Incentives are Attracting Food and Beverage Workers Sign-on bonuses are helping hiring managers fill food and beverage jobs.

Pepsi and Margaritaville are turning to incentives to attract more employees

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) — Several food and beverage companies are relying on bonuses to recruit new employees. This new incentive is intended to attract more people to the customer service industry and increase employee retention rates.

Ryan Mcnerney is a District Manager for Pepsi and says new employees are awarded twenty-five-hundred-dollar sign-on bonuses and an extra two-thousand-dollars after working for a full-year with the company.

“I think all around we do a really good job with compensation and I think it’s a great thing to get people in the door whether it be like a relocation bonus or like an initial sign-on bonus…a housing stipend or like a mileage stipend,” Mcnerney said.

The food and beverage industry is notorious for high turnover rates. Despite the fact that most of these positions do not require a previous work history or post-secondary degree; the on-the-job training is relatively seamless for most new hires.

Today, Covid-19 is still negatively impacting employment rates and hiring managers are using more effective solutions to help meet the needs of prospective employees.

“There are added perks that would make people want to come to the company, Mcnerney said.” “But as a whole, I think that they are only effective to the degree of which people want to work in that industry.”

In Destiny USA, many restaurants like Margaritaville are offering five-hundred-dollar sign-on bonuses to employees who work a minimum of 90 days.

Bartender Ciara Contini, says a friend referred her to the job and she immediately applied directly through the sign-on bonus.

“I know everyone is going to be getting the sign-on bonus processed at the same time,” Contini said. “There are quite a few employees here that are also expecting it like me and they are very excited and happy about it.”

Margaritaville is still accepting applications for food service workers and Pepsi is hiring Class A drivers on an on-going bases.

Anchor:

For some employers in the food and beverage industry…Right now incentives are the most effective recruiting tool for new employees.

N-C-C News Reporter Darcie Ortique explains how extra cash rewards are helping managers hire more workers at a time where companies are understaffed.

Ortique:
Ryan Mcnerney is a District Manager for Pepsi and says his company now offers twenty-five-hundred-dollar sign-on bonuses, housing stipends and relocation bonuses for qualifying candidates.

Mcnerney: We have a lump sum that’s paid out after the course of a full year of employment which is another two-thousand-dollars that we offer to anybody that wants to come into our company.

Ortique:
In Destiny USA, new employees who work for a minimum of 90 days at Margaritaville will earn a five-hundred-dollar sign-on bonus!

Bartender Ciara Contini says she was referred to the position from a friend and applied immediately after hearing about the bonus!

Contini:
Everywhere is hiring right now…Everyone is struggling with employees and staff. I think people should try and apply to wherever they think they will be the happiest.

Mcnerney says from a hiring perspective…Covid has only increased the need for reliable employees.

Yet…it is too early to tell whether or not the incentives will impact long-term employee retention rates.

Darcie Ortique, N-C-C News

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