When COVID-19 first shut down theaters and furloughed technicians and administrative staff at arts organizations, people fled New York City. Economics forced many to move in with parents or friends. Others sought refuge from the virus in less crowded communities. Some who were able to work remotely relocated to more affordable areas, where larger homes made it easier to juggle the demands of virtual work and school.

People will be back, thought Meredith Lynsey Schade, producing director of the PROTOTYPE Festival. But once lockdown ended and she had jobs available, she found they were challenging to fill.

Two years later, Schade still describes the hiring situation as “brutal.” “The people we relied on and had built relationships with for decades decided it was too hard to live in the city,” she says. “Once they got a taste of living somewhere else, they realized the struggle of being an artist in a city was not the way they wanted to live their life.” The people who were applying for open positions were woefully inexperienced or demanding salaries two to three times higher than they used to — money that most nonprofits do not have available.

New York City opera companies are not alone in their struggle to find qualified staff — or to hire people at all. Most industries are still gripped by what is being called “the Great Resignation.” The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 47 million people left their jobs in 2021, and quit rates don’t seem to be slowing down. A total of 4.53 million people resigned their jobs in March 2022, which set a new record.

While the number of people who transition jobs every year has steadily ticked upward since 2010, a number of social shifts — including the stresses brought on by the pandemic, inflation, and changing expectations about work — make the problem feel especially acute for opera companies right now.

In a 2021 study by the Pew Research Center, workers cited low pay as a top reason for leaving a job. Since arts organizations and other nonprofits tend to pay less, it’s an industry that’s been harder hit. People with skills in finance, marketing, development, and other office roles can often get more money in other industries — sometimes substantially more, given the current upward pressure on wages.

Early retirements have made it more challenging to fill executive positions. “In Canada, almost 60 percent of leaders at arts organizations report significantly higher levels of stress from before the pandemic,” says Ian Rye, CEO of Pacific Opera Victoria. Many chose not to return once health restrictions were lifted and performances could resume.

On the artistic and technical side of the industry, folks are fleeing opera for positions in film and digital production. Money is a top driver for resignations. When freelance artists and technicians were forced to pick up supplemental sources of income during lockdown, “it increased their standard of living and made it harder to come back to a freelancer performing career,” says Rye. Canada hasn’t been as hard hit by the Great Resignation, but companies are finding they need to book freelance artists sooner because there are fewer available.

Stability is another factor in the current flight from opera. “Artists are looking for consistency in work,” says Jeremiah Marks with Radar Nonprofit Solution, a consulting firm that helps organizations modernize their finance departments. “They don’t want the big gaps in employment, and that’s why film and other industries are much more attractive.”

Others, having been furloughed at the start of the pandemic, simply decided they didn’t want to come back. In a survey conducted by the United States Institute for Theatre Technology in 2021, 25 percent of respondents said they were not planning to return to technical work. People leaving the industry shared comments like, “I became an EMT because it was less stressful” and “I finally got to know my kids and wanted to spend time with them.”

“The industry is built on long and difficult hours, particularly during production periods,” says Piper Gunnarson, executive director of On Site Opera. Tired of overwhelming stress, inflexible work schedules, and the physical demands of some roles, workers simply decided the work was no longer sustainable for them.

Even for some technicians who wanted to come back, the return to in-person employment proved to be too much. “We went through four people in three months who came wonderfully recommended but who just, when they got into the room, couldn’t do the work anymore,” says Schade. “They hadn’t adjusted to being back in production and working at the pace we’re used to working, or the demands of being around other people when COVID is still a thing.”

COVID changed a lot of things, and one was expectations around the role of work and quality of life. “It used to be that your job defined you,” says Julia Noulin-Merat, general director and CEO of Opera Columbus. “Now, it’s what do you want your life to be?” That’s driving many people to rethink how they spend their time and who they spend it with.

The lack of adequate staffing has put tremendous strain on workers who opt to stay. They must take on the extra burden of work until a new person is hired, and that period can be significant. This leaves employees feeling stressed and overwhelmed, which makes them more likely to leave.

Some of the solutions to the hiring crisis will take time to resolve. For some technical positions, especially those requiring higher levels of skill, “the only way to fill them is going to be to train people up and promote them,” says Marks. “We need a better feeder system on the production and artistic side.”

Until then, opera companies are finding creative solutions for both hiring and retaining workers. Inspired by its EDI work, On Site Opera has revamped its hiring practices. Instead of requiring a cover letter, applicants are now asked to submit a resume and answer two questions: “What interests you about On Site Opera’s past or upcoming productions?” and “What professional or life experiences are not included on your resume that could be relevant to this position?”

“Nobody likes writing or reading cover letters, and most people don’t know how to write a good one,” says Gunnarson. “Not knowing what to write in a cover letter is its own equity gap. If you’ve never been mentored by somebody who can teach you to write one, you don’t know what to write about.” The answers to the questions convey more important information, such as how deeply the applicant researched the organization and what about On Site Opera’s work resonates with them.

Sometimes, the answers to the questions communicate soft skills that aren’t apparent from a traditional application. If a person has a gap on their resume because they took time off to care for a sick relative, and they learned patience and how to communicate in stressful situations, those skills may be very relevant to their job.

“This process has yielded a really fun job search process, but it has also opened our eyes to a lot of candidates who we might not have considered if we used a more traditional process,” says Gunnarson. For example, On Site recently hired a marketing manager who had experience in marketing but no background in opera.

“On the administrative side, flexibility is the new currency,” says Gunnarson. “It’s incredibly important for organizations to take a hard look at how much time staff really needs to be in person, and to figure out how to offer as much flexibility as possible for remote work or flexible time to care for family.”

Knowing that they couldn’t compete on wages, Opera Columbus is now looking into what benefits it can use to differentiate itself, and using those to attract and retain workers. Flexibility is one key benefit. Everyone is expected to be in the office on Wednesday and Thursday, but they can choose one other day per week to work remotely, says Noulin-Mérat. Start times are staggered, with some people choosing to report to work early so they can also leave early.

Employees have the option of switching to a 32-hour work week, and the company is hiring more part-time people or contractors when it needs specialized skills. “We’re really growing our social media presence, and we have a social media associate who works 15 hours a week doing content creation,” Noulin-Mérat says. “She’s also a local influencer, so she doesn’t want a full-time job.” She has outsourced some financial and development work and contracted with a local company for box office management.

To save employees time, Noulin-Mérat borrowed a page from the healthcare industry and is automating processes as much as possible. Using online services to make meeting scheduling and other mundane tasks easier has freed up enough time that she and the company’s development director have more time for personal engagement with donors, which has increased their success rate and led to greater job satisfaction.

In this tough hiring environment, retaining current employees has become essential. Even though Pacific Opera Victoria hasn’t seen an exodus of staff, “we are having to ramp up our retention strategies,” says Rye. The company has increased its maternity leave period to four months and extended the same benefit for new fathers. He recently revisited everyone’s job description to make sure it accurately reflected their workload, and reexamined job titles to make sure they spoke to people’s level of responsibility. The company now has a more flexible work arrangement; everyone is allowed to work from home one day a week, and they can petition for more remote days.

Mental health care is now a standard health benefit at Pacific Opera Victoria, and Rye is working hard to create a nurturing workplace. “We’re making sure people have support from their colleagues and employer to be their true selves, express their concerns, and be supported.”

Facilitating employee professional development is another critical part of retention, says Aaron Sanko, managing director at UIA Talent Agency. He has a monthly meeting with each employee to discuss their performance and also uses this time to ask them about both professional and personal goals, hopes, and dreams. He then does what he can to help them achieve their desires. When it's clear to an employee that their employer cares and is making a commitment to bettering their lives, they’re more likely to stay.

It’s also helpful for predicting and planning for inevitable employee turnover. He shares the story of a woman whose dream was to go to law school. Since Sanko had spoken with her about her plans and supported her through the application process, “I knew that role was going to become vacant for over a year before it did. It allowed us to be way more intentional in the hiring process,” he says.

Investing in what employees need, not what a company wants to gain from them, is a culture shift, Sanko acknowledges. “It’s a hard thing to do when companies are feeling strained in both finances and time.” But when staff are happy, they function at a higher level and are better teammates, which is better for everyone involved.