The sign at Captain D’s has said “Now Hiring” for what seems like months. A few local businesses are still being forced to close early or eliminate shifts due to lack of workers.

More than two years after the pandemic first hit, are companies having any better luck finding and retaining employees?

Local McDonald’s general manager Ray Whitaker said Friday the restaurant is officially fully staffed with 87 employees and nine managers.

“It’s gotten so much better and we’re at a point where we consider ourselves fully staffed,” said Whitaker. “I think a big part of it is because our starting pay is now $12 an hour. We made a commitment to be highly competitive with our pay.”

When it comes to the medical field, Ascension Saint Thomas River Park CEO Dale Humphrey says local hospital employees just received a “significant increase” in their pay and they will also get their annual 3% increase in October.

Still, he says finding skilled medical professionals remains a challenge.

“It’s a struggle and it’s a nationwide struggle, which doesn’t give me any comfort,” said Humphrey. “I don’t see this going away for a very long period of time, but I think our competitive pay has really helped us retain staff. They just got an increase which makes us extremely competitive. A lot of people have gotten big raises and that should bode well in our favor.”

Humphrey says River Park is delivering more babies, performing more surgeries, and providing more care than ever before. He says that’s great for the hospital, but it also necessitates more staff. He says a decrease in COVID-related hospital visits has been seen in recent months and he expects that trend to continue, but some staff members are still burned out.

“I think people in the healthcare field tend to burn out quicker because of what they have to deal with,” said Humphrey. “The behavior of patients doesn’t help either. This is not a kinder, gentler world we’re living in and we’re seeing more difficult patients with more mental issues.”

Finding employees remains a challenge at Morrison Industries, one of Warren County’s largest industrial employers.

When asked if finding employees is easier today than a year ago, Morrison Industries president Jacob Wilson said, “About the same honestly. Maybe slightly easier.”

Wilson says creating a positive work environment has been a big key.

“We have made a wave of adjustments and continue to go out of our way to be a great place to work,” said Wilson. “Our retention and recruiting efforts have kept us steady over the last few months.”

Gondola owner Jimmy Zavogiannis echoed those comments, saying he does more for employees now than ever before. As evidence of that, he says Gondola is closed until this Thursday, July 14, so all employees can have a vacation.

“Everybody told me they wanted a vacation so the easiest way to do that for everybody is to shut down for 10 days,” said Zavogiannis. “I want to feel like I’m being a good boss. They said they wanted a vacation so I gave them a vacation. Now I hope they come back when we reopen on Thursday.”

Jimmy says his generation is one of the last to obey and respect their parents. He says many of the younger folks he hires seem to lack a sense of respect and lack a solid work ethic.

“They don’t have responsibility anymore. They have rights,” said Zavogiannis. “They have a right to this and a right to that.”

Zavogiannis said a major developer in the Persian Gulf city of Dubai addressed this issue when he talked about how his grandparents rode camels, but now he rides in a Mercedes. Jimmy said the businessman noted that he could see future generations going back to riding camels if work ethic doesn’t improve and the sense of entitlement decrease.