Understaffed workplaces are starting to become problems for many places, from amusement parks to restaurants and anything in between.

     Now, this isn’t exactly a new problem, but it seems to be more noticeable in certain areas.  Wait times at many public places are extremely long and make guests not want to stay.

     When sitting down for a meal at a restaurant, you are given the luxury of not having to cook your food and sit down for a (hopefully) good meal. You realize a wait will be involved, but that wait shouldn’t have to come from the lone waiter and a half-sectioned-off restaurant because they don’t have enough servers. 

     Many places also don’t plan for when they will be having larger crowds. As an owner or manager, you never want to have to turn away people because you’re fully booked, but have nowhere for these guests to go because you didn’t plan for the number of people. 

     According to uschamber.com, “In 2022, more than 50 million workers quit their jobs, many of whom were in search of an improved work-life balance and flexibility, increased compensation, and a strong company culture.” They continue saying, “jobs that require in-person attendance and traditionally have lower wages, have had a more difficult time retaining workers. For example, the Accommodation and Food Services industry has had the highest quit rate since July 2021, consistently above 4.9 percent.” 

     Labor shortages are something employers have to deal with, and they could combat this task in many ways. According to beekeeper.io, some of these things could include “Recruiting: More Referrals” for better employees. They continue by saying “optimize the onboarding experience, make training an ongoing process, provide context around why policies and processes change, better scheduling for better lives, and build better teams through better communication” could help with these shortages.

     Solutions for this are super difficult to come up with, as many people were quitting their jobs and moving onto something new, sometimes leaving some places so understaffed they had to shut down. Labor shortages are slowly declining in 2023, according to www.shrm.org, hopefully causing some places to become more staffed to be able to plan for larger crowds and busier days of the week. The best thing businesses can do is plan and be prepared and take on things the best they can while still trying to satisfy guests and not have long wait times, overcrowding, overworked employees, and shut down areas since they have one employee working a particular area or doing a certain task.