As "now hiring' signs are plentiful throughout Salina, there seems to be a shortage of employees to fill open positions across the county.

While it has been a difficult couple of years in the restaurant industry, local food establishments have been fortunate in recent months in keeping up with staffing needs.

"I think we've really thrived as we've come out of the pandemic and (staffing) hasn't been a terrible concern for us," said Tim Blake, owner of Hickory Hut and newly opened Prickly Pear in Salina. "I think a lot of mom and pop businesses, individually-owned, non-corporate businesses have fared relatively well."

Blake said his restaurants are fully-staffed right now and though there has been some turnover of employees and it's been a little more difficult to hire, his business is still growing and thriving, something that is similar with other long-standing local restaurants in Salina.

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Dealing with changes after the pandemic

One of the reasons that local restaurants have been able to thrive is because of understanding changes that came out of the COVID pandemic.

"It just comes down to paying folks and paying them what they're worth," Blake said. "It's a situation where you want to invest in good people, and when you do that, your business is going to be successful."

Blake said he understands that workers are demanding more wages now, and he thinks it's important that businesses keep up with that.

"If an organization were to fight payroll and wage growth, it's a situation they're going to regret," Blake said.

According to Blake, smaller, local businesses seem to understand this growth situation better than some of the bigger, more corporate companies, and they are learning to adapt to it.

"We have a lot of really long-time employees," he said. "Work is never fun all the time, but I know I enjoy going there, and I think our employees do too. If you can create an environment where people can feel fulfilled in the work they do, that's the first step."

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Success not unique to one restaurant company

The owner of another long-standing Salina restaurant, Martinelli's Little Italy, Tony Dong, agrees that a lot of the success it has seen since the pandemic can be attributed to paying and treating employees well.

"We're fully staffed right now (but) always looking for good servers and things," Dong said. "There was a point for about six months where we were short and had to do what we could to get staff."

One of the changes that Dong said Martinelli's made during that time to address the issues was deciding to close one day a week.

"We decided the best thing to do was be closed on Sundays," he said.

This change, while major, as the restaurant had been open seven days a week for more than 20 years, has actually been a welcome one, with the staff enjoying it.

"We kind of like it," Dong said. "I don't know if we'll go back."

He said there was concern at the beginning of that change that the business could suffer financially, but Martinelli's has endured.

"Our sales haven't suffered at all," Dong said. "I don't know if that's because we're just busier in general now or if we have (customers) who have adjusted their schedules."

There are around 50 total employees at Martinelli's, and about 15 to 20 that work full time, some of whom have worked at the restaurant for a long time.

"I've been doing this a long time, and there's a definite shift in how you need to manage people," Dong said. "It's probably better now (than 20 years ago). We're not taking people for granted and do everything we can to make it a good work environment."

He said while the restaurant and other industries have known for a long time the importance of keeping staff happy, since the pandemic, it's becoming much more apparent.

Keeping up with wage growth is also important, especially as Martinelli's works to keep a well-established group of long-time employees.

"The (people) who've been here more than a couple of years...we've tried to keep their pay in check with inflation, making sure that we pay them well," Dong said. "We're doing whatever we can to hang on to those people who are critical (to us)."

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Full-staffing a welcome sign for the local economy

When it comes to the overall economy in Salina, having and seeing full staffs is good.

Mitch Robinson, the director of the Salina Community Economic Development Organization, said he's noticed in the past few weeks that businesses are doing what they can to keep up with the demand.

One example was Prickly Pear, which he visited on a recent Friday night.

"They had more than adequate (staff) for a Friday evening, which is always a critical test for...a new (restaurant) operation," Robinson said.

While he typically deals with trying to bring in larger companies and economic investments to Salina, Robinson said the situation of staffing, with big and small goes back to the larger issues of supply and demand.

"I've been doing this over 30 years, and I've never seen the shortage of people like we do now," Robinson said.

While there is no one answer to the staffing shortages seen across the country, Robinson said the things that places like Hickory Hut, Prickly Pear and Martinelli's are doing are a step in the right direction.

"That's paying people a higher wage level right now," Robinson said.

By keeping up with what the current wage expectations are, businesses are able to thrive.

"You've got to be ahead of the curve," Robinson said. "If you ever get to the point where you're behind it, you have to ratchet up your pay rate more and more...It's been a difficult several years for everybody, and I think the ones that are doing it right are getting the high-quality workforce that they need."

This article originally appeared on Salina Journal: Salina's restaurants keeping staff employed during workforce shortage