Gee it’s hard to find reasonable candidates for retail. We have heard plenty about the challenges in hospitality – one excellent restaurant in Melbourne has halved their hours because of a lack of wait staff – but the extent of the retail staff shortage is recent.
I am advertising for people for three of my shops. In each situation we are offering $2 above the award hourly rate, and other benefits.
Seek has been unsuccessful. The same is true with social media. The platform working best right now is Indeed. But you have to be fast. For example, this week already, good and ideally experienced people we have contacted within half a day of applying have taken jobs elsewhere. Once we realised this we modified our approach, to get faster and on-point.
Thankfully, here we are on Thursday with three new hires, each having completed paid half-day trial shifts and ready for immediate start.
If the situation did not improve we were considering a longevity bonus at 3 or 6 months or something else to separate us from other businesses fishing in the same, almost empty, pond. This is especially true for good people.
The staff shortage in Australia is real. The impact os knocking through the economy.