Turnover rates—the shame and hardship of the quick-service restaurant industry. Higher than in almost any other industry, turnover rates have plagued restaurants, spiking during the pandemic, and still recovering.
David Walsh, vice president of people services at Papa Gino’s Pizzeria and D’Angelo Grilled Sandwiches, shared how his restaurants improved turnover rates through a partnership with HourWork, an engagement and communication platform. HourWork has not only helped retention rates but has increased employee job referrals and employee engagement.
“One of the keys to having engagement is the ability for two-way communication,” Walsh says. “When you have a demographically and geographically diverse workforce, reaching employees through the best method they most commonly use is critical. Over the last three years, we’ve seen a great improvement in engagement through using HourWork.”
Walsh also shared that before implementing HourWork his restaurants were only seeing one percent engagement on internal communications. “Moving to HourWork allowed us to reach people in real time because everyone reads their text messages,” Walsh says.
According to Black Box Intelligence, the turnover cost (which includes separation, replacement, and training) is $1,956 per hourly employee. This cost is multiplied when considering high turnover rates across multiple locations or poor management leading to higher than average turnover.
“We’ve seen a direct impact on turnover,” Walsh says. “Before HourWork, our turnover rate was around 140 percent, the industry average during COVID. Now, we’ve annualized at 92 percent. Our communication and retention strategy through HourWork played a major role in that improvement.”
Being able to target messages is also vital. No one likes being bombarded with messages that do not apply, and when companies use this strategy, it could result in losing buy-in from employees. “With HourWork, we can segment our communication—whether it’s company-wide, location-specific, or even targeting specific roles,” Walsh says. “That kind of granularity is a game-changer for engagement.”
HourWork also enables management to identify problem areas quickly and address these issues before becoming more systemic. “With HourWork, we can track turnover trends at specific locations,” Walsh says. “If communication issues with a general manager correlate with higher turnover, we can step in with coaching and retraining to improve engagement.”
Walsh can now target stores that are underperforming or are excelling and either correct issues before they lead to larger problems or reward positive outcomes. This way management can do less guesswork where engagement and labor are concerned, a goal shared by most operators.
Reducing turnover in the quick-service restaurant industry is no easy feat, but Papa Gino’s Pizzeria and D’Angelo Grilled Sandwiches have proven the right engagement strategy can make a measurable difference. “Managers are already overloaded with daily responsibilities. HourWork allows feedback and responses to go directly to area managers and HR, ensuring employee concerns don’t get lost while also protecting general managers from potential HR issues.”
Managers and employees are better protected when obstacles to communication are removed in the workplace and workers can communicate honestly. “Two-way communication through text allows employees to voice concerns in real-time,” Walsh says. “If they get a response within an hour or two, they know they’re being heard, and we can act on it immediately.” As labor challenges persist, solutions that prioritize real-time, effective communication will continue to be essential for restaurants looking to build a more stable and committed workforce.
“You can’t run a restaurant without people,” Walsh says. “HourWork helps ensure they feel heard, valued, and engaged, which is essential to keeping them around.”
For more information on how HourWork can help you lower turnover rates visit here.
By Ya’el McLoud
