State of Restaurant Workforce
Employee Turnover
Turnover is where P&L, guest experience, and culture collide. Even as hourly churn improves from pandemic-era highs, management stability has not fully recovered. The direct replacement costs are steep and the indirect traffic penalty is real—particularly when FOH or BOH turnover is high.
Employee Turnover Trends Since 2019
Hourly turnover easing, but management turnover remains high.
Turnover Overview (2019 – 2025)
What the Data Says
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In limited service, hourly turnover continues to fall from 133% (2019) to 110% (2025 Q3) on a rolling-12 basis.
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In full service, hourly turnover improved from 101% (2019) and has held at ~92% (2025 Q1–Q3) through this year.
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Management churn is still elevated: limited service runs ~44–47% through 2024–2025 with little movement.
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Full-service management turnover has eased from 41% (2024 Q3) to 35% (2025 Q3) but remains well above pre-pandemic lows.
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The gap between improving hourly stability and stubborn manager churn is now the biggest retention risk.
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Recommendation: Make GM and manager tenure a top-line KPI; set explicit quarterly targets for time-to-backfill and bench depth, and trigger retention actions (schedule relief, spot retention bonuses) when thresholds are hit.
Cost of Turnover
The hard costs of turnover are now higher than they’ve ever been.
Hard costs (separation, replacement, and training)
associated with replacing a single employee
(compared to $2.3k in 2024)
(compared to $10.5k in 2024)
(compared to $16.7k in 2024)
Training costs represent about 35% of the total for restaurant hourly employees, 53% for non-GM restaurant managers, and 54% for General Managers.
With 1,000 hourly employees and 100% turnover, turnover costs:
What the Data Says
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Replacing a restaurant hourly employee costs about $2,706 in hard dollars (separation, replacement, training).
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Replacing a non-GM manager costs about $11,940, and replacing a GM costs about $17,651.
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Training is a major driver: roughly 35% of hourly replacement cost and 53–54% for managers/GMs.
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Even small reductions in manager/GM churn yield outsized savings compared with hourly exits.
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Recommendation: Redirect a portion of turnover spend into preventative investments—manager pipelines, leadership development, and targeted retention bonuses—where each avoided exit saves five figures.
Hourly Staff Turnover Impact on Sales and Traffic
The data doesn’t lie: lower turnover means better financial performance.
Difference in Comp Traffic Growth Relative to Peers:
Top Quartile Companies vs Rest Based on Hourly Turnover Rates
What the Data Says
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Brands with top-quartile FOH turnover (i.e., lower churn) in full service run +2.6% higher comp traffic than peers.
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Brands with top-quartile BOH turnover in full service run +1.7% higher comp traffic than peers.
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In limited service, top-quartile crew turnover is associated with +0.5% better comp traffic.
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Lower hourly churn shows up quickly in table turns, accuracy, and recovery—protecting repeat visits.
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Recommendation: Treat FOH/BOH retention as a demand lever: set FOH/BOH turnover targets on the weekly scorecard and fund the training/scheduling moves that keep those rates in the top quartile.
Measures to Reduce Turnover
According to our research, compensation and benefits are major factors in staff retention. But it’s far from the only factor.
Many of the themes are about having the opportunity to be successful in personal life: specifically flexibility and predictability in schedule.
But what’s interesting is that staff also want the tools to be successful at work. One of the primary reasons hourly, non management employees are leaving their jobs is lack of training, and for managers a key factor for moving on is the feeling that they are not growing toward the next career level.
Most Effective Methods to Reduce Turnover
What the Data Says
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For hourly, non-management, the strongest levers are more scheduling flexibility, more frequent pay adjustments, more predictable schedules, larger pay adjustments, and more/better training.
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For restaurant management, the strongest levers are larger pay adjustments, professional development, reduced/more attractive hours, more frequent pay adjustments, and PTO changes.
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Levers that increase time-off or flexibility matter across both groups, but managers additionally respond to development and hours quality.
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Pay cadence (how often you adjust), not just pay level, is a repeat driver of retention at both levels.
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Recommendation: Productize your retention stack: codify flexible scheduling + predictable rosters for hourly, pair with quarterly micro-merit and formal development paths for managers, and audit adoption location-by-location.
What Winning Brands Are Doing
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Make GM stability a top KPI. Track GM tenure, internal bench depth, and time-to-backfill; intervene early with schedule relief and targeted retention bonuses.
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Productize flexibility at the hourly level. Offer predictable schedules, more flexible shift swaps, and mid-cycle pay adjustments to cut turnover.
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Move on comp cadence, not just comp levels. Pair annual merit with more frequent, smaller adjustments tied to skill stacking and performance.
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Invest where the ROI is clearest. Fund professional development for managers, and increase PTO and more attractive hours in high-stress locations to defend tenure.
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Overweight FOH and BOH training. Standardize day-one orientation and ongoing refreshers; the traffic lift from lower FOH/BOH churn justifies the training line item.
State of the Workforce Webinar
Where This Data Came From
Everything cited here was originally shared in our annual deep dive webinar into the state of the restaurant workforce, which was taken from our Total Rewards Survey and our Restaurant Performance Network – meaning all insight comes straight from the HR teams and payroll platforms of the biggest restaurant brands in the country.
