thread Re: In the News: Hiring Growing and Wages Steadying? in Community Corner

In the News: Hiring Growing and Wages Steadying?

PessoAlumni — Wed, 14 Jun 2023 13:24:28 GMT

Hey Sellers,

This week we’re talking hiring and wages, with an article from Small Business Trends detailing steadiness in small business job growth and a drop in wage growth in the US. I can’t wait to hear your thoughts on how hiring and wages are going for your business too.

Small Business Trends: U.S. Small Business Job Growth Remains Steady Amid Slowing Wage Increase

According to the article, the rate of small business job growth in the United States stayed virtually the same from April to May, increasing the same amount both months. This stability is definitely a hopeful prospect, which could mean that hiring is continuing and small businesses are staying up and running. The other interesting bit is that wage growth is decreasing, with employee pay staying flat across businesses, which can mean that hiring has gotten easier and businesses don’t necessarily need to keep raising wages in order to attract new employees.

Hiring was always tricky in my shop, especially in 2022. Most years we got 75 to 100 applications for our jobs, but in 2022 that dropped down to around 30. It was a lot harder to interview and hire good candidates. We also had to consistently raise wages every year or two in order to stay competitive and keep current and prospective employees interested. Even if it was only a $0.25 to $0.50 increase, our base pay for new employees went up pretty consistently, no matter what.

What’s your perspective:

How has hiring been going for your business?

Are you increasing or steadying wages for your employees?

Can’t wait to hear your thoughts!
Pesso

Re: In the News: Hiring Growing and Wages Steadying?

rtfulk — Wed, 14 Jun 2023 17:29:23 GMT

We work state fairs and before Covid we had no problem finding help at any fair we went to and salary was reasonable between 10-14 per hour. After Covid everything changed, we can not find help in any city we go to now. We go on a 5 month trip to the Midwest to work fairs and what we have had to resort to bringing our help on the road with us. We now pay a base salary of 200 a day while setting up and working. Travels days they are not paid, we also pay for lodging which is now VRBO’s , instead of hotels. The world has definitely changed since Covid.

Re: In the News: Hiring Growing and Wages Steadying?

LocavoreStore — Thu, 15 Jun 2023 03:24:32 GMT

We've steadily been adding about 1 additional hire to payroll per year... To keep people interested, our co-workers automatically receive a $.50 raise every 6 months (unless there are some glaring issues that might warrant withholding that particular incentive). Sales and growth seem to keep pace, offsetting the additional expense. We have a pretty light hearted workplace. Everybody seems to genuinely enjoy being at there, and being around their other co-workers (I know that I do)… We have very little turnover. This makes all the difference in the world, and it's worth every penny.

Re: In the News: Hiring Growing and Wages Steadying?

Catchpenny — Thu, 15 Jun 2023 22:04:22 GMT

We also offer regular raise increases of 1-2% per quarter to help keep up with inflation. We've found that offering sick days and regular wage increases has completely eliminated employee turnover as well! That saves us money in the long run by reducing the amount of training we need to do for new staff.

Re: In the News: Hiring Growing and Wages Steadying?

rjonin — Fri, 16 Jun 2023 19:15:34 GMT

This is a great topic.

I'm at the point in business where it's time to hire at minimum a part-time person. My industry requires training & state licensure; on-site training is also critical. I'm deciding how to structure my compensation plan...commission only, commission + salary, fringe benefits, etc.

But, it's good to know that wages are flattening a bit. Nonetheless, I'd still like to offer a competitive package to get the build the best team.

Re: In the News: Hiring Growing and Wages Steadying?

JUYBoutique20 — Fri, 16 Jun 2023 21:42:20 GMT

This year I'm looking to hire at least one part timer and put my youngest son on payroll as well.

Re: In the News: Hiring Growing and Wages Steadying?

doc_choc — Sat, 17 Jun 2023 19:44:33 GMT

It's difficult to find quality candidates for job vacancies, the pool of available talent is limited and it doesn't seem to be improving, further worsened by Brexit and reduced access to talent in mainland EU. We have seen wage rises of 10 to 20%, with government imposed wage increases for minium wages and also retention based increases. Its a very difficult jobs market out there at the moment.

Re: In the News: Hiring Growing and Wages Steadying?

TheRealChipA — Mon, 19 Jun 2023 21:10:57 GMT

After believing that I had a full staff, my business took a sharp upswing in year-over-year growth. I was drowning in an ever-growing list of tasks I was letting slide. So, I hired another employee. In my ice cream shop, my only real job requirements are a) be dependable and on time, b) be nice to the guests, and c) do your assigned job! I/we can train anyone to do what we do. It isn’t rocket science after all, like my first career! LOL

I found it easy enough to find candidates, even though I’m only offering part-time seasonal work. It helps that our pay is a little more than competitive, of course. On that subject, every season we bump the base hourly rate for returning employees. They also share in the weekly tip pool, and no one has reason to complain about what they receive per hour from that. Usually the mix of returning-to-new employees each season is enough to balance out small rate increases for the returning employees. And we do, as needed, increase our prices but a few percentage points each year to offset and net increase in total staff hourly rates.

Usually I hire by first asking my employees (most high schoolers and college freshmen/sophomores) if they know anyone looking fun work for more than fair pay. That’s always worked for me about 80% of the time. Indeed, surprisingly enough, has worked for me for the other 20%.

Probably my biggest employee challenge these days has been the generational shift in attitudes toward work-life balance. I’m a Boomer. I’ve never worked any less than 50 hours a week since I was 20. It’s the way I was raised. I definitely agree that this wasn’t the best way to live my life, however, and understand Gen Z’s aversion to it. I’ve learned to change my staffing to accommodate the fact that I’m constantly getting requests off for this concert, that camping trip, etc, etc, etc. I’m over staffed, but I no longer have scheduling issues because I’ve given myself breathing room for the unexpected. Also, I’ve learned not to care when someone complains about not getting enough hours. I remind them why I’m over staffed, and why they can’t complain! LOL

Honestly, I have no complaints.

Re: In the News: Hiring Growing and Wages Steadying?

ComingInRusty — Mon, 19 Jun 2023 23:32:07 GMT

Ahhh- payroll...continuing to be the single-most controllable expense (or at least is should be). I don't know if there is a flattening of wages (at least from our perspective) or if small business owners that we know and circulate with have just stopped hiring, for now...which in essence would cause average wages to drop. We are home decor and design based retail with a small media/marketing angle attached for brand awareness. Those of us in the upper levels of the company (3 people) have foregone the raise for this year (2 of us as CEO and CFO have given up our salary) to make sure we stay on track for growth the rest of the year. We are, like most retail, in the slower part of the year and anticipate our hiring plan will stay on track to bring on seasonal staff in early Q3- on schedule and anticipate similar pay range to last year. For perspective, our comp sales are down just about 10% through Q1 with a forecast of down 12% Q2...on top of down almost 15% in 2022 over 2021. The second location, while non-comp, will be staffed and open for Fall, just in time for solid revenue and brand expansion.

Re: In the News: Hiring Growing and Wages Steadying?

repopgifts — Tue, 20 Jun 2023 14:25:43 GMT

This is an interesting topic. I’ve inched salaries up a wee bit in the past few years, but I’ve recently revamped benefits as well.
Turnover has been minimal, we now have myself, 2 full time, 3 part time, which is pretty much double our 2019 staff, but business has also doubled.

The two most recent hires were recruited long time customers that I’d been eyeing for a while. Training them has been a breeze.

The plan is for our part timers to flex up hours at holiday so we won’t have to hire additional staff.

Re: In the News: Hiring Growing and Wages Steadying?

DinaLRosenberg — Tue, 20 Jun 2023 20:12:38 GMT

Thankfully the majority of our employees have been us 2+ years. They do receive COLA and merit raises that average approximately 7-8% per year. We also offer 30 hours of sick time per year.

We use square for payroll and our employees love the direct deposit.

Re: In the News: Hiring Growing and Wages Steadying?

Stacelyn24 — Wed, 21 Jun 2023 01:26:16 GMT

I work in the beauty sector so we're used to a revolving door when it comes to good steady candidates. Everyone thinks they can come right out of school and work for themselves...not so and not so easy...they find out. Then we have to shift out the ones who really do not want to work versus the ones who do. So for every training class we hold...if it's 5 people in the class...we keep about 2 of them. That's pretty consistent for us. Their earnings are on a commission pay scale. Because of inflation we had to increase our prices so they received a nice increase in their pay 🙂

Re: In the News: Hiring Growing and Wages Steadying?

PessoAlumni — Thu, 22 Jun 2023 18:06:46 GMT

Thanks for sharing @Stacelyn24 !

Oh wow. So great that you have a steady stream! That sounds like it would be super frustrating to have to constantly deal with overconfident folks and so many of them not working out for your needs. But it must feel amazing when you do get the good ones!

Not a bad deal to have wages be a reflection of your prices. Does your commission percentage stay consistent or do you ever raise that?

Re: In the News: Hiring Growing and Wages Steadying?

PessoAlumni — Thu, 22 Jun 2023 18:10:50 GMT

That’s so wonderful that your folks have been staying on, @DinaLRosenberg — that consistency definitely helps in so many ways.

Those perks and benefits sound like you’re doing a lot for them and that is a big contributor of them staying on. So way to rock!

Re: In the News: Hiring Growing and Wages Steadying?

PessoAlumni — Thu, 22 Jun 2023 18:16:44 GMT

Thanks for sharing @repopgifts !

That’s so great that you’ve been boosting salaries and benefits - that sounds like a big reason your turnover is low!

So wonderful to hear that business has doubled, and that it’s been so smooth for you to hire and train more folks! Rooting for ya!

Re: In the News: Hiring Growing and Wages Steadying?

PessoAlumni — Thu, 22 Jun 2023 18:28:18 GMT

Thanks for sharing @ComingInRusty -

That sounds like a really hard choice go have to make to lower or even completely forgo your own pay in order to make sure the company can continue and grow. How did you decide that?

Rooting for you to keep

hitting the numbers and goals and I hope it all smoothes out!

Re: In the News: Hiring Growing and Wages Steadying?

PessoAlumni — Thu, 22 Jun 2023 18:40:43 GMT

Thanks for sharing @TheRealChipA —

Oh wow, that’s definitely an interesting problem to have - unexpected growth is nice but definitely getting too busy and needing to hire more is a real thing! Glad you were able to get someone!

So great that you keep your wages up and rising for returners — and balancing it with raising prices is a great strategy. And hiring from local groups and friends of employees was always our path too.

Im so glad that you’re adapting and thriving with everything — it sounds like you’re way on track and I’m rooting for ya!

Re: In the News: Hiring Growing and Wages Steadying?

PessoAlumni — Thu, 22 Jun 2023 18:43:17 GMT

Thanks for sharing @doc_choc -

Sorry to hear that it’s been so challenging. How do you typically advertise and recruit new hires?

How do you handle those forced increases?

Re: In the News: Hiring Growing and Wages Steadying?

PessoAlumni — Thu, 22 Jun 2023 18:43:52 GMT

That’s so exciting, @JUYBoutique20 !

How are you going about the hiring process?

Rooting for ya!

Re: In the News: Hiring Growing and Wages Steadying?

PessoAlumni — Thu, 22 Jun 2023 18:47:55 GMT

Thanks for sharing @rjonin !

Thats a big step to start hiring, especially when there’s so much involved from a logistical standpoint, and so many decisions to make. Where do you start?