A Mcdonald’s franchise in Florida has struck upon a unique way to draw candidates for interviews. Although sales in the fast food space have gone up, outlets are finding it difficult to hire enough staff. Not many show up for job interviews. Therefore, the Florida outlet has chosen to pay $50 to applicants who appear for the interview.
The owner of the restaurant, who runs about 60 McDonald’s outlets in the Tampa area, apparently told his managers to do whatever it takes to entice applicants to come for interviews, because they need to keep their drive-thrus functioning.
Surprisingly, even this $50 incentive failed to draw candidates. The franchise is now resorting to referral programmes and even signing bonuses to attract candidates. Raising the wages at the entry level to $13 from $12 is also being considered. The wages were already higher than Florida’s minimum wage.
Many small businesses are facing the same problem. There is a paucity of job seekers willing to join. Many fast-food restaurants, including McDonald’s and Dunkin’ have had to set aside their plans to reopen dining outlets because they have been unable to find enough staff. Only teenagers seem to be applying. Most of these outlets had anyway discontinued breakfast and late night services amidst the pandemic-related restrictions. Now, even though they wish to reopen, they are unable to do so because of lack of workers. Those that have reopened are unable to restore 24-hour service, as they are unable to find staff for the first and last shifts.
This shortage of staff has also increased the burden and workload on the existing staff.
