Relentless COVID staff shortages challenge small businesses

At K-Man Vets surgery, Colin Manson has struggled through 16-hour days to handle an appointment load designed for a team of four vets.

At Subway restaurant chain, owner Troy Burke constantly shuffles his thinning roster of staff across five locations, in an effort to maintain 24/7 service.

Eclipze Hair Design and Day Spa owner Darla Dilbert counts her blessings every morning, praying she won’t lose any of her staff to the COVID-19 outbreak that is still sweeping through Cayman. So far, she has been lucky.

Customers may have cancelled appointments but she hasn’t lost a single staff member to the virus and the enforced home isolation that comes with it.

The salon is the exception. Many businesses, including critical services like banks, have been forced to close branches, shorten hours or reduce staffing amid the impact of the coronavirus.

Currently almost 6,000 people – just short of 10% of the population – are in quarantine. The months-long COVID outbreak is causing a wave of enforced absenteeism that is stretching small businesses to breaking point.

Now the Chamber of Commerce has requested a meeting with Health Minister Sabrina Turner and is recommending that the rules around quarantine be relaxed.

The business lobby group warns that constantly losing key staff for weeks at a time has tested the resources of its members since the outbreak began last September.

“The impact has been significant. Small businesses have had to reduce hours, close for extended periods, or operate remotely,” Michael Gibbs, president of the Chamber told the Compass.

“Chamber members are coping but this situation cannot go on for much longer.”

Currently, anyone who tests positive on a lateral flow test is required to isolate for at least a week and must get a negative PCR test before they can leave their homes.

The Compass has previously reported that some patients have been kept in isolation for several weeks, despite having no symptoms.

The Chamber is recommending that the ‘exit test’ requirement be reconsidered.

“The quarantine provisions need to be reviewed, as well as the testing protocols,” said Gibbs, hinting at a desire from the business community for more wholesale relaxation of restrictions.

“Many other countries have changed their testing, travel, and quarantine protocols. We believe it is time for us to consider a different approach,” he said.

Government announced some changes to make it easier for COVID-positive people with low viral loads to be released from isolation this week, but local business leaders would like to see more dramatic action.

Dawn McLean-Brady, president of the Cayman Islands Small Business Association, said salons, gyms, retailers and bars that could not shift to remote working have been particularly hard hit.

She said “good corporate citizens” that paid extended sick leave and vacation pay to staff through multiple absences faced an additional strain on resources.

“Replacing those persons isolating has been difficult in itself. To cover the additional salary, on top of the short staffing issue, is crippling.”

Cost of testing

The cost of lateral flow tests, personal protective equipment, masks and deep-cleaning services compounds the impact of reduced custom, caused by social distancing, absent tourists and the reluctance of customers to mingle as they might have prior to the pandemic.

McLean-Brady hopes the government will consider supporting those expenses or offer alternate concessions to help the sector get back on its feet.

Gibbs said that many operators have had to radically adjust their business models or shut their doors until the restrictions are lifted.

“The businesses that can survive the restrictions are struggling to maintain staffing levels. It is an extremely challenging situation for many.”

Gibbs added that more than 60% of the Chamber’s 636 members have fewer than 10 staff and are disproportionately impacted by any personnel absences.

“If the current situation continues, more micro and small businesses will go out of business or be purchased by larger businesses which eliminates competition,” he warned.

Day-to-day struggles

Even strong businesses are feeling the stress of operating with reduced staff.

For Burke, every morning brings news of a new case of COVID among the staff at his five Subway stores.

“It is a bit of a nightmare,” he said. “We can still operate our business but it is a challenge. Almost every day I get a phone call at 6 or 7am, that we have just lost another staff member or that we need to get someone tested.”

On Sunday, he had to close the East End branch for the day, a decision he did not take lightly, and that he hopes will be a one-off. For the most part, he has been able to keep the doors open 24/7 by shifting staff from location to location as new cases emerge.

The frustrating part, Burke said, is that they rarely have any symptoms and are anxious to come to work.

He would like to see Cayman follow the example of the UK and limit testing to cases where people have symptoms.

“If you are sick, you stay home; if you are not sick you go to work,” he said, emphasising the relatively few hospital cases and deaths among the 14,000 people that have now had the virus in Cayman.

“In 99.9% of these cases, there is not even any symptoms,” he added.

Customer impact

For Dilbert at Eclipze, the impact has been less on her staff rota and more on her appointments book.

She credits the enhanced sanitation protocols within the salon and COVID awareness among her staff as the reasons she has yet to lose a team member to COVID.

There may be a little luck involved too, she acknowledged.

“Every day I am knocking on wood,” she said.

That is not to say that COVID has not impacted her business. Cancelled appointments and no-shows are up, and December – usually a big month for salons – was particularly impacted.

There are also a couple of vacancies at the salon, with recruitment challenges adding to the impact of the virus.

Going solo

For other businesses, keeping the doors open could be a matter of life and death.
For two weeks earlier this year, Manson was the only vet in the building at K-Man Vets. With one vet on vacation and two testing positive for COVID, he was left to run the practice almost single-handedly.

His wife Jessica, head nurse at the surgery, contracted COVID and he faced an anxious wait to see if he too would test positive.

“We had two surgeries scheduled for that week and I don’t know what we would have done if he was positive,” she said. “Our biggest fear was about who was going to help these animals.

“We had two dogs with leg fractures and Colin is the only one able to do that type of surgery.”

Thankfully, the rules had recently changed so he was not automatically required to isolate as a household contact of his wife.

His test came back negative, Jessica went into isolation at a separate location, and he carried on going to work.

She said the nursing staff rallied round, patients rescheduled non-essential appointments and the show went on.

“He just put his head down and got on with it,” she said.

“We were quite nervous for a while, but it did work out.”

Calls for change

The impact of the current COVID-19 outbreak and the related isolation measures goes beyond inconveniences and close calls.

Chamber president Gibb said many businesses had been severely affected and the Chamber is seeking talks with key government ministers in the hopes that Cayman can change its approach to managing the virus.

“The Chamber has written to the health minister seeking a meeting to discuss some recommendations that we believe could greatly improve the situation,” he said.

Businesses in Cayman that have already come through several trying periods since the pandemic began in March 2020 need all the help they can get, Gibbs added.

“Small businesses are the heart and soul of the Cayman economy,” he said. “We must continue to support them as much as possible.”