For months now, business conversations have hovered over a few topics, with one particular leading concern: the labor crisis.
Many industries have been hit hard by a labor shortage, and the restaurant and hospitality industry is no exception to this. Restaurants need people—good people—to stay open and serve guests as well as to be profitable and successful. Some restaurants are going so far as to reduce hours or even days their business is open in an effort to preserve quality service and not run their employees and managers ragged.
There are a lot of perceptions (and misconceptions!) about current low labor participation, a lot of them centered around the pandemic and politics. According to an article from Nation’s Restaurant News (NRN), the root cause is relatively clear. “A recent study released by the Boston Fed found that the underlying cause of a decline in labor force participation is pretty straightforward: Baby Boomers are aging out of the workforce,” the article stated. It goes on: “In 2021, Baby Boomers were between the ages of 57 and 75. The average Baby Boomer was 66. When a generation that makes up one-fifth of the U.S. population and one-third of the working-age population retires, the labor force feels it. Statistically, the older an individual is, the less likely he or she is to work. Labor force participation rates peak around 75% in the 25-54 age cohort, while 55-64 drops to around 60%; 65-69 drops to around 30%; 70-74 drops to around 15%; and above 70 is half that again.”
Regardless of the motivations or issues driving the connectivity between age and the labor force, what is clear at the macro level is that work, for Americans, is shifting. There is a large generation gap between new and old workers, and with digital changes and new regulations, there is also a large learning curve within that age gap. “What’s a business to do when faced with these macro trends beyond their control,” asks NRN. “Accept them.”
This particular article goes on to analyze some possible solutions to the current labor shortage, including increasing productivity, cutting costs and waste, and employee retention. Our restaurant consultants particularly believe in building up your current staff and making sure they feel seen and supported—employee care is always reflected in the customer experience and, ultimately, your restaurant’s bottom line. In order to keep employees happy, owner-operators must consider how to bridge the age gap, ensuring work is still attractive to the Boomer generation while also appealing to the fresh, community-minded GenZ.
“Consider how to make your workplace attractive enough to keep Baby Boomers working,” urges NRN. “It may be as simple as adding stools to stationary jobs so that employees (of all ages) don’t have to stand for 8 hours straight. Or it may be more complex — creating paths to ownership that will create a stable retirement for them 10 years from now.” As a digital landscape is changing job descriptions anyway, now is the time to rewrite the rules for all positions, utilizing the manpower of a generation which has loved to work and knows about customer interaction.
Then, keep in mind, “for every 10 Boomers there are only nine Gen Zers…While this is not enough to fill the gap, there are new workers coming into the labor force constantly. To make your restaurant attractive to these new workers, get to know them and what they want out of work. Odds are high the answers will be people, culture, community, contribution (that’s why we call them Gen We) and learning.” “Gen We” will be digitally savvy, care about the people they work with, and will be deeply invested in a give-back mentality. All of these new interests and ideas can be harnessed to attract younger customers as well.
A generational shift is nothing new, but these are two large, opinionated generations, both heavily impacting the workforces across industries. Richard Weil, principal of National Restaurant Consultants, reminds everyone, “Take lessons from the past. Apply your own unique reasons as to what makes your restaurant different. And remember that ‘fun’ must not only be part of what you provide for your guests, but it starts with you and your staff. Keep the fun!”.