The news has been abuzz with the number of Americans voluntarily quitting their jobs. Voluntary quits increased by 242,000 to 4.3 million overall. This has forced companies to raise their wages to lure in workers. Even with small business owners raising their pay by record amounts, 9 out of 10 small businesses cannot find qualified applicants to fill their open positions. This, along with the rising costs of materials and supply chain constraints, has put small business owners in the lowest level of optimism since the beginning of the pandemic.
There is hope! Let us help you before it’s too late.
Automate the Front Counter
Some of the hardest hit businesses in this labor shortage are restaurants, coffee shops, and independent retail businesses. The beginning of the pandemic showed that automating your front counter helped small business owners best compete and this labor shortage is no different. Restaurants and coffee shops can put in an order kiosk at the front counter to alleviate the need for staff to attend to patrons. And not just any order kiosk, an order kiosk that won’t quit on you and won’t call in sick.
Another option is ordering from the website and/or through a mobile app. This provides ordering at the customer’s leisure and in a safe, social distancing manner for patrons concerned for their health and in jurisdictions still with lockdown measures in place. These are all things that McNair Media already provides to our small business clients in an affordable manner.
Automate the Back Office
Automation is not exclusive to retail and restaurants, it can be implemented in an office setting. Phone systems, scheduling, and other internal and external requests can all automated. Through our consulting services, we approach your internal operations and help determine what can be automated. We can also provide an unbiased, outside perspective on whether portions of your staff could effectively work from home.
Because of this hiring crisis, businesses are cutting back on their marketing. In fact, marketing position vacancies have more than tripled since the height of the pandemic. This has left that responsibility on the shoulders of business owners. No time to beef up your website and email marketing efforts? McNair Media has plans starting at $49 a month!
Get Started ASAP!
Is human interaction best? Probably! But it is better to be open and fully operational than to be shut down due to a lack of staff. It doesn’t have to be like this, let’s work together to get through this time!