Employers in Lake of the Ozarks area get creative to bring in summer help

OSAGE BEACH, Mo. -- Help-wanted signs are already going up at businesses around the Lake of the Ozarks as vacation season approaches, and many employers expect to struggle to fill their available jobs.

Some will run short-handed or bring in crews from other countries to ease the workload. Many are looking increasingly to retirees who have moved to the area. Higher-than-minimum wages and hiring bonuses are becoming the norm.

And one business -- a Hy-Vee supermarket in Osage Beach -- is dangling an unusual incentive in its quest to attract 75 to 100 seasonal workers.

For every hour they work, the Hy-Vee will offer an extra $1 to the school, church or other civic, nonprofit organization of their choice. That's in addition to what store director Randy Wood calls already competitive wages.

Over the course of the roughly 13-week season, from Memorial Day to Labor Day, the $1 an hour can add up to a significant donation to an employee's chosen beneficiary.

"We will be hiring young people, retirees and others from here in our own community, not from other countries, and that benefits everyone," Wood said. "It not only provides them with an opportunity to learn valuable job and customer service skills, but gives them an incentive to come to work.

"And they are investing and committing to whatever organization they are working for over the summer," he said. "I think we will see a lot of support for the program."

Frustrating season

Wood said the idea for the incentive program came about after a frustrating experience last year with seasonal workers hired from other countries through a placement service.

Over the next several weeks, Wood will be meeting with various organizations, church and school groups, looking to recruit temporary employees from within their membership.

Those employees will work through the summer season alongside Hy-Vee's year-round work force of 200-plus full- and part-time employees.

Wood said the Hy-Vee has to be prepared to meet the needs of vacationers who do their shopping when it doesn't interfere with being out on the lake. In summer, he said, the market may have six or seven cash registers open at midnight or later.

Like Wood, many employers are trying to recruit among the retirees who have flocked to the lake area over the past decade, said Trish Creach, director of the Lake Area Chamber of Commerce.

"Each year, as we move closer to the peak travel season, finding a labor force is challenging," she said. "We are hoping to find ways to bring the mature workers back into the market, instead of recruiting younger workers."