Jodi’s Journal: Help wanted – everywhere – as hiring hits desperation mode

May 9, 2021

“We match or beat your current pay. Apply inside,” the sign read.

It was enough to capture attention in front of the Taco John’s at 57th Street and Cliff Avenue and enough to motivate Zachary Wiseman to make a TikTok video out of it.

“Little do you all know I actually called and asked if they have a cap. The lady said it just depends on your experience,” he said in the video.

One month later, his short clip has been viewed nearly 3 million times.

“And still hasn’t brought in applications,” deadpanned Ted Miller, the Taco John’s franchise’s vice president of operations.

“Times are tough, that’s for sure. There’s no people.”

I’m not exaggerating when I say that every day for the past several weeks, I have heard a similar story from someone in business. Make sure you read until the end of this column for a small way I’m going to offer to help.

But first, let me introduce you to Tonya Niewald, who had hoped to open her second Capriotti’s Sandwich Shop on May 10 but had to delay until May 17 because she couldn’t find people to work.

“I had heard a little bit about it but certainly haven’t had problems at my existing location. I’ve had the same staff over there for two years and haven’t had to do much hiring,” she said.

She ultimately needs about 20 people to staff the new location at 69th Street and Louise Avenue.

“I’ve hired probably four or five, so I’ve been training those people,” she said. “I had 15 interviews set up where people didn’t show up.”

That’s a common theme too.

To find out more about what might be going on, I reached out to Secretary Marcia Hultman, who leads the South Dakota Department of Labor.

“What you are seeing and what we’re hearing anecdotally, the numbers really support,” she said.

They definitely do. The most current number she could pull for me Friday was 23,500 active job openings in the state’s database. Nearly 10,000 of those are in the city of Sioux Falls.

I told her that sounded like a lot. It is.

“I can remember giving presentations and noting when we were at 17,000 as being the highest number we’d ever seen, and then 18,000, and pre-pandemic to get to 19,000 was the highest number we’d ever seen. To be at 23,500 far exceeds that number we had been amazed to see previously.”

There are multiple reasons why as you might guess.

First, it’s the time of year. Heading into the seasons of construction and tourism generally results in more openings anyway.

Add to that, hotels and other tourism destinations, including some restaurants, were among the hardest hit during the pandemic. They were the ones that had to reduce staff. So some now are trying to nearly start from the ground up, much like a new business would have to do.

And speaking of new businesses, I’m probably positioned as well as anyone to tell you that the number of new businesses opening or planning to open continues to be as robust as ever. We even continued to report on new retail and restaurant openings during the most restrictive times in 2020.

Let’s also remember that many businesses had a financially strong 2020 and are in the position to invest in growth, so they’re adding staff.

Then, layer in the fact that many of those new businesses require new buildings. And the existing ones require more or modified space as they assess a post-COVID workforce. And that we have extremely strong demand for housing. And that people cooped up at home now want to remodel their house. And you start to understand the need for workers in the trades.

“It’s beyond seasonality,” Hultman said. “It’s a combination of factors. South Dakota businesses were able to remain open, and some sectors saw growth during the pandemic. … It’s really a different dynamic.”

So what about people not showing up for interviews? Is it because so many are collecting benefits they’re just applying to check a box that they looked for work? It’s not that simple, either.

“We’ve been hearing that too, anecdotally, but in looking at the numbers we publish in our weekly initial claims and continued claims, those numbers (of unemployed) are not that great,” Hultman said.

“We have at the same time been strongly encouraging businesses to report individuals that don’t show up for interviews or accept a job and don’t show up the first day, and we can follow through to investigate those claims, and we do act on them.”

She also encourages employers to post jobs with the state, even if you use other job boards, which allows the department to track the volume of openings and gives you additional visibility.

Another tip: You should list a wage with your opening.

“Statistically, if the wage is posted, even if it’s not the best, those job orders get more activity. If nothing is listed, the assumption is that it’s low,” Hultman said.

Nearly every business I talk to has increased pay, some significantly. Frankly, that’s not a bad thing, to me, in a state that has struggled with persistently low wages in some sectors.

But there are other factors at play here too. We don’t think South Dakota has been affected as greatly by decreased female participation in the labor force because our schools have remained opened, but there are some accounts of households returning to one-income models, people retiring early, people who are afraid to return to work and parents who are reluctant to allow teens to work.

“We’re hovering around 50 percent youth participation rate (age 16-19), so there might be more kids we could be engaging,” Hultman said.

And it’s not like employers aren’t trying to get the word out.

Niewald has run radio ads, Facebook ads, started with online postings through Indeed and then expanded to a third-party platform that blankets multiple job sites. She has posted signs in her current location, a banner in front of the new one and called Harrisburg High School  “because we’d love to have those high school kids,” she said.

“I hired one 14-year-old who happens to be my next-door neighbor. That’s it. It’s very strange.”

So what can we do? More specifically: What can I do? I asked myself that recently and came up with this.

It’s a small thing, but we are going to increase how we offer job listings through both of our digital news sites – SiouxFalls.Business and Pigeon605.com.

My theory is that some of your potential best employees are not actively looking at job boards or even thinking about a career change. But they might be engaged with our news and might be moved to reach out to you if they saw a job of interest. They also have kids, grandkids, neighbors and friends who might be a fit for your openings.

Several of our ongoing sponsor partners have agreed with this strategy and used their monthly stories with us recently to talk about their career opportunities. I just heard the other day that one of them resulted in several hires. We can offer that sort of in-depth job piece to others, but I also wanted to start something more simple.

Each week in both of our email newsletters, we will start a section called “jobs of the day” that will include a limited number of available jobs. These will be short – one or two lines with a link – and will cost $100. That will distribute them to both our SiouxFalls.Business and our Pigeon605 audience, with a combined subscriber base approaching 10,000 people. These range from college students to retirees and everyone in between, but they’re people who are interested in our community and in career growth.

And speaking of community and career growth, for every job listing we sell from now until the end of the year, we will donate $50 to the upcoming Forward Sioux Falls five-year program. This economic development partnership puts a significant emphasis on talent attraction and workforce development. These programs do a lot. They introduce elementary and middle school students to STEM careers. They connect high schoolers with ongoing  career experiences within area businesses. They help immerse teens and young workers in the trades. They communicate best workforce practices to area employers. And a lot more.

To schedule a listing, email me at [email protected].

Back at Capriotti’s, Niewald is committed to a May 17 opening even if that requires adjustments.

“Unless something really gets crazy, we’ll probably have to open with diminished hours … so we can run one shift,” she said.

Back at Taco John’s, Miller has tweaked the signs a bit. They now read: “We will match or beat your current food service pay.” It helps keep those who took the original message a bit too literally away, but it hasn’t helped generate much more interest either.

Today, for the first time, he’s closed on Mother’s Day — a reflection of the employee-friendly culture he’s trying to foster and an acknowledgement that what worked for employees when he was a 15-year-old working at the restaurant needs to be adjusted for today

“I think people that are thinking of employees are going to win this battle.”

He’d like to look at adding a location, and knowing he would need to staff it “figured into the equation of what we do,” he said.

And in perhaps the ultimate irony, Taco John’s International is going to start requiring lobbies by open as part of a post-pandemic transition June 1. Miller never closed his. But he might need to now.

“We’re at a point where we’re looking at closing lobbies because we don’t have the manpower to do it,” he said.

Obviously, there are no easy, one-size-fits-all solutions here. Ultimately, meeting workforce needs falls to each individual employer – and the overall employee experience you create is what wins the day. It’s what causes you to keep star employees and what leads them to help bring in others. They’re your biggest asset in so many ways.

But send me a note if we can help too.

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Jodi’s Journal: Help wanted – everywhere – as hiring hits desperation mode

When even 3 million TikTok views doesn’t generate job applicants, you know hiring is harder than ever

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