FAST-FOOD RESTAURANTS TURN TO INCENTIVES TO ATTRACT WORKERS WITH STAYING POWER

Kathy Forrest was destined to make fries.

As a 17-year-old growing up outside Sikeston, she had little idea what a McDonald's restaurant was all about, but her aunt from Hillsboro convinced her during a visit to find out more.

The aunt drove Forrest into town for an interview, starting a 25-year career in fast food.

At that time, Forrest thought she was doing well to earn $1.30 an hour.

Now, the three operations Forrest supervises offer much more. Health insurance and paid vacations to workers just several dimes above minimum wage has become a reality.

Such perks had been privileges of those employed in what are traditionally considered professions, but a strong economy coupled with low unemployment has made it harder to hire someone to sell french fries.

A good economy has lowered the number of applicants and their quality, said Shannon Davis, whose family operates McDonald's restaurants in four Southeast Missouri cities.

Nevertheless, his McDonald's are using incentives and benefits to attract and keep everyone from hourly to salaried employees.

Besides the almost expected half-price meals and free uniforms, Davis has offered health insurance, profit sharing and paid vacations within recent years.

He is surprised that more don't take advantage of the health insurance, which is available to all employees.

The opportunity to earn paid vacation credit has been popular, Davis said. Employees are given 1 1/2 hours credit of vacation time for each week they report to work on time.

"By the end of a year, it adds up to almost a full week's paid vacation," Davis said.

At area Burger King restaurants, even seasonal employees can earn vacations.

If someone has worked 90 days, averaging 35 to 40 hours a week, he will get vacation time, said Joel Neikirk, operations manager of 36 Burger King restaurants in four states for Mid-America Hotels Corp.

"They're meeting our criteria, even though they're not staying with us," he said. "This is one of our hiring tools."

On the management level, Davis would only say that old bonus and incentive programs have been subsidized in recent years to make employment more attractive.

Retaining good managers for fast food businesses is a challenge, Neikirk said.

"Having to be available to work, if necessary, seven days a week is a problem," he said, "but our programs help."

This year, speed of service makes up part of an incentive program for area Burger King assistant managers.

By making half of the bonus structure tied to food quality and hourly labor management, mid-level managers are given financial goals that ultimately increase customer satisfaction. This is a reason area Burger Kings have shied away from cash bonuses.

"We had looked into a sign-on bonus for managers, as we saw this with some franchises in St. Louis," Neikirk said, "but there are a lot of potential contract problems."

Assuming that a monetary bonus would involve a contract, Neikirk sees inevitable conflicts if someone would decide to quit prior to the contract's end.

In the meantime, operators of fast food restaurants will keep thinking of ways to promote themselves.

"We have to do more selling of ourselves than themselves," Neikirk said. "They are more and more able to shop around now."