I know this will get lost in the feeds but here goes anyway.
At my wife’s work, like everywhere else, they were extremely understaffed. They brought in a third party company at great expense to fill the labor gap but management soon realized that it would be cheaper to increase wages and hire more permanent staff so after they increased wages by 0.50¢/hour they were able to hire a couple of more people but still people were unsatisfied. Every weekend and holiday management would put a call out for volunteers to pick up extra shifts and every weekend they would go short staffed because no one would take them.
After a month of this, management started offering gift cards in the amount of $50 for a half shift, 100$ for a full shift and 150$ for graveyard shift. Wouldn’t you know it. After that they no longer had any trouble finding coverage! It got so good that there was a wait list for weekend and holiday work.
After several months of this and the pandemic coming to an end, management stopped that perk and it went right back to being short staffed. My wife quit shortly after that. I don’t understand why companies can’t see the Forest through the trees and pay a living wage all of the time. Work flow improved, customer satisfaction increased, employee morale was boosted and profits matched the expense. Its not that difficult of a dilemma.