Staffing

Over half of fast-food workers quit early when onboarding fails, report finds

Photo: Adobe Stock (AI generated)

August 26, 2026

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More than half of quick-service restaurant workers who experienced inefficient onboarding quit before they even started working independently, according to a survey from AllianceHCM.

The survey polled 1,000 recent QSR employees and found 51.8% of those who felt the onboarding process was inefficient left during the onboarding or training phases. Across the entire survey, 42.7% of all respondents exited their jobs before taking on independent work.

The data highlights a costly issue for the fast-food industry, which faces turnover rates exceeding 135% for hourly workers and replacement costs averaging $2,305 per employee. The survey also revealed a strong correlation between inefficient administrative processes and decreased employee trust in their employer across all stages of employment.

Workers identified several specific frustrations throughout their employment lifecycle. During onboarding, 18.7% of respondents found hiring paperwork and employment forms inefficient. During training, 18.4% cited poor coordination among managers, trainers and coworkers. For day-to-day independent work, 19.4% disagreed that schedules, shift changes and staffing updates were communicated in a timely and organized manner.

"Friction in the employee experience translates into mistrust, lost productivity, and hard-dollar costs. This survey is particularly valuable because it pinpoints where dissatisfaction arises at different stages of the employee journey and puts hard numbers behind the cost of getting the employee experience wrong, including the impact on trust and, ultimately, retention," Matt Umholtz, president and chief revenue officer at AllianceHCM, said in the release.

"The good news is that these problems can be fixed. QSR operators that adopt the right HCM technology can streamline documentation and automate communication, creating a work environment where processes and tools serve the worker, not just the back office. We've seen countless examples where simply replacing paper-based processes with an easy-to-use app has made a world of difference in employee satisfaction."

The survey was conducted online between June 9 and June 21, 2026, polling U.S. adults who had worked at a quick-service restaurant within the past three years.