I did a brief stint in the casual dining industry. My friends laugh at me when I bring up old HR war stories from my days at Applebee’s, but the reality is I loved that work. Over the years, I’ve tried to figure out why. 

First, it was a constant challenge. The moment you figured out one location, another one needed help. Second, I loved the people. Guest service-focused. They wanted to deliver an experience people enjoyed. I love eating out, and so do so many people. It was an experience you could immediately relate to. So given my background and personal affinity towards the restaurant industry, I was immediately intrigued when I saw the National Restaurant Association recently released its Workforce Technology Report, discussing the challenges the industry faces today. The report served talent leaders from 17 different major restaurant organizations, including Chipotle, Potbelly, and Flynn Group (Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Wendy’s). 

Turns out, not much has changed since I left Applebee’s:

• High turnover
• Hard to recruit
• Hard to retain your best

Over 75% of restaurant leaders say recruiting and retaining employees are a “significant” challenge to their business. If you’ve been to a restaurant since the pandemic, you’ve probably seen this in action. You see full sections of a restaurant open, but you can’t be seated. Signs saying “please be patient,” so you try to find a manager to speak to but you can’t find one because the manager is probably on the line helping cook everyone’s meals.

I had a field operations leader I used to work with who loved telling his general managers, “Staff for the business you want, not the business you have!” The point being, if a customer comes in and has a bad experience because we’re understaffed, they probably don’t come back. You saved a little bit of money by running lean, but you cost yourself a returning customer. Sure, it costs a little more to be properly staffed, but you can then deliver an amazing experience, and those people will keep coming back multiple times.

Given all the challenges, it feels like most restaurants today aren’t appropriately staffed. I have some ideas on how to fix that… 

Click here for the fix! (Ugh, don’t you just hate clickbait!?!)