$5K sign on bonus entices staff to Sydney’s up-market restaurants
Sydney’s upmarket restaurants have come to the conclusion that to get the best staff you have to pay the most money.
At least when it comes sign-on bonuses.
Several of Sydney’s premier restaurants are now offering a $5000 sign-on bonus over the coming peak season to attract everyone from dishwashers to managers.
Sydney Restaurant Group has 15 venues including Aqua Dining, Ormeggio at The Spit, Ripples Milsons Point and Ripples Chowder Bay and needs 150 to 400 staff over the summer to operate at full capacity.
The group is currently well short of that number and as co-owner Daniel Drakopoulos told The Australian Financial Review, only has about 200 on its payroll.
“We could really do with another 100 to 150 staff right now. That’s how desperate we are,” he said. “A lot of companies are doing $1000 to $2000 sign-on bonuses, but we are willing to get the best, and we’re willing to pay.”
The bonus would apply to staff working full time for six months on a regular shift roster.
The skills shortage is a common problem across all industries at the moment, with a 48-year low unemployment rate at 3.5% and a lack of international workers to fill the void.
The unemployment rate is at a 48-year low 3.5 per cent. The Reserve Bank of Australia expects it will drop to 3.4 per cent in coming months, and some major banks think it could go even lower.
The Sydney Restaurant Group is facing the same challenges as every other service business and has had to reduce services and close shifts.
It is a family business founded in 2000 by patriarch Bill Drakopoulos with Aqua Dining at Milsons Point in Sydney and includes Daniel and three other siblings.
“We’re copping the brunt of price increases, wage increases, cost of goods increases, we inevitably had to put up our prices ever so slightly, to not be profitable, but to stay afloat,” Drakopolous told the AFR.
“There are a lot of unforeseen costs that people don’t realise, like increasing gas prices, increasing rents, increasing cost of goods.
“Some of our suppliers are passing on the cost of fuel, and we can’t go to [customers] and say ‘sorry, you need to pay for the truck driver that dropped off the tomatoes this morning’.
“Where we can increase we will, as long as the economy is willing and able to bear those prices. You’ve also got to think that if you don’t, you’ll go out of business quickly. We don’t want to charge exorbitant prices.”
Irit Jackson, 17th August 2022
