I recently watched a documentary on Andrew Carnegie, the U.S. steel tycoon of the late 19th century. It detailed his life as a poor young immigrant from Scotland, who built one of the biggest companies in the world. He’s now largely remembered as being both the wealthiest man of his time and a great philanthropist, whose credits include the prestigious Carnegie Hall and Carnegie Mellon University.

But interestingly there was a dark side to this great man. His company, Carnegie Steel in Pittsburgh, was the setting of one of the bloodiest strikes in U.S. history, the Homestead Strike in 1892, which lasted 143 days, and resulted in the death of ten men. One of the reasons of the strike was the company’s decision to decrease wages when it was making record profits. Benefiting from the industrial revolution, Carnegie and his chairman Henry Clay Frick were both in favor of replacing human workers with machines, saying that machines don’t demand wage increases and never sleep.

The industrial revolution saw the replacement of low-skilled human workers by steam engines and machines. Manufacturing being the first ones to bear the brunt of this change. Now in the age of AI (artificial intelligence), and low-skilled workers are again the first ones being impacted. Wal-mart and other supermarkets are already testing robots used to greet people and check inventory on shelves. Human greeters are replaced with robot counterparts, who amuse children and adults alike. Self checkouts went from an annoying presence in McDonald’s to proliferating within every major retailer.

There are already robotic chefs and baristas being tested. While their hefty price-tags keep most retailers away, it’s only a matter of time before these technology become cheap enough for mass consumption.

The advancements in automation leave low-skilled workers in a tough spot, resulting in an oversupply of labour, stagnating wages for decades, and creating a huge boom in the post-secondary education, as workers scramble to become better educated and more qualified for jobs that are less likely to be replaced by machines.

Politicians like Elizabeth Warran in the U.S. are calling for higher corporate taxes and a new wealth tax in an attempt to shrink the growing wealth gap. While this may appeal to some, in the end corporations and the wealthy will always figure out a loophole. And it’s always better to reward than to punish. Perhaps a dual reward/penalty system could work. For example, for every job that a company cuts, as long as the company is in profit, it should pay a tax equivalent to 5 years salary as compensation for social benefits the now unemployed person will claim. And for every new job a business creates, it can gain a tax incentive equivalent to 5% of the salary for the position, effectively making it cheaper to employ human labour. Hopefully this will help normalize the adjustments needed in a future world driven by A.I.

But with a painting created by A.I. selling for over $430,000 at auction, is any industry truly safe?

With the advance of tech-enabled food delivery systems like Uber Eats and DoorDash, there seems to be an endless array of choices for dining-in. But there is something happening in the restaurant industry, impacting both smaller restaurants and larger chains: more and more workers are shying away from jobs in restaurants that were once easily filled.

We dive into the reasons, which can be segmented into three areas.

1. Rising cost of labour – The Province of Ontario raised its minimum wage to $14/hr in 2018. The minimum wage was only $11.60 in 2017. Such a drastic increase (over 20% in one year) has led to increased competition within the near-minimum wage group. All of a sudden, restaurants that were paying a good 1.5x over minimum wage (i.e. $17/hr) is now in the near-minimum wage sector. In this range they are competing for talent with much easier retail jobs. Who wants to sweat over a hot fire 8 hours a day if they can sit behind a counter and earn a similar wage?
2. Hard work – being a cook or waiter/waitress is hard work. It requires years of training, certifications, expertise, customer-service skills, organization, and nose-to-the-grind hard work. It’s much harder to work in a restaurant, with much more pressure than in an office or a shop. Without adequate compensation, it’s no wonder most people don’t prefer it.
3. Foodie culture – nowadays everyone is a self-claimed Foodie. Along with this title, more people are increasingly demanding about their food, especially when eating out. In any restaurant, the Taste, Service, Presentation, Atmosphere and Value are constantly being judged and rated on the likes of Yelp and Tripadvisor. This culture of indulgence increases the pressure on restaurateurs to provide the best dishes at a reasonable price. With the aforementioned minimum wage hikes, the restaurant is caught between a rock and a hard place, unable to pass on the majority of price increases for fear of losing clientele. The added volume from the likes of Uber Eats increases revenue, but also increases the stress on the already-pressured staff.

For small restaurants, this is especially evident as turnover increases and owners and managers find it more and more common to having to step in themselves to fill the gap. Dishwasher and line cooks are especially prone to turnover and no shows. These are tough jobs with limited room to grow, and often do not enjoy the benefit of tips. Something will have to change in the industry. Either wages will have to increase substantially (meaning higher costs for patrons), or restaurants will have to start to explore automation. Either way, the industry will have serious staffing gaps in the meantime.

With Christmas creeping near, most retailers are gearing up for the holiday shopping season. That means more merchandise, more foot traffic, more holiday promotions, and more staff needed.

Not enough qualified candidates to go around

That means lots of hiring leading up to the holiday season. We visited several clients in the retail industry to discuss their hiring needs, and they all seem to have a similar problem.

1. With so many companies all hiring around the same time, candidates can pick and choose where they’d like to work. This is especially true for very qualified candidates.
2. That means qualified candidates do not call back, or show up for interview, or even worse, they’re hired but get a better job elsewhere then just don’t show up for work.
3. Companies that do not have competitive hiring structure (i.e. seasonal to permanent hires) or competitive pay will often be left scrambling to staff their stores at the last minute.

That means hiring managers may need to be a bit less restrictive in hiring criteria when it comes to the holiday shopping season. Unless it’s a specialty store, the requirements are largely the same. If the candidate is responsible, has a positive attitude and is willing to learn, that should be all it takes for a successful seasonal hire.

Accountability means Less No Shows

At Workholler, we believe in accountability. It’s easy for someone to be irresponsible, and hide behind the anonymity. But they will think twice if their reputation is on the line, which will impact future job prospects.

We rigorously vet anyone who joins our platform, and only the top 15-20% make it to the final round. These candidates are established to be responsible and accountable. One No-Show means the candidate is barred from applying to jobs through our platform for 2-6 months. Furthermore, negative performance reviews will directly impact the candidate’s ratings on our platform, resulting in less job offers.

This way, retailers can rest assured that their new seasonal hires will be of the top quality, and there will be some accountability at the end of the day.

You’re running your business, creating strategies, aligning the team, talking to customers, and fighting off the competition every day. Everyday you hustle.

You perform a juggling act on a daily basis, trying to keep all the balls in the air. Inevitably things get hectic, and cracks begin to appear in your business. If you’re busy putting out bigger fires you’re apt to let small things slide, but these are dangerous, as they can build up over time and become a much bigger problem later on.

1. Inevitably things will pile up. If your biggest client is requesting a meeting, but you’ve already set up interviews to replace the customer service rep who just quit, you might have to drop your interview just to make the client meeting. Unfortunately leaving the gap in customer service to just become bigger.

2. Get help on non-critical activities such as reading resumes and phone vetting. At Workholler, we can help the business owner by sending a pre-vetted temp worker to help out when business needs arise. Because we’ve already done the interviews and reference checks, no interview is required. This way the business gets some breathing room to set things to right.

3. Take a deep breath and stay calm. Remaining calm in the face of storm will give you the fortitude to carry on.  You know you’ll live to fight another day.  After all, you’re the boss, and you hustle like one.