BUSINESS CLIMATE CHANGE

Finding, keeping staff is a full-time job

Low jobless rates have companies turning on the charm and improving pay and benefits

By MICHAEL POLLICK michael.pollick@heraldtribune.com

In front of Chris-Craft's Sarasota pleasure-boat factory stands a sign of the times: "Now hiring, $300 sign-on bonus." In one form or another, the help-wanted sign has been there for two years. The signing bonus angle started six months ago. "We need all sorts of laborers, both skilled and unskilled," said Meghan Stout, the storied boatmaker's marketing director.

She's not alone. Across the region and indeed the state, employers are ramping up wages, layering on benefits and finding creative ways to hang on to their help, with the Sarasota-Bradenton-Venice area posting its lowest jobless rate in six years and Charlotte County bumping against its own record low, set in December.

Yet, according to the experts, the real worker shortage hasn't even started yet. Instead, coastal Florida is experiencing the leading edge of a bigger wave that will hit the whole nation within a few short years, as more and more baby boomers move out of their cubicles and into their retirement haciendas.

What that likely means for Florida employers is that the days of cheap labor are over. The business climate has changed, requiring employers to either look elsewhere to expand, become more innovative in hiring, or simply make their workplace more attractive than everybody else's.

Jeff Haidet, the new owner of Alert Protective Services, isn't going to hire a caterer for his security guards, but he is doing his best to create a sense of family among his workers.

For example, when a couple of clients wrote the praises of two of his guards recently, Haidet made a point of visiting each of those workers, then taking their photographs so he could honor their achievements in a monthly newsletter.

But Haidet found he needed to get ingenious to recruit new workers to match his growing list of clients.

"To be a security officer, you have to be licensed by the state, so our labor pool is much smaller than you might think," Haidet said. To cope, he bought the state's database of all so-called "D-class" license holders.

He narrowed the list down to potential workers living in Sarasota, Venice, Bradenton and Arcadia. Then he designed a clever postcard and sent it to all 1,300.

"Does your local manager/supervisor convey an 'I don't care' attitude?" it reads in part. "Then consider the alternative ... come and talk to us."

The mail-out campaign is still going on, and Haidet already has picked up six new workers through it. For his crew of 60, that is a 10 percent boost.