Desperate hospitality industry bosses are having to get creative in a bid to nab in-demand staff as a national worker shortage continues to bite.
At the Orchard Hotel in Chatswood, Sydney, posters advertising a $5000 referral reward for a head chef have been on display.
Owner Matt Docker said it was the first time his business had ever offered money for a referral.
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Migration surge on the way
A pandemic-induced halt in migration has led to roughly 200,000 hospitality jobs being up for grabs across the country.
However, some relief could be on the way thanks to a recent surge in visa approvals.
Last week, Immigration Minister Andrew Giles said more than two million visa applications had been processed since June, including 1.35 million visitor, student and temporary skilled visa applications.
The government had committed $36.1 million to hire 500 staff to help process a remaining backlog of about 880,000 visa applications, Giles said.
Green said the industry was fervently hoping things would get back to normal soon.
"The actions that we're seeing with these incentives are born out of frustration," Green said.
"And a lot of the operators are actually really frustrated because we were trying to trade out of the last two-and-a-half years of losses of revenue.
"Venues want to be open, particularly as we head into the busy Christmas party season, and have sufficient staff to be able to do that."