairs and similar events.
I strongly recommend that you spend some time finding out what your local government is doing to help small businesses in your area find quality employees.
Bonuses are better than raises
Right now, I’m offering my employees bonuses in place of raises, because the labor shortage is a temporary situation – and I don’t want to be locked into paying artificially high wages. For example, McDonald’s is giving out new iPhones as bonuses, and other companies are offering similar types of hiring bonuses.
At my company, we’re also offering retention bonuses and performance bonuses for something as simple as working all scheduled shifts and showing up on time. And I know one laundromat owner who is offering a $500 bonus for new hires that stick around for at least three months.
Be patient with new hires
As employees return to work, many of them will have to shake some bad work habits. For instance, I hired someone who used to work evenings for a pizza franchise. Perhaps not surprisingly, the first three times this individual was scheduled to open one of our laundromats in the morning, the employee overslept and was late. So, I went to Walmart and bought this person an alarm clock – and it worked! (Actually, an attendance bonus helped a lot, too.)
Consider a temp service or staffing agency
Although I haven’t personally tried this option, the benefit is that such agencies may be able to produce a worker on short notice, and they should be able to screen candidates you may not have time to screen. I know a laundromat owner who is currently using a temp service to help fill out his store’s third shift. Of course, depending on the arrangement, you also may be able to hire some temporary workers permanently after a certain period.
Temporarily adjust your business model
Some owners may want to consider shortening their hours of operation, or switching to an unattended or partially attended business model until the worker shortage eases up. I know one operator who reluctantly has curtailed the growth of his pickup-and-delivery service, because he simply cannot find employees to operate it.
Inflation, inflation, inflation
Of course, the flipside to adjusting your business hours or decreasing your labor is to pay higher wages to attract and retain quality staffers – and then pass those cost increases along to your customers through higher vend prices.
Lean on friends and family
When all else fails, lean on anyone you can, including yourself. The entire Maes family is home this summer – and you can guess where they will be spending all their “free” time!
