Hiring, training, rosters and retention. Staff turnover is the most expensive problem most restaurants never put a number on.
Ask an owner what staff turnover costs them and the usual answer is a shrug. Put the number together — the notice period worked badly, the weeks of a manager's time spent hiring, the slower service and the mistakes while somebody new learns the floor — and it is routinely more than the salary of the person who left.
Almost all of it is decided in two places. The first is hiring: interviewing for attitude and availability rather than a CV, and being honest about the hours before someone joins rather than after. The second is the first week, which is when a new joiner decides whether this is a job worth keeping. A restaurant that trains properly in week one rarely has a retention problem in month six.
The guides below cover hiring, that first week of training, and the rostering decisions that quietly drive people out. None of it requires an HR function — just doing the same few things consistently.
Staff turnover is the most expensive problem most restaurants never put a number on. Once you do put a number on it, almost everything else about how you hire and train starts to look different.
Most restaurants train new joiners by putting them on the floor during a rush and hoping. That is the worst possible condition for learning, and it is why the same role gets filled three times a year.
Most restaurant hiring is done in a panic, on the day someone quits. That is how you end up replacing the same role three times a year — and paying for it every time.
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4 guidesThe few numbers worth checking every week.
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