Wanted: hourly workers; operators struggle to fill widening job gap - fast food outlets

Nation's Restaurant News, Nov 12, 1984 by Susan Spedalle

Managers in suburban fastfood outlets are scrambling to find employees in time for what analysts already are calling "a big Christmas." Chain executives are holding closed-door meetings to discuss a general and growing problem: finding hourly workers.

Some even predict that current frustrations will change the entire food-service industry's approach to hourly recruitment, since the bigger fast feeders such as Hardee's, McDonald's and Wendy's have been hit hard by the problem.

The labor situation became critical this past summer when fewer workers returned to fast-foot operations for seasonal employment. the normal crews of college kids and part-time laborers failed to materialize, managers say, because the economy was good and job seekers did not have to accept minimum-wage positions.

"Any time the economy is good we have a problem," says Ken Mayhew, assistant vice president for personnel for Boddie Noell, one of Hardee's chief franchisees. "With a recovery there's a chicken in every pot."

Granted that the national unemployment rate is 7.4%, suburbs of such cities as Phoenix, Dallas, Raleigh-Durham, Washington, D.C., and New York City have much lower--3% to 4.5%--rates of unemployment. The wealthier the suburb, the more difficult it is to find people who will work for minimum wage.

With the prospect of a lucrative Chirstmas on the horizon, chains are turning to the inner-city population, among whom unemployment is higher than in the suburbs.

But transportation to suburban stores is a serious problem. Wendy's bused teens from up to 20 miles away to its suburban units, and the usual $10 bonus for remaining on the job for three months jumped to $50 to ensure staffs for the holidays. Other chains are running radio advertising, raising their wages, offering employee meals and discounts, turning to temporary employment agencies and strengthening their contacts with the community.

Though it is possible to save Christmas with such measures, chain brass are confident the problem will not go away on Jan. 1, 1985.

"I'm no economist," one fast-food exec says, "but if the economy stays in good shape, I think you'll see a change in the big picture. As an industry, we need to consider some benefits: employee meals, discounts and maybe even a higher wage [and that's] going to force people to look at their pricing structure and examine their margins."

The "big picture" includes changing demographics, which may alter the profile of the average fast-food hourly employee.

During the 1970's 300,000 teenagers entered the work force each year. In 1983 the figure sank to half that number and competition for unskilled workers became intense.

In Boston, for instance, high tech is robbing the food-service industry of its old employees, says Tom Waldron, director of human resources of Wendy's. "You have to hustle ina food-service job,a nd if you can make more as a data entry clerk and not work as hard, you do it."

Technical jobs in the service sector and light industry will make it increasingly more difficult to fill job openings for salemen, clerks and secretaries in addition to counter workers, according to economic predictions.

"In some areas the market is skewed to a wage factor," says Arby's Bill Zackarius. "Young "Young people in Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Detroit and Phoenix want $5, $8.50, even $12 an hour for semiskilled work."

"Last week at a strategic planning meeting we faced the problem that our largest group of employees is a dwindling part of the population," says Wendy's Waldron, but we haven't solved it."

Waldron says that Wendy's is going to try very hard to devise ways to interest older people, homemakers and other groups in working in its units.

Arby's for its part has turned to successful recruiting of the handicapped.

Wendy's which will open 40 stores in and around Chicago next year, is concerned with filling counter jobs in the suburban and tollway untis.

"We'll distribute door hangers and have human resources open houses at the units to discuss job opportunity at Wendy's, and we'll use tray liners and bag, stuffers to attract workers," Waldron says.

At Boddie Noell rural and city units are no problem, but regional personnel managers have been added to the field to recruit hourlies and "quality" management for suburban locations.

Besides offering a $4 wage in some suburbs, McDonald's is running radio advertisements that emphasize having fun and making extra money at McDonald's.

"They're even advertising that they'll work the shift around your needs," says one exec who heard the ads. "You're going to see a lot more of that."

Some chains do say they have not been hit as hard by the recent worker shortage as less fortunate competitors. At Arby's, where generic help-wanted ads were abandoned two years ago, according to Zackarius, the problem is not critical. But Arby's already implements many of the benefits other fast feeders say they may have to add to attract hourlies.