Across Ohio industries and throughout the country, companies have made it clear: They need workers and they're raising the stakes to get them.
White Castle, famous for its slider, bumped its starting pay from $11.50 to $15 an hour. Wendy's — its Dublin-based competitor — is offering $100 signing and referral bonuses. Gas station and convenience chain Sheetz bumped its pay $2 an hour for all workers and is offering a summer hourly bonus.
While the need for workers may be most acute among restaurants and retailers, incentive offerings do not stop there.
Piqua-based baby-product company Evenflo is offering a $1,500 signing bonus. Hard Rock Casino Cincinnati is offering signing bonuses up to $4,000 for experienced table games dealers. Target has been advertising for jobs at its West Jefferson warehouse that start at $17.75 per hour, while Honda is looking to fill openings across its U.S. operations.
OhioMeansJobs, a state website that lists job openings, reported 271,641 openings statewide through mid-April, according to the most recent report available. That's up about 70,000 jobs since the beginning of the year.
The most openings were for registered nurses at 12,427, followed by retail supervisors at 10,139 and truck drivers at 8,911.
Incentives, Benefits to Work
"Everybody is trying to figure out what they need to do to get people in the door," said Charlie Carter, president of Employment Solutions Columbus.
The staffing agency, which hires mostly for temporary warehouse positions, used to seek out companies to offer help with hiring processes. Now, businesses are instead ringing the staffing agency desperate for workers, who seem to have vanished.
The agency used to see 20 to 30 applicants a day for warehouse roles. Around two months ago, Carter said the number of daily applicants dipped way down into single digits.
To lure workers, Carter said he's seen companies offer larger paychecks, sign-on bonuses or flexible 'make-your-own-hours' work schedules.
Facing hiring struggles in Ohio and elsewhere, White Castle decided it also needed to make some changes, said Jamie Richardson, a vice president at the Columbus-based chain.
"We want to keep our restaurants open for 24 hours. That's kind of what we're known for," Richardson said.
White Castle announced June 8 it would bump its starting pay to $15 an hour in an effort to attract more job applicants. Richardson said he hopes the move will propel the company back toward pre-pandemic "full speed."
Starting pay is one factor people value as they search for a job, but Richardson said it's important for companies to consider benefits offered to all of its employees, too. For White Castle, this materializes in weekly paychecks, instead of biweekly, and free meals during shifts.
Evenflo started looking for 70 manufacturing workers this spring. After traditional methods failed to get enough applicants, the company offered a $1,500 signing bonus — the highest in its history — and a $250 bonus every quarter for perfect attendance, in addition to a $16-an-hour starting wage.
To get the word out, Evenflo hosted a hiring event June 15, complete with a Kona Ice truck and a cookout.
Thirty people showed up, far below the 100 who showed up at a similar event last summer, when the bonus wasn't available.
"Just getting people to show up was a challenge," said Sydney Shiverdecker, Evenflo's manager of plant human resources. "There's so many job openings right now, we need to be able to tell them why here and not elsewhere."
The company has tried some other first-time avenues — such as advertising on Spanish radio and working with a disability staffing service — to fill the openings.
"We're just trying to do anything we can to find people," Shiverdecker said.
In a noisy hiring environment, 84 Lumber is also trying out new tools to get the message heard. In the fall, the Pennsylvania-based material supplier started hosting hiring events to speak directly to job candidates.
On June 22, it will host one at its Etna door shop to help fill about 20 openings at its Columbus-area locations.
"There's a lot more activity in the market now, for sure. You see a lot more jobs posted than there were before," said Michelle Buczkowski, vice president of talent management at 84 Lumber. "We just need to make sure we're getting our message out. Once we get in front of candidates, we're in pretty good shape. Lot's of it is just getting there, and differentiating yourself. It's hard to do in the digital world."
84 Lumber has also tried making it easier for online applicants to speak directly with a recruiter and accelerating the hiring processes so the company is "ready to make them an offer on the spot," Buczkowski said.
To attract applicants for its 2,500 openings, Columbus-based pizza chain Donatos turned to something it knows: pizza.
In May, the company hosted "dinnerviews" with prospective employees. The company offered prospects the chance of landing "a job on the spot," along with a certificate for a free large pizza.
Fyda Freightliner hung a massive "Now Hiring" sign on its building next to Interstate 70 west of Columbus to get the word out, and — for the first time — advertised on radio for workers. The company is looking to add 30 or 40 workers before opening its new, larger facility a few miles west this fall.
While the company has been able to fill its positions so far — in part because its starting pay is well above minimum wage — the company's Manager of Business Development Neil Fyda knows the hiring landscape is challenging now.
"Businesses are finding it so hard to find people," Fyda said. "They're raising wages, giving referral bonuses, offering signing bonuses. They cannot keep staffing levels where they need them to be. It's very, very hard to get people."
Hard Rock Casino Cincinnati is offering one-time bonuses ranging from $200 to $500 for frontline workers, including cashiers, cooks, servers, and bartenders, in addition to the $4,000 bonuses offered to experienced dealers.
The bonuses have helped the Downtown Cincinnati casino combat post-pandemic worker shortages in the gaming and hospitality industry, Casino President George Goldhoff said.
Breaking Down the Cause
Economists and employers offer a variety of explanations for the labor shortage, but no one disputes that it's widespread. The Ohio Restaurant Association's latest survey found that 65 percent of its members said employee shortages are at a "critical stage."
Some blame the $300-a-week extra unemployment benefit for keeping workers at home, and expect the landscape to change when the bonus expires June 26.
"We were in competition with the U.S. Government,'' said Goldhoff, with Hard Rock Casino. "While we could pay more, there wasn't enough of a premium for them (former casino workers) to come back.''
Others continue to see the problem in lingering fears over getting COVID-19, or the challenge of finding child care.
"The question if we're through the pandemic or not continues to weigh on peoples' minds," PNC Senior Economist Bill Adams said.
Also contributing to the worker shortage are employees who have left the workforce during the pandemic to start their own business or retire. State employment data show the state has about 130,000 fewer workers than before the pandemic started.
Whatever the cause, the shortage isn't likely to change overnight.
"It's going to be a bumpy road to get the economy back to running full throttle," Adams said.
In Nationwide Senior Economist Ben Ayers' eyes, the simplest step companies can take to draw employees in is to pay them more.
"A more permanent wage would probably resonate with most workers," Ayers said.
Ayers said the labor shortage and employer response could reflect a broader shift toward higher wages, especially for people working lower paying jobs.
"There is an environment of understanding that many of the sectors, the frontline workers, haven't seen as much wage change in recent years," Ayers said.
Even before the pandemic struck, Atlas Butler found it more difficult to attract workers, said Monica Yanscik, the company's human resources director.
"It's been a little more difficult to find those entry-level workers during COVID," Yanscik said.
The Columbus heating, cooling and plumbing company currently has about 10 openings, a mix of entry-level workers and those with more experience.
Atlas Butler starts workers with no experience at $14 an hour. Yanscik said beginners can move up quickly with training provided by the company and see their wages grow.
"If you have a good culture, you're going to keep your people," Yanscik said.
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