Nearly Half of Restaurants Struggle to Hire, Retain Employees

restaurant sign about staffing shortage

While the easing of restrictions on restaurant dining is fueling resurgent consumer demand, restaurants are finding that hiring and retaining staff is a challenge in the current labor market.

In fact, nearly half of restaurants are having trouble hiring and retaining employees, according to the “Restaurant Readiness Index,” a PYMNTS and Paytronix collaboration based on a survey of 519 managers of quick-service restaurants (QSRs) and table-service restaurants.

Get the report: Restaurant Readiness Index

The survey found that 45% of managers faced difficulty in hiring people to work in the last three months, and 46% had difficulty in retaining employees in the last three months.

Chain QSRs are having a harder time hiring people, with 52% of the managers of this type of restaurant saying that is an issue they face. By comparison, 47% of independent table-service restaurants, 39% of chain table-service restaurants and 38% of independent QSRs report having difficulty hiring people to work.

Chain QSRs are also having a harder time retaining employees, with 54% of managers of this type of restaurant saying that’s an issue. Among the other types of restaurants, 46% of independent QSRs, 45% of chain table-service restaurants and 41% of independent table-service restaurants say they’ve had difficulty retaining employees.

chart, hiring and retaining staff

To try to solve these issues, restaurants are taking a number of different measures to hire and retain employees.

Topping the list is paying employees more. Fifty-six percent of all respondents who found it difficult to hire in the last three months said that is a measure they have implemented to cope with staffing issues.

The next most common measures are decreasing their level of service, requiring waitstaff to cover more tables, not opening as many tables as they could and implementing technology. These measures were cited by 32%, 31%, 29% and 28%, respectively, of the respondents.

chart, restaurant staffing