Good Help is Hard to Find

This summer, it's been common to see businesses throughout town closed multiple days of the week. Though staffing has always been an issue for Saratoga businesses, recent developments have exacerbated the difficulty in finding employees.

"In our 13 years of having businesses in Saratoga we've always had issues with staffing," said Cassie Orduno. She and her husband own Bella's Bistro, Saratoga Sandwich Company and SunnyCup.  

According to Orduno, the past couple years have made it more difficult. The increased tourism in the area is a potential reason greater strain has been placed on businesses.  

Hillery Ingraham, owner of J W Hugus, said, "It's been a pretty recent issue for us. We've been very fortunate to keep a great set of staff.  This is just the hardest year yet".

While the difficulty in staffing is an old foe, the current lack of help is a new challenge.  

"You used to put an ad in the paper and get five applications, now I'm lucky to get one," Adam Clarke, owner of Valley Foods, said.  "If they show up on time you pretty much hire them".  

"Once you get them, sometimes you have difficulty retaining them.  Most of the people we have working for us now have worked for us for a long time, which is fabulous" Jason Campbell, manager at the Wolf Hotel, said.  "It's difficult to find staff and it's difficult to keep them, especially when they have so many job opportunities elsewhere.  Everyone else in town is in the same boat and trying to find people to work.  The competition with other businesses makes it even harder to find good people." 

"People in town are trying to outbid each other for starting wages," Clarke added.

"I'm just baffled at why it is so hard for us to get applicants this year, it's affecting everybody.  We've been borrowing staff from another business, they're allowing their staff to come over and help in the mornings," Ingraham said.  

Clarke said he believed unemployment has been fairly low recently, so the labor pool is small to begin with.  

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the current unemployment rate in Wyoming is 3.3%. In April of 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, the unemployment rate was about the same  

Lack of housing was consistently pointed to as an issue which affects staffing.  

"There are homes that are not available, or places that would normally be long term rentals for residents that are not available due to people renting them out to vacationers," Campbell said.  

"I've tried to hire people and then they call me and say 'Well I can't find a place to live'," Clarke said.  "I've lost employees because they can't afford to live here too". 

"We haven't had an issue with applications, it's just that once we hire people they don't have a place to stay," Orduno said.   

Staffing problems have affected businesses in different ways.  

In regards to the Wolf, Campbell said, "We would love to be open seven days a week but we just don't have the people.  We have to make sure that we're protecting our current employees and ensure we don't burn them out by running a thin crew too hard."  

He said they would want to be open Monday through Saturday at least, but just don't have the staff to allow those hours.

Orduno said she has also had to have days where she closed her businesses rather than being open all week. Clarke said Valley Foods is getting by, but some overtime is required and it's difficult to cover shifts if someone is out.  

"We're not as efficient, and it's putting more stress on the people who are willing to work and to be there," Ingraham emphasized.  "Outside of that, we've been pretty blessed and lucky with the kids who have stepped up to help this summer".  

While staffing remains an issue, business owners are doing all they can to work past them.

"It's always been our top priority to provide the best possible service to our customers," said Orduno. "We don't want to cut hours or have days where we are closed, it's just something that is unfortunately out of our control."