Turnover: Why People Quit and The Crucial Importance of Keeping a Team Together

Many restaurants are in a permanent state of hiring multiple positions, a month goes by, and the same job opens again. As a strategy, keeping a line in the water for great people works well, but as a reaction to people walking out the door repeatedly, it’s a big red flag for underlying issues with that business.

It’s a silent testament to a crisis brewing behind the kitchen doors and on the dining room floor: a dangerously high turnover rate. While the industry has always been transient, today's rates are unsustainable. According to 2025 industry reports, average turnover in the restaurant industry can exceed 75%, with some sectors experiencing rates over 130%. To clarify, a 100% turnover rate means that, on average, every single position in the restaurant had to be replaced over the course of a year. A 130% turnover rate means replacing every employee, and then some of those new employees are also quitting within the same year.

It’s rare that people quit restaurants because things are going well. A resignation is often the final symptom of a much deeper illness within the business. For owners and managers scratching their heads (or pulling their hair out), the reasons are often hiding in plain sight. It isn’t just about the long hours or the fast pace; it's about fundamental human needs going unmet.

Restaurants don't simply run on software and business plans, at the core it's a people business. People drive results, standards, and revenues. High turnover and slumping sales are almost always coupled together. Turnover creates chaos. If you're wondering why you're constantly training new managers, new staff and struggling to maintain basic standards, it's time to look at the invisible forces driving your team to say, "I quit."

They Feel Under-appreciated

Just because you pay someone a wage doesn’t mean the human aspect of a working relationship is nurtured. People have an innate need to feel that their efforts matter, that their contributions are valued, and that their work is more than just a series of pointless movements. Thankless work is not inspiring.

In a restaurant, an employee might be doing the "un-glorious" but essential tasks—perfectly polishing silverware, meticulously cleaning the walk-in, or simply showing up with a positive attitude on a hellishly busy night. These are the actions that keep the boat afloat. When management fails to acknowledge this effort with a simple "thank you," a public shout-out, or a small, tangible reward, employees begin to feel invisible. The unspoken message is that their hard work is expected, not appreciated. If their effort isn't important, they'll eventually ask themselves, "Then why am I doing this?"

They Feel Disrespected

A lack of respect, whether from owners, leaders, or other team members, is a highly common frustration that many professionals face. It’s crucial to distinguish between the direct, impersonal communication required during the urgency of service and genuine disrespect.

In restaurants, everyone feels difficult emotions like anger or frustration and everyone makes mistakes , but it’s when it becomes unchecked and consistent that it becomes an issue. This is almost always a culture issue that stems from the attitudes at the top. When leadership fails to manage these interpersonal situations properly, they fester, and grow larger. A culture by default is created by failing to address key issues and set clear standards for how working communication should be.

The leadership's behavior and awareness permeates every interaction and sets the standard for how every employee experience will be. New hires, by and large, assimilate to the existing culture; they don't change it. If the culture is toxic, you're not just hiring staff, you're feeding them into a machine that will eventually spit them out.

They Are Under-compensated

This can be a tricky subject because it is a highly subjective topic, but polarizing none the less. In reality, some people feel under-compensated, and there are restaurants that pay below market value for hourly or salaried employees. It's not uncommon, and the effects are felt. There are also many restaurants that pay very well, but that's not really the conversation at hand. While emotional factors are huge in managing turnover, we cannot ignore the financial reality as the cost of living is increasing.

On Balance and in fairness to employers, there are a number of factors to be understood that determine what someone is paid. Including what specific function is being done, performance, attitude, qualifications, tenure, resume, payroll budgets and market value. What a person is paid is generally… personal. The key here is to understand the value of the position on the market and offer the best wage you can that meets the value of a great employee who performs to a high standard.

They feel Overworked and Overwhelmed

The very nature of restaurant work is high-pressure, but a culture of overwork pushes employees past their breaking point. This looks like 12 to 16-hour days for a week straight, and the expectation that employees are always on-call to cover a shift, or pick up slack from another.

When a restaurant is chronically understaffed, the burden falls on the remaining few. They are overwhelmed, juggling multiple roles without a moment to breathe. This physical and mental exhaustion leads directly to burnout, a state of emotional and physical depletion where even the most dedicated employee can no longer cope. Burnout kills passion, increases mistakes, and is a primary driver of turnover.

The practical consequences of high turnover are severe and costly:

• Constant Training, Zero Mastery: Your managers are always training new people (or far worse, you’re always training new managers) instead of focusing on growth. New employees barely have time to learn the menu or service standards before they leave.

• Inconsistent Service and Food Quality: With a revolving door of staff, it's impossible to deliver a consistent product or guest experience. The standards are the first thing to slip. Regulars notice when the faces are always new and service quality fluctuates wildly, food becomes inconsistent and general operations become lost in translation.

• Sky-High Costs: The cost to recruit, hire, and train a single frontline employee can cost several thousand dollars, especially if you factor in mistakes and normal growing pains while new people learn. A high turnover rate means these costs are constant and crippling to the budget.

• Destroyed Team Morale: The few veteran employees who remain are exhausted. They are constantly picking up the slack for undertrained new hires, which leads to burnout and resentment, often causing them to quit, too.

• Loss of Knowledge: Every time an employee walks out the door, their knowledge of your restaurant’s quirks, regulars, and processes walks out with them. SOPs become temporarily obsolete when when trained people jump ship, and even harder to maintain when it keeps happening.

The Path Forward: How to Stop the Revolving Door

Building and maintaining a great team of competent people is the best way to improve your operations, fine tune systems, raise standards and improve all of your controllable costs. You’ll perform better overall and the guests will take notice (they might even spend more money in your restaurant). However, constantly losing people, and drowning in overwork due to high turnover is the fastest way to fail.

To combat this trend, restaurant leaders must shift their perspective from viewing employees as replaceable cogs to seeing them as valuable assets. This involves:

• Leading with Empathy and Respect: This isn't B.S., it's actually a strategic approach. Actively coach, train, teach and listen to your team (especially when they're wrong). Create a culture where honest feedback and communication is encouraged, and where disrespect, gossip and unchecked emotions are not tolerated.

• Recognizing and Rewarding Effort:  Simply make a habit of saying "thank you" sincerely and often. Be grateful that people show up to work with you and tell them so. Don’t take them for granted. When they do well, make sure they know.

• Investing in Your People: Offer competitive wages and explore benefits options. Provide thorough training and clear paths for career advancement. Money isn’t the only investment, sometimes a young rookie will work with you to learn, and you can help them increase their knowledge and skills over time, allowing them to advance and earn more money as they grow. Be sure to communicate the framework for advancement.

• Prioritizing Work-Life Balance: Ensure scheduling is fair and predictable (you'll need a stable roster to achieve this). Respect days off and work to eliminate practices that lead to burnout. Restaurant people work very hard, and deserve time to rest.

  
  

As a leader of any kind, whether you're an owner or a salaried manager, the best practice on a daily basis is to invest time with your team to give them what they need. A few short but thoughtful and effective minutes with an intividual on a daily basis can create a fantastic result for them, you, and the paying guest. Furthermore, it will save you a fortune of money over the same amount of time.

Ultimately, people want to work in a place where they feel valued. Building that environment is the only sustainable way to turn the tide on turnover.