Who would have thunk that the re-open and economic recovery from Coronavirus would be the hard part??
Well the answer to that, certainly…was not me. We find ourselves again in a very strange position, people are out again and visitors are returning to Hawaii at very solid rates. I have told so many people that ask “how are things”? that for small businesses like mine the whole experience has been like a “jigsaw puzzle that we don’t have all the pieces for” it just can’t be solved. The newest and possibly the most difficult part to date is the current state of affairs when it comes to staffing.
When the pandemic started and it became clear that the state was “shutting down” all I could think (worry) about was the 11 people that worked for “Me” and how I could best protect their interests. With much advice, discussion and difficulty the decision was made that I would immediately terminate all but 1 employee. This was done so they could be “out-front” in starting the process to collect unemployment. We gathered company finances in order to payout all wages, earned vacation and make final contributions to the company sponsored IRA. Employees were offered an opportunity to return to work at a flat work rate when hours were available, because I planned on staying open! I felt it as my obligation to community to do so. I wanted to protect these jobs, support our vendors and do what I could to feed the folks who dared to venture out or had jobs necessary to our infrastructure. Because after all it was only gonna be six weeks or so…….
So here we find ourselves more than a year later, I did it!
Well….truth be told “We” did it! It couldn’t have been done it without the help from some amazing people like, Lindsay our Lead Cook, Megan my Sister In-Law and my son Connor. That’s the “who we had” to operate the entire company for months and months and months. This blog nor this story would not be complete without also mentioning Angelina our Admin and HR-Pro who worked remotely for hours on end (maybe even on her own time) making sure that the endless stream of employee’s unemployment claims were answered, that their insurances were kept intact and those working were paid on time. Also my wife, Stephanie who’s work title is Tax Manger but really acts as “my official sounding board”. During my career I have had the pleasure of employing, working for and with some of the greatest people on earth…these are the cream of them! I also want to thank our two most important employees right now, without them we would simply be closed! Bobbie-Jo and Tammy who are both wonderful hard working people and awesome mom’s! Really, without these 2 we would be closed at this point!
So the jobs of KBAT today .…better paying, more streamlined, better quality of life, shorter hours with more pay sit empty. You may ask “can we not find qualified applicants”? The answer is we can find virtually “NO” applicants! After 3 months of active recruiting, including: on-site postings, web site postings, active postings to social media, Craigslist, Indeed and even a pricey radio campaign…here’s what we’ve come up with. We had a total of 4 interviews 3 were High School Juniors..two were offered jobs but one of them could just work for three and half weeks before her mainland vacation started so that wasn’t a match. Of the two, offered jobs, one of them made it through one 5 hour day of work and quit! The other has yet to respond to the job offer. Our final applicant was a Medical Assistant “ex-pat” who who was also offered a job but was kind enough to let us know she would pass on the offer. So what you ask was her offer well since you asked…here goes: this is what we were offering if you “hired on” before June 1, 2021 for full time or part time seasonal summer employment: Wages in her case $15.50 per hour plus a summer gas/travel bonus equal to about $25 per week, free lunches and additional summer vacation bonus equal to 1 additional hour of paid vacation for every day you worked during the 2021 Summer on top of this a share of our Service Bonuses which often top over $150 per week. So I am as confused as you are. We just dont have the staff to continue normal operations. I have tried but I can no longer swim upstream and have instead opted to swim to shore and hang on until this part of the pandemic subsides.
With all that being said we will begin to enter into a period of carry-out service only with limited operational days and hours (please see ops calendar tab above) since we have extremely limited staff and cannot control the rate or size of “on-line orders” that too will be disabled. We will be taking orders in person first come first serve, for carry-out only. We will be offering the “Drop in…Bail Out Lunch Menu” from Surf Burger only. (please see menu tab above) We consider it our great pleasure to serve our community and do our part to help regrow Hawaii’s economy. Much like the when the virus first started we will stay open to the very last and this is what that looks like.
Mahalo
Chef Cary