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Employers Competing for Workers Turn to Signing Bonuses and Freebies | WSJ - YouTube
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- [Reporter] Across the
country, help is wanted,
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and businesses can't fill
positions fast enough.
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- I'm in a war for talent.
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If you do not jump to make
an offer to an applicant
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at the end of the
interview, they are lost.
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- [Reporter] And increasingly,
it takes more than an offer.
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- [Announcer] Wawa is growing!
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- [Reporter] Many jobs
now come with incentives
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like sign-on bonuses.
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- [Announcer] A $500 new hire bonus.
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- [Reporter] And freebies
have been offered
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for just showing up to an interview.
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But with more than nine million
people still out of work
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and a record number of jobs available,
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why are these additional offers needed,
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and are they working?
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- What we're seeing in
this unusual labor market
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is a resurgence in leverage
for lower wage workers.
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And we really haven't
seen that in this country
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for at least 50 years.
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- [Reporter] Before the pandemic,
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the labor market was tight,
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with the jobless rate near a 50-year low.
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Then, millions lost their jobs.
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Hourly restaurant,
retail, and hotel workers
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were hit particularly hard.
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Now, as quickly as the
economy has reopened,
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those employers are
trying to staff back up,
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but many workers remain on the sideline
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for a variety of reasons,
including COVID concerns,
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childcare, and extended
unemployment benefits.
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- Employers right now
are frantically trying
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to make sure that they can take advantage
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of the opening up of
the economy and salvage
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what has been an impossible
last 14-15 months for them
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by ramping up their
businesses very quickly.
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But it's hard to do that
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if you don't have all
your workers in place.
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- [Reporter] That's something Omni Hotels
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and Resorts knows well.
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- In February, I had 200 jobs open.
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Today, I have 2,800 jobs open,
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and I've hired 5,000 since February.
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So we are having explosive demand.
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- [Reporter] To get those roles filled,
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the company, like many others,
has turned to incentives,
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including free housing for summer workers
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in certain markets, a $250 signing bonus,
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three free nights at an Omni hotel,
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and a set of knives
for new culinary hires.
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Workers who stay past
Labor Day get another $500
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and enter into the Omni's
management development program.
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- We're used to interviewing people
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and having several applicants for a role
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and taking our time and
having them come back
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for a second interview.
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You can't do that anymore.
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- [Reporter] For its
hard-to-fill culinary roles,
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Omni recently decided
we'll add two trainers
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to help give inexperienced
applicants on-the-job training.
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- I think a lot of companies would say,
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"Oh, you've never cooked,
you've never been in a kitchen,
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we don't need you," and I'm like, look,
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if I have people that wanna work for us,
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bring 'em in.
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We'll find a way to make it work.
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- [Reporter] Omni's incentives
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come on top of wage increases.
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The company says hourly
wages were up as much as 20%
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from a year ago in some markets.
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That bump isn't just to
compete with other hotels.
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Both Target and Walmart have
agreed to raise wages this year
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and Amazon is offering
$1,000 signing bonus
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in some locations.
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- They're going after the
same labor I'm going after,
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and I think that was the big wake-up call
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for the hotel industry.
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- [Reporter] Labor Department
data show average weekly wages
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in leisure and hospitality
have increased 10.7%
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since the start of the pandemic,
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outpacing the private sector overall.
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- And that's not always the case, right.
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A lot of times it's higher
tech, higher educated workers
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that see the bigger pay increases.
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Right now, we're seeing the reverse
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and that's why you have all
this activity around bonuses.
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- [Reporter] But are wage
increases and job incentives
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actually drawing workers
back into the workforce?
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It's a mixed bag.
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Omni has hired about 3,000 people
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since it began offering incentives.
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Labor Department data show
that the sector overall
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added the most jobs in June,
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suggesting the incentives may be helping.
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- We still have a lot of job openings,
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millions of job openings in these sectors,
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so I'd suggest that either some employers
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are gonna need to have to do even more
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or they're gonna have to wait it out
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and see if the labor market
finds its level in the fall.
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- [Reporter] One reason
the fall is important,
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that's when the federal government's
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expanded unemployment benefits
are set to expire nationwide,
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though more than 20 states
have already stopped paying
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the extra $300 a week payments.
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Some economists point to that benefit
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as one reason why workers aren't
rushing to fill open jobs.
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- Many people on unemployment benefits
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are earning the equivalent
of working full-time
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for $15 an hour.
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So if you're offering less
than that or about that,
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it's pretty hard to attract workers.
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- [Reporter] A recent study from Jefferies
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found that people are leaving
state unemployment rolls
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more quickly in the states
that have already cut off
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the federal expanded benefits,
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suggesting more are
reentering the workforce.
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But some economists say the benefits
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are giving people time
to find the right job
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and maybe even hold
out for a better offer.
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- When you look at the data,
the states that have had
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the biggest decreases in
unemployment are also states
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that have very generous
unemployment benefits.
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So there's not a direct correlation
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that higher unemployment benefits
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are meaning people aren't
getting back to work.
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- So today, I'm pleased to
announce an incentive program
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that I feel is a positive step
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towards getting some
people off unemployment
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and back into the workforce.
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- [Reporter] Recently,
states have started offering
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their own cash incentives to residents
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rejoining the workforce.
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Colorado's program, which had
more than 18,000 applicants,
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paid up to $1,600 to people
returning to work full time.
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Still, for many, it's not about the money.
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Concerns about the pandemic remain,
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specifically in face-to-face work.
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And childcare is keeping
millions of parents,
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particularly women, at home.
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- And frankly, I think
people are kind of weary.
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This has been a really hard period of time
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that we've gone through,
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and people are sort of taking a moment
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to think about, "Well,
what are my priorities?"
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- [Reporter] Whatever the reason,
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it's likely we'll continue
to see signing bonuses
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and other incentives for as
long as businesses compete
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to fill these jobs.
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The increased wages, economists say,
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will stick around even longer.
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- If things are working,
we're gonna keep doing that,
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but if they're not solving our problem,
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we're gonna have to come up with new ways
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to skin this cap because we
cannot just post the jobs
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and assume people are gonna show up.
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