Pandemic conundrum: Sonoma County hospitality sector struggles with staffing crunch
Jacob Gamba, general manager of Risibisi, did something recently that was unheard of in his 15 years working at the upscale Italian restaurant on the Petaluma waterfront: he posted a help wanted sign on the restaurant’s window for experienced servers.
Percy Brandon, general manager of Vintners Resort in Santa Rosa, has 100 openings for a variety of lodging and food service jobs at the luxury Russian River Valley property.
Will Seppi, owner of Costeaux French Bakery in Healdsburg, is looking for up to 15 more workers to essentially double the staff there, so he can eventually go back to opening seven days a week instead of only five.
These three hospitality operators are emblematic of the vexing challenge facing many Sonoma County restaurants, hotels and cafes — securing enough workers to meet the pent-up demand of residents and visitors mainly stuck indoors during much of the coronavirus pandemic.
With almost 60% of county residents 16 or older fully vaccinated and the highly contagious virus finally fading after a painful year, companies have been steadily able to expand operations and people are starting to safely gather in public. Most of the hospitality industry is allowed to serve food and drinks indoors at 50% customer capacity and many continue with outdoor service, takeout and delivery to bolster revenue.
While the county eagerly awaits June 15 when California can fully reopen, many area restaurants and hotels remain mired in a severe staffing slump. It’s going to limit their ability to extend daily operating hours and immediately take part in the grand reopening. What’s more, cutthroat competition for new hires has forced hospitality establishments to pay higher wages to entice people, after they lost a pile of money the past 14 months.
“The biggest challenge is finding skilled employees and having enough of them to keep up with demand,” said Tareq Alrehani, a partner in Fandee’s Restaurant in Sebastopol, who has been trying to add 10 more people to his payroll.
Because of the labor shortage, Fandee’s will continue with a slimmed down menu of its homestyle American fare. And Alrehani is paying overtime to employees to work longer hours since a monthslong search has not yielded a sufficient number of additional chefs and servers.
With more hospitality businesses trying to ramp up, “it’s become a rat race among all of us to bring more people on board,” Brandon said, noting that “never in my career have I seen this.”
Given the hiring contest, many restaurant and hotel operators are “just throwing more money at people,” said the hotelier striving to double his 100-person payroll to be able to fully reopen all of the property’s amenities. Therefore, Vintners Resort boosted wages, too, and as a result raised its prices for customers.
What’s caused this late pandemic staffing conundrum, even though thousands of people across the county remain unemployed? In interviews with almost two dozen restaurateurs, hoteliers and labor market experts, they gave myriad reasons, including:
*Many workers left the hospitality industry for new careers, after suffering through months of no work, getting recalled to their jobs, then in many cases being furloughed again.
*Schools and child care centers closed for months, causing parents to stay home with young children to help them with their online schoolwork.
*No longer able to afford to live in pricey Sonoma County, some people left the area or the state entirely for cheaper locales.
*A portion of older workers opted to retire, in some situations earlier than they expected.
State financial aid
Thanks to a surprising $75 billion California budget surplus in the wake of a pandemic-induced recession, state financial aid is coming to boost tourism, travel and thereby the hospitality sector. The hope is visitors return and spend money staying at hotels and eating at restaurants.
Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers are jockeying in Sacramento to decide how to spend part of the windfall to help residents and businesses get back on sound financial footing. They need to resolve their recovery spending plans as part of negotiating a final 2021-2022 state budget by midnight June 15.
Newsom supports a proposal for the state to invest $95 million in Visit California to launch a marketing and advertising program called “Calling all Californians.” The initial goal will be to encourage travel within the state where visitors spent $145 billion in 2019. Tourism spending cratered in the pandemic, dropping by $79 billion last year when 1.2 million of the state’s hospitality workers lost their jobs.
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