Businesspeople reflect on pandemic

Happy Day Restaurants have recently hired 14-year-olds in Idaho during the summer, even though they have to clock out by 7 p.m., often before the dinner rush has ended.

The potential of younger employees became clear to Tobe Finch, Happy Day’s president, after he permitted his youngest daughter to work at Southway Pizzeria & Deli in Lewiston, one of his company’s more than 10 restaurants.

“These 14- and 15-year-olds, they’re going to muscle into this,” Finch said Wednesday at the Lewis Clark Valley Chamber of Commerce’s “State of the Valley” lunch.

“They want to impress people with how good they are,” he said during the gathering at the Clarkston Event Center. “This is their first opportunity.”

Finch was part of a panel that also included Heidi Copeland, general manager of Hells Canyon Grand Hotel in Lewiston, and Sam Worrell, owner of Roosters Waterfront Restaurant and Bar and Hazel’s Good Eats in Clarkston.

The hospitality executives talked about how they are navigating a worker shortage, ways the pandemic shaped their businesses and how they were supported by the community during COVID-19.

Staffing is a continuing struggle, but the situation is getting better than it was, Finch said.

“In some ways it is making us better,” he said. “We are taking deeper looks into our cultures, into what makes people stick, what people are looking for and what they need out of a job.”

The issue, Copeland said, is connected to COVID-19. Some individuals who were laid off during the pandemic opted for retirement if they were close to retirement age. Others found new careers when they were out of work.

Business has rebounded to levels that, in many cases, are similar to those of 2019. The turnaround came after restrictions such as bans on in-person dining were lifted, fueling demand for workers, Copeland said.

Especially given how tight the labor market is, employers should support each other by reinforcing good habits such as allowing new hires to start in two weeks so they can give their existing bosses notice, Worrell said.

“It’s a small work force,” he said. “We’re all trying to hire the same people.”

The labor shortage is happening at a time when companies are adjusting their business models based on what they learned during the pandemic.

The hospitality industry is moving away from the standard of servicing hotel rooms every day, Copeland said.

Instead, rooms are cleaned before guests arrive and after they leave, unless customers request a service or are there longer than a week, she said.

Happy Day accelerated plans to introduce delivery and curbside-to-go in 2020, and started the services about a half-year ahead of schedule because of COVID-19, Finch said.

“It’s definitely something we are actively trying to grow and add value to,” he said.

All three credited the generosity of the community for sustaining their businesses during the pandemic.

Hells Canyon Grand Hotel and Roosters had high demand for the to-go family dinners they introduced as substitutes for in-person dining.

At the hotel, the line one night stretched from the hotel’s entrance to McDonald’s, Copeland said.

Similarly, Roosters sold out of their to-go meals on a weekend night.

“The customers for the most part were very understanding,” Worrell said. “We didn’t know what to expect because we’d never been there before.”

One family whose daughter once worked for Worrell gave him their federal stimulus money because they felt he needed it more than they did.

“I didn’t know what to say,” he said. “It’s really cool to see the valley reciprocated to the businesses when they needed it.”

Finch echoed Copeland and Worrell.

“You could have all just gone to grocery stores and made meals at home,” Finch said. “But the fact the community did not do that kept us in business.”

Williams may be contacted at ewilliam@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2261.