MANAGERS COMPETE FOR SHRINKING POOL OF LOW-WAGE WORKERS : CAREER PATH POSITIVE ATTITUDE KEY TO RETENTION.

Byline: Teresa McUsic Fort Worth Star-Telegram 

Forget just finding good teen-age help during the winter holidays. The entry-wage hiring crunch is officially on, and managers in all types of businesses are feeling the pinch.

Here's what happening:

A McDonald's in South Dakota is offering $25 to potential employees just to fill out an application.

A Circle K in Dallas had to shut down for a week because it didn't have enough employees to fill half the shifts.

More than half of the shops at the Denver International Airport couldn't stay open their full scheduled hours during the airport's opening week. Even with two years' notice, the shops, which include outlets from the Body Shop and other upscale stores to most of the major fast-food chains, were unable to find enough help.

At the same time, it's estimated that the fast-food industry alone employs more than 9.4 million and is expected to hire 12.5 million by 2005. Overall, a whopping 89 percent of all workers in America are paid hourly, making the need to fill entry-level positions that much more urgent.

If you need good ideas on how to find and keep those precious entry-level employees, read a paperback out titled ``Now Hiring! Finding & Keeping Good Help for Your Entry-Wage Jobs'' (American Management Association, 184 pages, $17.95).

Sometimes paperback books written by small-business people have more solid information than all the academics and management gurus combined can produce. Such is the case with this book, which is written by Steve Lauer and B. Jack Gebhardt. Lauer is the owner or franchisee of several successful Subway outlets; Gebhardt is a free-lance business writer.

Much of the book is based on Lauer's experience facing the entry-level hiring squeeze and describes what he has done to lower his turnover rate and continue to inspire employees to work hard for him.

His ``People Plan'' has worked. For the past five years, his franchise has ranked first in the chain in average volume per store, while his turnover rate is less than one-third the national average for the food industry.

The key to solving the people problem, he says: Managers should learn to enjoy their work and, in turn, make sure employees enjoy theirs.

``If you're managing hourlies right now and you don't enjoy it yet, it's time to start,'' Lauer and Gebhardt write. ``If you're not enjoying yourself, this `business game' you're in is soon going to be moving too fast for you. It'll wear you down and spit you out.''

Bottom line: Lauer and Gebhardt correctly describe finding entry-level workers as a big problem for many employers and say that it will likely remain so for 10 to 15 years. Their solution points to attitude. With a good one, you just might be able to make it through the squeeze.