Businesses desperate for staff offering up incentives for new employees

Glen Mezei is in dire straits.

His restaurant, Site Pizza, in Sydney's Alexandria, should be pumping out gourmet pizza and bolognese.

But instead, the chef is preparing bacon and egg rolls.

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"I've got Menulog boxes and Deliveroo and everything ready to go. I haven't taken it out of the boxes because I can't start my business," Mr Mezei told A Current Affair.

The restaurant is only open for breakfast because there's not enough staff to work the rest of the day.

"There's no more help, the landlords want their full rent back, CPI's gone up, and we're running our business at 30 per cent," Mr Mezei said.

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"I need a chef, we need a pizzaiola. We'll train kitchen hands, we'll train floor staff. What am I offering? I'm offering an opportunity, I'm offering commitment, stability, a job."

There are thousands of jobs on offer, but a shortage of workers.

Forty per cent of unfilled jobs on Seek are in hospitality. Mr Mezei needs 30 workers to open his doors.

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"Casual workers get between $25 and $30 an hour, casual workers do about 15 to 20 hours a week. So what's that going to give you? $600 a week. Some people are getting that to stay home at the moment. I think we have to get people here, we have to make it easy for them to get Visas," Mr Mezei said.

He said the pressure is taking its toll.

"I'm scared I could lose this, but I've done everything possible. We moved out of our family home when this all started. We moved above one of our shops, a family of four. I don't know how much longer I can afford to keep doing it," Mr Mezei said.

He said he's even taken to the streets to find staff.

"Hopefully they'll walk past and see it," he said, while holding a sign that reads "looking for staff".

And Mr Mezei is not alone.

"I always say it's like having a gun to my head because that's the position we're in at the moment. They're bartering us, against other employees as well, because they know the industry is desperate," Managing Director of Catering HQ Steve Sidd said.

The boss has resorted to offering freebies to get people on board and commit to a job.

"We're basically giving our staff that work for us currently a $100 Visa incentive card, so if they do a referral, it's a referral fee that they get, if their friends come and join with Catering HQ," Mr Sidd said.

"We're offering employee share plans for all our key staff, our head chefs, sous chefs, restaurant managers and supervisors, which they actually get a piece of the business."

Mr Sidd said he'll pay for accommodation if an employee is required to work at a regional venue.

Australian Venue Co. came out of lockdown needing 500 staff.

Thanks to incentives on offer, the company has filled 400 jobs.

"For new hires, we've been offering a $1000 food and beverage credit, once they sign up and they work with us for three months, and then we've also been offering on-the-job training," NSW State Manager, Evan Gargaro told A Current Affair.  

Irv Selby, from recruitment agency Swift Personnel, believes it's only a matter of time.

"I think it will come back, but it's a short-term game for people who want to get ludicrous rates of pay and the labour market will settle down. The bottom line now is there's no excuse for you not to be back at work," he said.