Optimizing HR for QSR: 5 ways to improve your workflow and retain your employees

Introduction

The last few years have been tough for hiring managers of quick-service restaurants (QSR). By the time they reopened their doors towards the end of 2020, hiring and retaining staff had become much harder. According to a survey by the National Restaurant Association (NRA), in January 2022, recruiting employees was the top challenge for 53% of operators. 

Recent data shows that the restaurant industry has filled the labor gap, making up for all lost jobs since February 2020. In fact, the QSR segment even managed to create 100,000 extra jobs. According to the International Franchise Association, employment in QSR is expected to grow by 2.2% in 2024, reaching nearly 4 million employees. 

Now that the hiring frenzy has subsided and the industry is seeing more steady growth, it’s time for QSR operators to take a breath and refine their HR practices. Instead of hiring anyone as fast as possible, operators and HR leaders should be looking to build longevity within their workforce by hiring top applicants and doing all they can to retain them. 

In this guide, we'll show you exactly how to do that. We’ve broken down five key strategies for building HR efficiency in 2024. In each section, you’ll find industry data, success stories, actionable tips, and an exercise to get you thinking about how you can implement this advice on the job. Let’s get started! 

1. Embrace Gen Z

According to a report published in 2021 by Snagajob, in 2020, research estimated that workers under 25 made up 75% of the restaurant workforce and 65% of quick-service workers, as opposed to 7% of Baby Boomers. Characterized by their creativity, adaptability, and resilience, Gen Z make great QSR employees because they often provide fresh ideas, are willing to learn, and can handle the fast-paced environment.

QSR managers who want to increase their hiring and retention rates will need to create a hiring process and a workplace that appeals to the younger generation.

Tips

Provide purpose

Compared to older workers, Gen Z employees are less likely to take a job just for the paycheck. Even if they don't plan to carve out a career in QSR, they’ll stick around for longer if they feel that the company’s values align with theirs, that they're not just a number, and that there are opportunities to grow. 

Offer accommodations

Gen Z is more open about discussing physical or mental hurdles and will greatly appreciate employers who offer accommodations. This looks like flexibility around anxiety/panic attacks and special arrangements for employees with ADHD and workers with disabilities. Adding these benefits will show compassion and respect, and respect breeds loyalty. More and more restaurants are aware of that: According to a report by Bentobox, during 2022 and 2023, restaurant job listings used terms such as “health care” 100% more and “mental health” 53% more. 

Use mobile-friendly tools

Gen Z are digital natives who use smartphones as natural extensions. One key element to connecting with them is to provide mobile-friendly tools like apps and text messages throughout the hiring process and in the workplace. 

Attracting younger employees is not the only good reason to do that, though. Not everyone who applies for a job, especially in the QSR sector, will necessarily own a PC or a tablet, but everyone owns a phone. If you rely too much on desktop-based tools, you may create digital barriers between you and potentially good employees.

How Chipotle does it

More than 73% of Chipotle’s workforce is made up of Gen Z employees. In 2021 and 2022, the company faced very high turnover rates of over 190%.

How Gen Z-friendly are your HR practices?

Ask yourself these questions to evaluate how friendly your Gen-Z practices are. Download the PDF to print this resource and write in your answers. 

• Do you offer any accommodations for employees facing the following issues? Use the space here to list out your accommodations and gut-check if you’re doing enough:  
  • Panic attacks/depression
  • ADHD
  • Physical disabilities
  • Financial hurdles/debt

• If you do, are they clearly communicated in your job listings, website, and other online channels? 
• Do you use mobile-friendly tools for any of these HR purposes? 
  • Candidate application
  • Interview scheduling 
  • Onboarding
  • Shift scheduling
  • Team communications

2. Communicate and engage

Good communication is important throughout a worker's experience with you—from hiring and onboarding to their day-to-day on the job. In the hiring phase, clear and consistent communication fosters trust and keeps applicants engaged. By keeping applicants informed about the next steps and expectations, you minimize the likelihood of no-shows at interviews and increase the conversion rate of applicants into new hires. Furthermore, transparent communication sets the tone for a positive employer-employee relationship from the outset, laying the foundation for mutual respect and understanding.

Once onboarded, ongoing communication remains paramount to maintaining employee engagement and reducing turnover rates. Regular feedback sessions, open channels for dialogue, and transparent communication of goals and expectations empower employees to feel valued and connected. Effective communication fosters a culture of transparency and accountability, where employees feel heard, supported, and motivated to contribute their best efforts. 

By prioritizing communication at every stage of the employee journey, from recruitment to retention, organizations can cultivate a collaborative and harmonious workplace environment conducive to long-term success and growth.

Tips

Optimize your job description 

Use interviews to get to know applicants

Worker-job-fit is important for both the employee and the employer. During the interview, ask meaningful questions to get to know your applicants better and find out what drives them. Show interest in them, making sure that what they’re looking for aligns with the role.

Need some inspiration? Below, you’ll find interview questions to help you evaluate applicants across different characteristics: 

• Job experience by role
• Icebreaker 
• Personality 
• Problem solving
• Teamwork
• Conflict resolution
• Attention to detail
• Leadership
• Behavioral
• Career goals

Respond promptly and be approachable

Don’t be afraid of employee feedback

As a QSR leader, it’s impossible to do everything right all the time. That’s why asking for employees’ feedback is so important. It helps bring to the surface small and big grievances that you wouldn't otherwise be aware of and gives you the opportunity to take action before it impacts retention. Data from employee engagement platform Perceptyx shows that organizations that ask for regular employee feedback are 4x more likely to retain talent than their counterparts, even during times of high attrition.

Anonymous surveys can be an effective method of gathering feedback because employees often feel more comfortable sharing their honest opinions. However, your employee feedback strategy should also include regular in-person one-on-one meetings and exit interviews. As for the frequency, you can use a combination of annual in-depth surveys or more frequent pulse surveys.

Gathering feedback is only half the process. The next step is to analyze it and follow up with the employees, explaining what actions you'll take to solve the issues.  

How BCS Northern does it

BCS Northern, a 30-location Smoothie King franchise group, reduced no-shows and increased retention by making every touchpoint more engaging. In particular, they: 

For more details, listen to our full interview with Ann Miller, HR Manager, BCS Northern.

Checklist: 4 opportunities to engage hourly workers

Keeping applicants and workers engaged is an important responsibility for any people manager. Make it easier to hit your communication goals by checking in during these key moments in their journey with you. Download the PDF to print out this checklist and use it on the job.

When writing job listings, make sure you include: 

• Role description
• What type of skills you’re looking for
• Your company values
• Hourly pay
• Benefits/accommodations
• Growth opportunities

When screening applicants: 

• Keep them up to date: Let them know where they are in the process, what happens next, and when
• Encourage them to reach out to ask questions or get updates
• Keep them up to date even when there’s no update

During interviews: 

• Strive to find out more about applicants and what makes them tick 
• Ask questions that resonate with them
• Consider adapting some of the questions depending on the age of the applicant to relate more to them

At the workplace: 

• Be approachable and supportive
• Ask employees for feedback regularly and follow up on it
• Always schedule exit interviews with employees who leave

3. Filter everything through the lens of retention

After the pandemic, employee turnover in restaurants reached alarming levels. Chipotle, for example, reported rates over 190%. High turnover rates are a huge waste of resources. According to an estimate in the Touchbistro 2024 State of Restaurants report, hiring and training each employee amounts to  $3,600 on average. 

Such a high cost is not surprising. When you lose an employee, there are tangible costs, like time spent on hiring and onboarding and the costs of placing job ads. However, there are also other repercussions of turnover that impact your bottom line too such as loss of knowledge, more work for the remaining employees, possible loss of engagement, lower productivity, and customer satisfaction issues. To truly understand how much turnover is costing you, you need to total up all the obvious and not-so-obvious factors (this calculator will help).  

The antidote to high turnover is hiring with retention in mind from the start. Look for workers who are less likely to turnover and provide benefits and opportunities that make them want to stick around.

Tips

Hire strategically

Employees are more likely to stick around if they are a good fit for the job. Before starting that hiring process, identify and document the qualities of a successful candidate and communicate them clearly in the job description.

When it comes time to source applicants, don’t rely on job boards alone. A diverse sourcing strategy can result in more serious applicants who are looking for your job, not just any job. For example:  

Once you’re ready to interview applicants, clarify the skills and attributes you're assessing and what a good or bad answer looks like. 

If you’re interviewing for a cook position, you could ask candidates about what they do to ensure that food quality and safety remain high during peak hours or how they contribute to a collaborative work environment in the kitchen. For front-of-house staff, you may want to assess their ability to multitask, deal with customer complaints, and their adaptability to change. Need help coming up with the right interview questions? Borrow from our interview question repository. 

Finally, pay attention to the onboarding process. It may seem like the “hiring” portion of the process is over by then, but onboarding is another opportunity to evaluate your new hire. Onboarding tasks, such as signing company documents or providing payroll information, are some of an employee’s first responsibilities. If they’re unable to follow instructions or try to cut corners, it might indicate that they may not be good at reading a recipe or following simple instructions. 

Avoid overwork

The two most significant operational costs for a restaurant are food and labor. In a time of high inflation, where the former has skyrocketed, it might seem justifiable to cut on the latter, hiring fewer people than needed. 

While that will save you money in the short term, it will create problems that compound over time, becoming a vicious spiral. In an understaffed restaurant, overworked employees will soon feel stretched too thin and like there’s no room for advancement. What's more, any unexpected event, like a worker becoming sick or experiencing a family emergency, will wreak havoc on the schedule, forcing the manager to ask employees to come to work on their day off or when they’re unavailable.

When a scenario like this becomes the norm, it will destroy employees’ engagement. In the worst case, workers may not show up for work at all without giving you any heads-up. No-shows are a huge red flag. They mean that employees have stopped caring about your business and their co-workers. 

To prevent that, don’t use understaffing as a way to reduce costs. If you find yourself with fewer people than you need, try to bridge the gap as quickly as possible. Pay attention to each shift, ensuring you have the right balance of skills and bodies to keep business running smoothly. When in doubt, ask your employees. If they’re feeling overworked, they’ll let you know. 

Be flexible

In a QSR restaurant, you will have employees with different scheduling needs: from the father of three who needs to work 40 hours a week to support his family to the college student who is only available during weekends. A crucial part of managing hourly staff is putting enough time into building a schedule that tries to meet everyone’s expectations, striking a balance between dependability and humanity. Here are three tips to achieve this balance: 

How a QSR operator does it

Prior to COVID, Terese Fogleman, a QSR operator in Boone, NC, had an impressive annual turnover rate of 35%, much lower than the industry average. When the QSR industry was hit by the Great Resignation and then inflation, turnover went to 100%. She managed to go back to pre-COVID levels by: 

Learn more about Terese’s success in reducing turnover in our interview.

Hire better and increase retention

Use these exercises to improve how your organization handles three crucial moments that impact employee retention. To write in your answers, download and print the PDF. 

Hire the right applicants

When crafting interview questions: 

• Write down 3 to 6 qualities you look for in applicants: 
  • __________________________
  • __________________________
  • __________________________
  • __________________________
  • __________________________
  • __________________________
• Write down at least one question to assess each one of these qualities.
  • __________________________
  • __________________________
  • __________________________
  • __________________________
  • __________________________
  • __________________________
• Describe what a successful answer looks like for each one of them.
  • __________________________
  • __________________________
  • __________________________
  • __________________________
  • __________________________
  • __________________________

Make sure you aren’t overworking your employees

When scheduling: 

• Are you aware of the scheduling needs of each of your employees? 
• Look at your current shift schedule: does it meet those needs? 
• How can you improve it? _____________________________________

Learn from turnover 

Check in regularly on your organization’s turnover: 

• Of the people who resigned in the last 12 months, how many of them left within the first 90 days? _________________
• How many of them were senior employees?__________________
• What were the most common reasons for leaving? 
  • Higher pay
  • Excessive workload
  • Not enough hours scheduled
  • Negative workplace culture
  • Lack of career opportunities
  • Issues with management

4. Lean into technology

When you manage multiple locations and a worker population with high turnover, you can’t afford to manually tackle your hiring and HR operations. Sifting through every application and chasing down employees for signatures are tasks that will eat up your time and keep you away from more strategic work. Thankfully, modern technology and automation can help you streamline a lot of your HR workflow. 

Recent reports paint a clear picture of how restaurant operators are increasingly aware of the benefits of technology: 

Tips

Use automation…

During the hiring process, there are many ways to automate time-consuming tasks and save hours of work every week. Below are some examples: 

…but don't lose the human touch

Although you can leverage automation and AI for certain tasks, there are certain things you have to do in person, like interviews, exit interviews, or calling applicants to let them know they got the job. Hospitality is a people-centric business, and that applies to customers and workers alike.

Look for all-in-one solutions

There are tons of great HR solutions out there today. As you start investing in technology, it’s easy to find yourself jumping in and out of different platforms all day long. While technology is great, having too many tools can become inefficient. The average business uses 16 different HR tools alone. Can you imagine managing all that data all over the place?  

A better approach is to look for all-in-one solutions that enable you to manage as much of your HR workflow and data in one place as possible. Bonus point if it also integrates well with other applications. Workstream, for example, offers hiring, onboarding, operations, payroll, and team communications and integrates with job boards, background check providers, and wotc.com.

How Viking Restaurants does it

The district manager of Viking Restaurants, a Burger King franchise group managing 26 locations, manually reviewed applications several times a week, contacted applicants one by one over the phone to schedule interviews, and waited for callbacks. After investing in Workstream’s all-in-one HR solution, qualified applicants were automatically able to schedule their own interviews via text based on the hiring managers’ preset availability. This saved the team hours every week and increased their interview rate by 10x. 

Calculator: How much time can automation save you? 

The list below contains HR tasks that can be automated. How much time do you spend per week on each of them? 

• Answering basic questions from applicants: _____ hours per week
• Screening applicants: _____ hours per week
• Managing applicants’ status: _____ hours per week
• Scheduling interviews: _____ hours per week
• Sending transactional messages to applicants and employees, such as confirmations and reminders: _____ hours per week
• Managing onboarding: _____ p/w

Total hours you could save with automation each week: _____

5. Be proactive

Finding people with the right mix of skills and strengths has become very difficult for all sectors. According to 2022 research by the ManpowerGroup, the talent shortage is at an all-time high—71% for restaurants and hotels. Even if you’re not understaffed right now, there are three things you can do to prevent it from happening to you. 

Tips

Build your bench 

Make sure you always have a pipeline of applicants. Even if you’re not actively hiring right now, as long as you set the right expectations with candidates, you can keep doing interviews all-year round. Instead of paid job listings, use alternative channels like social media posts and ‘now hiring’ signs with QR codes. 

Find a place for high performers

If talent is a hard thing to find, when you do find it, don’t let it go. If you come across high performers, find a place for them in your organization. It might look like an extra cost right now, but those employees may become great leaders and make a difference in your business tomorrow. 

Forecast hiring needs with data

When deciding how many people to hire, many QSR restaurants have to factor in seasonality on top of employee turnover. Throughout the year, your business may go through months of higher or lower demand. Similarly, your turnover may increase periodically due to reasons beyond your control, for example, because you employ a lot of college students who go home for the holidays. By cross-referencing employee turnover and sales data, you can effectively forecast your hiring needs. 

How Coupa Café does it

Coupa Café is a quick-service restaurant chain with eight locations in Palo Alto, California. Using the previous year's sales data to forecast staff needs, they make sure they are fully staffed during the busiest times of the year (graduation month at Stanford University and October) and put a hiring freeze in place before the slow winter season. 

Listen to the full interview with Alejandra Mier, who is part of the management team at Coupa Café.

Checklist: Keep your hiring engine run 24/7

Job listings are not the only way to find applicants. Here are creative ways to keep your hiring engine running 24/7.

Free channels you can use:

• QR or text-to-apply code at the bottom of the receipts
• Small flyers in to-go or delivery orders  
• Posters on countertops 
• Your own employees
• Your social media channels
• Community boards at coffee shops, apartment buildings, gyms, gas stations, etc. 
• Job boards at your local college, university, or technical/trade schools
• Local events, such as farmers’ markets, concerts, or festivals

Conclusion

In spite of predictions saying that robots will take over QSR jobs any day now, the restaurant industry remains people-centric and labor-intensive. In fact, it takes 12 employees to generate $1 million in sales in restaurants, which is three times as much as in other sectors. These tips and checklists will help you create a solid structure for your hiring and people management strategy, going from ad to hiring in much less time—while simultaneously reducing turnover.

To learn more about how Workstream can help you hire, manage, and pay your hourly workforce, visit workstream.us/demo