Businesses need to get creative because better pay alone is not going to sway hourly workers.

As we emerge from the era of workforce flexibility, a lot of former in-office employees are hoping to work from home indefinitely—and some industries are now vying for workers who are just willing to show up.

For instance, the hospitality industry is on track to return to full occupancy levels, but 67% of hoteliers say persistent staffing shortages are still posing a challenge. Despiteaverage hotel wages reaching an all-time high of $23/hour last year, McKinsey suggests workers aren’t going to return unless they are given some flexibility.

While every service industry has its unique challenges, recent recruitment conversations have centered on the same question: How will businesses entice hourly workers to come back? After losing their in-person roles during the pandemic (70% in the case of laid-off or furloughed hotel workers), people came to enjoy the benefits of their new jobs in other industries: new schedules, better pay, the extra time they get with family, and how conducive remote work has been to pursuing personal growth.

Additional perks and benefits might get them on board, but it isn’t going to keep hourly workers happy in the long term. Instead, businesses need to get a little bit more creative. Here are three practical things employers should be doing to make sure they can attract the right people and consistently hit their staffing goals as the needs of the workforce evolve.

1. KEEP UP WITH THE ECONOMY

A lot has changed since 2019 and, while businesses have adapted, it’s time for another temperature check. During the pandemic, hourly workers saw an increase in wages because businesses had trouble finding people to fill roles. Then again, inflation exceeded nearly 10% over the past year, offsetting those raises for many and reinforcing the expectation of higher pay. Wage increases alone aren’t enough to keep workers around, but re-evaluating pay rates is now a necessary step, especially in industries like hospitality, where workers are already in high demand.

Leaders also need to be listening more to employee needs if they want to retain good staff and better understand the skills required for filling open positions. That hasn’t always been their strong point. For instance, McKinsey found a disparity between the job attributes frontline workers found most desirable and what employers expected them to value. Workers valued higher pay, advancement opportunities, and skills alignment over more intangible benefits, such as recognition and job fulfillment.

Getting those values in alignment is only one part of a good strategy. On a larger scale, businesses should be keeping a finger on the pulse of the economy and incorporating emerging trends and data into their strategic planning processes.

2. INVEST IN WORKFORCE PLANNING

Some companies plan as far out as three years when considering the positions they need and how they will fill them. But even looking six months into the future can help leaders better handle shifts in demand due to company events, economic situations, and seasonality. The key to accurate planning is to rely on as much data as possible.

Most industries publish forecasts for the year to come and the monthly U.S. jobs report is a very good indicator of how each industry, and the economy at large, is performing. If the job market is super tight, it is going to be harder to fill open positions, and that means allocating more time and resources to secure workers. It also means leveraging human resources technology platforms for more targeted recruitment.

3. TRY SOMETHING NEW

Across industries, companies big and small have staffed the same way for decades now. They come up with a job description, post it on a job board, collect resumes, vet, interview, and do the whole thing over again until they find someone who fits. Technology has helped shake up the process a little bit, but there is still a lot of room for improvement—especially when trying to balance the flexible demands of the modern worker with employers’ desire to staff more efficiently.

AI, whether good, bad, or indifferent on a larger scale, isn’t going away. It has a role to play in the staffing process, such as helping achieve equity in hiring practices or speeding up the interviewing process. Embracing these new tools can open new doors. So, it’s important that leaders are not afraid of learning about AI or leveraging technology already using it, especially in the realm of staffing.

Thanks to technology, critical roles that can’t be performed from anywhere else—like food servers, line cooks, and dishwashers—can be filled in new ways.

FLEXIBILITY IS HERE TO STAY

Even as the world returns to a relative normal, businesses cannot simply demand workers return to the way things were.

Kira Caban