NEW DELHI: Restaurants are opening up and people have started going out to grab a bite at their favourite places. The sector is recovering from the pains of the Covid-19 pandemic, however, all is not well within the industry as it is struggling to find staff to be able to function properly. Experts and industry players attribute the shortage to reasons induced by the pandemic. The predominant one being a lot of people working at these restaurants have left with a one-way ticket to their hometowns. Many others, at the same time, have switched to jobs with higher pay and better work-life balance.
For instance, burger joint Wat-a-Burger is on an expansion spree with a goal to reach the mark of 100 outlets by the end of this fiscal, according to its co-founder Rajat Jaiswal, who adds that given the consistent rate of growth, the Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) chain is usually 10% short of the employees required to function each month.“As we cater to the demands of many outlets, we frequently run out of workers to maintain and keep the kitchen running. We are facing difficulty hiring well-read billing staff as we are expanding to remote locations,” says Jaiswal.
The most likely explanation for the shortage, according to him, is a sudden increase in demand from all businesses following the return of normalcy after the Covid-19 pandemic. Another reason he adds is that the Covid-19 period resulted in nearly no or minimal training of employees, which has contributed to a temporary fall in the availability of trained labour or even freshmen in some sectors. “Managing businesses with fewer staff while aiming to generate higher revenues is currently increasing management stress,” Jaiswal adds.
Jubilant Foodworks, which operates Domino’s Pizza and Dunkin’ restaurants in India, also stated labour shortage in the company’s latest earnings call. “We are seeing some pressure on labour and on manpower, nothing that is unmanageable, but there is some inflation on manpower as minimum wages get revised,” Pratik Pota, CEO of the company said.
Rashmi Daga, founder of QSR chain Freshmenu, which operates 34 kitchens in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru echoes similar sentiment. “Labour shortage is a reality across the industry. Largely, the reason for that is that during the lockdown many people went back home when restaurants had to shut and while the industry has bounced back, the same number of people who left haven’t come back. Some of these people have decided to stayback in their villages and are working there,” says Daga. For Freshmenu, she says, it becomes relatively easier because many referrals, estimating about 30% of the workforce isn’t back yet, Daga notes, “More organised players will be able to get manpower while standalone stores will struggle much more.”
In terms of roles, she points out that it’s more on the cooking side as largely it was migrants who were in the domain. “It’s going to be a six-month journey to attract right talent. In the next six months, people in the industry would need to be crafty about their recruitment methods.”
Online delivery platforms have also been observing shortage of delivery personnel, which has rendered them unable to meet rising demand, thus adding to the woes. In 2020 when unprecedented and large-scale closures hit the sector that was already combating labour shortage and high fluctuations, thousands of individuals were left without jobs within short period, which led to an alarmingly high shortage of skilled labour in the mid term, says Manu Saigal, Director - General Staffing, Adecco India, a temporary staffing firm. She estimates occupancy rate in the hospitality sector dipped to an nearly 34.4% compared to over 60% in recent years.
Talking about other issues that are plaguing the sector, Saigal says, “Basic salaries in the industry have always been lesser in spite of the high workload, but this deficit is often countered by the ‘additional income’ in the form of tips and commissions. Higher-paid positions are also difficult to fill as they sometimes involve plenty of unpaid overtime and long working hours. If you put these factors together the industry is less attractive to today’s youth, who are being wooed by other sectors.”
A recent perception amongst hospitality sector employees who have witnessed the unprecedented toll, she explains, has dissuaded skilled talent to switch to other industries that offer more job security or work-life balance, further increasing the shortage of skilled labour.
Primary reasons for shortage of labour
Many people who were employed in the workforce before Covid left for their towns and haven’t returned
Skills gap created during the pandemic as most restaurants closed shop during the period
Job security Low salary
High workload