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Restaurant Leaders’ Biggest Hurdle Isn’t Finding Staff or Pleasing Diners. It’s Time.

Our Most Compelling Data:

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Roughly three in four restaurant leaders indicated they spend more time on every aspect of business operations we asked about than they did a year ago.

60%

of operators said hiring has become easier in the past year.

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More than one-third of restaurant owners plan to launch programs to retain staff.

As hiring smooths out, restaurant leaders spend more time on operations

What stands in the way of restaurant leaders reaching their goals this year? It always comes down to time.

Take hiring, for example. Finding talent and retaining staff have been huge challenges for operators for years. Thankfully, the majority (60%) said it’s gotten easier this year. That should feel like a huge relief after years of rising wages and additional labour market abnormalities.

But 73% still say they spend more time on hiring than they did last year, while three in four said they spend more time on business operations and management activities.

Key takeaway:

Those burritos won’t make themselves, and those tables won’t get bussed without a little hustle. Still, there are several areas where restaurant leaders can save time by adding technology, which the majority (72%) told us they’re already looking into. With the pressure of the pandemic mostly in the past and the recent economic downturn now looking like a temporary problem, restaurant leaders have the rare opportunity in 2025 to think about the big-picture future of their businesses. This includes how intuitive ordering technology (like kiosks), all-in-one back-end systems and AI-powered staff scheduling could save their operations time and smooth out a chaotic kitchen environment on even the best days.

Pro tip:

Looking for a place to start testing? Try looking at your staff experience. Tools like Square Shifts help retail leaders track hours and accurately pay employees, reducing a significant friction point so everyone can focus more on productivity and customer service.

From best friends to business partners, Lorenzo Fantarella and Isaac Varano grew up in families that not only made a lot of pasta but also ate a lot of pasta. Fast forward to May 2023, and the pair now run their own takeaway pasta joint Pasta Prego, serving up customisable, made-to-order pasta at an affordable price point.

With speed and efficiency at the core of their business, the pair use Square to figure out what they need to prep based on the data from Square Dashboard. Using the Square Kitchen Display System has also sped up orders in the kitchen.

It eliminates front of house handing back of house dockets, and having to rearrange dockets. Sometimes dockets go missing or they’ll fall, and it’s busy, you don’t notice, someone’s been sitting out there for 20 minutes. We don’t lose the dockets anymore because it’s on the screen. We know how long they’ve been waiting.”

– Isaac Varano, co-owner of Pasta Prego, Melbourne, Australia