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How Restaurant Owners Can Fix Worker Turnover

Without laborers, you might not have a business. Without your business, laborers might not have a job. That’s the basic understanding between workers and owners in any industry, but there’s a massive elephant in the room that separates the restaurant industry from any other — a 75% turnover rate.

Photo: TundraFMP

September 1, 2023

When you think of your employees, what’s the first thing that comes to mind?

Gratitude? Contempt? Frustration?

That is an astronomically high turnover rate, and it became a costly average for restaurants nationwide in 2019. The Center for Hospitality Research at Cornell University estimates that losing a front-line restaurant employee costs a restaurant $5,864. With the average restaurant profit margin at 3-5%, hemorrhaging workers is no longer an option for most restaurants in America.

Your employees want a better workplace.
You want a more profitable restaurant.

Let’s get both of you what you want.

Streamline operations and reduce strenuous labor

We’re all familiar with the notion of working smarter instead of harder, and no one feels the weight of this mantra more than your employees. Putting undue strain on your workers is an easy way to make them feel used, disregarded, and disrespected. To find out where things might be off, review your work processes and check for redundancies.

Are your workers chopping everything by hand when they could be using a dicer? Does your waste disposal plan subject your workers to heaps of piled-up trash? If someone calls in sick, how does your manager handle their replacement?

Having multiple plans of action in place helps your restaurant work more efficiently and less strenuously. Your workers can feel the cracks when they exist, and they’ll know the difference between a thrown-together operation and a well-oiled machine. Respecting your restaurant in this manner respects the people working inside of it as well.

Invest in labor-saving tools

In the age of digital restaurant reviews, consistency and speed are paramount. Striking a balance between manual food prep and automation ensures that meals are prepared to perfection without long wait times. But you can’t wring extra effort out of your workers unless the towel is wet. If you want speed, you need to invest in ways to help them succeed.

Investing in tools that help your workers make consistently delicious meals are necessary as a way to improve your worker’s experience while saving you money. Every minute saved in the kitchen translates to dollars saved in your bank account. With labor-saving equipment, not only is the speed of service improved, but product and time wastage is reduced.

Analyze management and listen to your employees

The difference between someone staying and someone leaving often comes down to whether or not they feel heard. No matter how nice a workplace might feel, there is always a disconnect between managers and the workers underneath them.

No one on your payroll has a better understanding of how to improve your restaurant than your employees. It’s time to learn from them. When a worker leaves, have a process in place to conduct exit interviews so you’ll have the most accurate information on why turnover is happening in your establishment.

You may even consider paying a bonus of $50-$100 to encourage departing employees to complete these interviews. It can be as easy as filling out a questionnaire or form, but be sure these are completed independently from your managers — they may not want you to hear what an employee has to say.

Attitude reflects leadership, so be sure to review your managers and assess their needs as well. If they are frustrated, it will trickle down to every employee.

Labor relations don’t have to be a headache. Workers and employers live in a symbiotic relationship, so resist the urge for either to treat the other as a parasite. By streamlining your operations, investing in ways to work smarter, and actually listening to your employees, you will dramatically decrease employee turnover without sacrificing productivity or hours.

The foodservice industry is heading toward a merger of innovation and efficiency. It's time for restaurant owners to be proactive and embrace labor-saving tactics to stop the bleeding and set themselves and their employees up for success.

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TundraFMP

TundraFMP helps foodservice operators do what they do best – by providing fast, flexible and complete kitchen solutions. We offer the most complete selection of restaurant equipment, apparel, smallwares, parts, and accessories in the industry.

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