Finding the right people to work in your restaurant requires good marketing. Keeping those people on board requires good management.
Restaurant staff retention is one of our industry’s most persistent issues. According to the National Restaurant Association’s 2025 State of the Industry Report, 77 percent of restaurant operators identify retention as one of the biggest challenges facing their businesses.
“Constant turnover can really impact your business in a handful of ways,” explains Back of House operations expert Dan Durkin. “Obviously it can be really costly to constantly recruit and train new employees. But it can also lead to a lot of problems with efficiency and morale.”
Naturally, restaurant employee retention strategies like increased pay and benefits help. But there is another strategy that won’t raise your costs. It’s really all about how you manage your employees, from the opportunities you create and the environment you foster to the example your managers set through their own work.
We wanted to learn more about this approach, so we asked Dan for some insights on how to improve staff retention in your restaurant through enhanced management.
“Good management sets the tone for so much of what happens in a restaurant,” says Dan. “Managers who can keep teammates motivated, engaged, and happy can make all the difference — not just in the day to day employee experience, but in how long your employees are willing to stick around.”
So what are a few management-centered employee retention strategies?
Good managers create opportunities for employee growth and work with employees to seize these opportunities. This approach to restaurant management can be a game-changer when it comes to restaurant staff retention.
“Invest the right kind of training in your people and they’ll invest their time in your restaurant,” says Dan. “Clearly better training can lead to better performance and better customer experiences. But the bigger picture is that better training creates opportunities for career growth.”
According to Restaurant365’s Midyear State of the Restaurant Industry report, the number of restaurants with staff turnover of 10 percent or lower has actually grown by 9 percent since the start of the year.
One reason for this improvement in staff retention, say survey respondents, is a growing focus on excellent staff training programs. Many restaurants are also using cross-training programs to help give their employees access to new skills and opportunities.
Forty percent of surveyed restaurant owners say enhanced training is their top management priority this year.
Flexibility is a bigger priority than ever before for restaurant employees. The Restaurant365 2025 midyear report notes that 27 percent of respondents are actively working on strategies that provide their employees with better work-life balance.
“A lot of restaurant workers are looking for jobs that fit into their lives, instead of the other way around,” says Dan. “This seems especially true for younger workers.”
In fact, according to a recent survey by scheduling software provider 7shifts, 64 percent of restaurant workers say that flexibility and work-life balance are the best parts of their job. 7shifts also provides a sophisticated scheduling platform that makes it much easier for managers to create this balance.
However, smart scheduling is just one piece of the puzzle. It’s also important for management to actively support work-life balance by encouraging employees to communicate their needs and showing empathy for employees affected by issues outside of work. In short, it helps to:
As we point out above, communication is an important part of creating work-life balance. But the role of communication is even bigger than that. Managers who are open to input and feedback from employees are in a much better position to address issues that may be lowering morale.
“Employee feedback can be an incredibly valuable source of insight into how your whole operation is working,” Dan says. “Your staff sees it firsthand every day. The things that create frustration for your employees are also the same things that create bottlenecks in your operation.”
That’s why it’s so important to provide a meaningful feedback loop where employees feel not just free, but encouraged, to share their workplace experiences. The ability of management to act on that feedback can have a profound impact on staff retention.
That’s why tech providers like 7shifts also include a Shift Feedback feature, which managers can use to continuously collect feedback and monitor employee satisfaction.
Stress, pressure, and chaos make for great TV shows about restaurants. But in the real world, stress, pressure, and chaos lead to dysfunction. And that kind of dysfunction can seriously affect restaurant staff retention.
Management is ultimately responsible for ensuring the kitchen is orderly and the dining room is running smoothly.
This means that:
Fortunately, there are some advanced tech solutions that can help with these organizational tasks. For instance, people-management platform Push Operations automates tasks like payroll, scheduling, and shift-swapping, while also providing data-driven insights on your labor efficiency.
With Push, you can use those insights to optimize scheduling, retask employees, and keep your restaurant running like a well oiled machine – the kind of machine that people want to be a part of for the long haul.
According to the survey from 7shifts mentioned earlier, 76 percent of employees say that one of their favorite things about working in the restaurant business is their teammates. Those of us who have worked in the industry understand this sentiment very well. The best restaurants fulfill a need for connection and community.
“The truth is that there are a lot of restaurant jobs out there,” says Dan. “If somebody doesn’t like the energy in your restaurant, they can easily find another option out there. That means you could be losing a potentially good long-term employee.”
In short, vibe matters. That vibe starts with management. It falls on management to lead by example and hold all employees up to the same standards of inclusiveness, fairness, and kindness.
Even the most efficient restaurant can be intense at times. By upholding these standards, managers can keep that intensity from descending into negativity and triggering high employee churn.
Most of the tech-based employee retention strategies highlighted above have something in common. Tools like the ones 7shifts and Push offer can automate a lot of the administrative tasks that otherwise demand the time, energy, and attention of your managers.
This means managers have more time to provide on-the-job training, communicate with employees, and provide positive feedback. But which tools make the most sense for your restaurant?
That depends on what you’re already working with and what your goals are for the future. Reach out and schedule a free personal consultation with Dan or another of our industry experts and we’ll work together to figure out exactly what you need.