Maine
A new motel and 17-hour shifts are how 2 Maine restaurateurs are coping with staff shortages
Rising visitors backups on Route 1 imply sturdy enterprise for Jim MacNeill, proprietor of the Maine Diner in Wells, however with 32 fewer employees this season, he has needed to discover new methods to maintain enterprise going.
For MacNeill, who labored on the iconic diner for 14 years earlier than shopping for it in 2018, operating a enterprise throughout a pandemic and extreme workforce scarcity requires inventive considering and making do with much less. He and plenty of different Maine restaurant house owners have come to the reckoning that the shortages could also be everlasting and so they must revamp how they do enterprise.
MacNeill purchased a meals truck that can enable him to increase his enterprise hours until 8 p.m. after the diner’s 3 p.m. closing. He’s boosting gross sales of frozen lobster pies and different meals he ships nationwide, a enterprise already off to an excellent begin with 1,100 orders shipped in 2020. And he’s now beneath contract to purchase a motel the place he’ll lease to would-be staff in addition to rooms not occupied by his employees.
That technique meant to maintain the employees he already has busy throughout sluggish occasions and to probably entice new staff as a result of he can provide housing and a wide range of jobs.
“I’ve had an indication out entrance for 2 years that claims ‘employment alternatives,’” MacNeill mentioned. “At one level, if the signal had a pulse I’d have employed it.”
He has boosted pay to $20 or extra per hour for line cooks and $15 to $17 per hour for dishwashers, charges he mentioned are aggressive with eating places within the space. He additionally has discovered to keep away from candidates that may solely final a pair weeks earlier than leaving. One instance was somebody making use of for a dishwasher place whose fingers have been delicate to chemical substances and who left his previous three jobs as a dishwasher. Others left him scratching his head, together with one who took quarter-hour to fill out an software however left with out offering contact data.
The employee scarcity triggered MacNeill to remove the profitable dinner enterprise this yr and deal with breakfast and lunch, however that can imply a 40 p.c income decline this yr, he mentioned. Including a meals truck within the parking zone that can assist fill in a few of the gaps by providing meals throughout the dinner hour and bringing in additional income.
“Now we have needed to rethink the right way to create money circulate,” he mentioned. “There’s not a field to assume outdoors of, as a result of every thing is outdoors the field.”
At MDI Lobster & BBQ in Southwest Harbor, Chef Mike Maguarosi mentioned he has by no means been busier, with much less assist than ever. The eatery is promoting by way of social media and different means, he mentioned, together with out of state.
Regardless of employee shortages, it has determined to maintain its full hours. It means employees within the kitchen, the place workers shortages are most acute, are grinding out 15-hour to 17-hour days, he mentioned. The restaurant has eight staff however wants two extra within the kitchen.
“It’s approach worse than final yr,” Maguarosi mentioned of the shortages.
The restaurant can provide a spot for employees to reside, he mentioned. An additional problem in hiring is that Southwest Harbor is at the very least a 20-minute drive from Bar Harbor with out visitors. Additionally they are contemplating opening yr spherical fairly than simply seasonally to spice up enterprise.
All through the state hiring is healthier than it was final yr, Matt Lewis, president of the trade group HospitalityMaine, mentioned. However eating places are nonetheless struggling, and he expects to see extra closures like landmark Rockland restaurant Cafe Miranda, which stopped serving for good in June after 30 years in enterprise.
Bar Harbor is also seeing higher staffing in contrast with final summer time, particularly at bigger lodges and eating places, Alf Anderson, government director of the Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce, mentioned. A part of the reason being they have been higher in a position to plan as a result of they knew how arduous final summer time was.
“However I don’t count on any extra hiring sprees this summer time,” Anderson mentioned. “There aren’t any extra folks to rent.”