Survey shows Marlborough businesses battling to recruit staff post-Covid
Tuesday, 27 April 2021
With the worst of lockdown behind her, Juliet Partington reopened her Blenheim cafe with three staff members instead of nine. And she was one of them.
“I was in the kitchen, I had one barista and one front of house on. It made sense for me to be here working rather than paying an employee,” Partington said.
That was in alert level 3, as New Zealand and the world adjusted to online orders – even for coffees – and contactless pickups and deliveries.
But even when lockdown was over, and Partington was able to start recruiting again, business was just “too unpredictable”, and Watery Mouth cafe quickly went from four employees back to three.
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It had been a challenging year, Partington said. And she wasn’t alone.
A survey on the long-term impact of Covid-19 showed 58 per cent of 400 Marlborough businesses had an overall negative impact, principally around revenue and sales.
The research was commissioned by The Economic Action Marlborough (TEAM) group at the Marlborough District Council to provide an insight into how the global pandemic had affected the region.
Fifteen per cent of businesses surveyed reported employee redundancies and 39 per cent reported problems recruiting staff.
Partington said she struggled to recruit staff post-pandemic and noticed a big change in the past 12 months.
“People want job security, they want a minimum of 30 hours, they want guarantee … But because the business is so unpredictable, it puts me in a hard position as a recruiter.
“Recently, I had to close the cafe twice at lunchtime because of the lack of staff, so it added another cost on the business.
“I had to close earlier as well because trade has been really slow … So you are losing trade for the day and on top of that your customers get confused,” she said.
Partington said the minimum wage increase, from $18.90 to $20 an hour on April 1, had piled extra pressure on small businesses.
On top of that, she also had to deal with staff turnover, and training new staff was costly and time-consuming.
“It affects the service as well. Customers come in, and they want to see the same person, but there is always change.
“[For] six months it was constant, I have been replacing two or three staff each time,” Partington said.
The business owner of 10 years said it was just settling down now with the team back to seven full-time employees and a few casuals.
“I only just feel more confident about how thing are going. I have a really good team. We just celebrated our 10th birthday and that creates a positive atmosphere.”
Council strategic planning and economic development manager Neil Henry said business confidence over the next six months was encouraging.
The survey showed 30 per cent of businesses believed performance would improve and 42 per cent thought performance would remain the same.
“Just over half of all businesses said they were already operating as usual.
“However, 81 per cent stated there would be a negative impact or a threat to business survival if there was another lockdown,” Henry said.
TEAM chairman and Marlborough District councillor Mark Peters said the survey would help ensure the necessary and appropriate actions were carried out as part of the region's ongoing economic recovery.
“TEAM will consider this information and other market data to identify the impact of Covid-19 on the Marlborough economy and what, if anything, further is required to support the local economy after TEAM group’s second phase report is published in June,” Peters said.
Continuing to support tourism, retail and promoting the region was considered by the majority of businesses as the main improvement needed at a local level.