Restaurant Staffing Shortages: How Restaurants Are Adapting

How Staffing Shortages Changed Restaurant Hiring

Restaurant staffing shortages became impossible to ignore in Philadelphia during the spring of 2021. As restaurants reopened, employers struggled to rebuild their teams while managing unpredictable business volumes, changing requirements, and employees reconsidering their careers.

On May 24, 2021, Mis en Place was featured in a 6ABC report about Philadelphia restaurants joining forces to address staffing shortages.

I worked directly with restaurant employers and candidates facing those challenges. What stands out to me now isn't simply how difficult it was to find employees.

It's how quickly staffing shortages exposed problems in restaurant hiring that had existed long before the pandemic.

Restaurants weren't just struggling to attract applicants. They were trying to operate with fewer people than they needed while somehow finding the time to recruit, interview, and train replacements.

And there's the problem.

Restaurant Staffing Shortages Exposed a Familiar Problem

The pandemic didn't create every staffing problem restaurants faced. It made existing ones harder to manage.

Experienced cooks, servers, bartenders, dishwashers, and managers were all in demand as restaurants reopened.

Meanwhile, employees already on the schedule were covering additional responsibilities.

Imagine a kitchen manager who's short two cooks. They're covering stations, adjusting schedules, ordering inventory, and trying to keep dinner service moving.

Applications arrive, but reviewing them gets pushed aside.

By the time the manager follows up, a promising candidate may already have interviewed somewhere else.

The restaurant needs another cook, but being short-staffed makes it harder to hire one.

I've seen versions of this situation repeatedly throughout my recruiting career.

It's not necessarily a lack of effort. Often, nobody has established who is responsible for moving candidates through the hiring process or when each step needs to happen.

And when hiring depends on a manager finding extra time, delays become predictable.

What Changed During the 2021 Reopening?

Philadelphia restaurants experimented with different ways to attract employees.

Some raised wages. Others reconsidered schedules, responsibilities, recruiting methods, and how quickly they responded to applicants.

Candidates were also asking more questions.

What would the schedule look like? How many hours could they expect? What were the working conditions? Was the restaurant operating consistently?

Compensation mattered, but it wasn't the only consideration.

One distinction became especially important in my work: attracting applicants and making hires are two different things.

An employer might receive applications and still struggle to fill a position.

Candidates considered multiple opportunities, weighed their options, and sometimes changed their minds.

When employers delayed communication or couldn't answer basic questions, they risked losing people who had initially expressed interest.

Sometimes the challenge wasn't finding someone interested.

It was maintaining that interest long enough to complete the hiring process.

Why Reactive Restaurant Hiring Creates More Problems

When a restaurant needs someone yesterday, it's tempting to post a job, schedule a few interviews, and hope the right person walks through the door.

But urgency doesn't excuse unclear expectations.

I've seen how easily important details can get lost when employers are overwhelmed.

A job description may leave out responsibilities. A schedule might be discussed without explaining what the employee will actually work. Different interviewers may have different ideas about the experience required.

Then someone accepts the position and discovers the job isn't what they expected.

Now the restaurant has another vacancy to fill.

The lesson isn't that employers should slow everything down.

They need to move efficiently without sacrificing clarity.

That starts with defining the position, establishing compensation and scheduling expectations, assigning responsibility for candidate communication, and preparing for the employee's first shift.

A Structured Hiring Process for Restaurants can help operators maintain momentum without relying on last-minute decisions.

Staffing Is an Operational Responsibility

One of the clearest lessons from 2021 was how closely hiring and restaurant operations are connected.

When restaurants are short-staffed, managers spend more time covering shifts and less time training employees, organizing schedules, and supporting their teams.

Service becomes harder to maintain. Existing employees absorb additional work. Eventually, some may decide they've had enough.

And the restaurant finds itself hiring again.

Recruiting can't operate independently from scheduling, onboarding, management, and retention.

Hiring brings someone into the restaurant. What happens afterward influences whether they stay.

For independent restaurant operators, that's the lesson I hope lasts beyond the staffing shortages of 2021.

Hiring works better when it's treated as an ongoing operational responsibility, not an emergency response to an empty position.

If you're navigating similar challenges, learn more about Mis en Place's restaurant recruiting services or discuss your hiring needs.

Featured In

Mis en Place was featured in 6ABC's coverage of Philadelphia restaurants working together to address staffing challenges during the 2021 reopening.

Original segment: Philadelphia Restaurants Join Forces to Help Solve Staffing Shortfall

By Beccah Hendrickson
May 24, 2021
May 24, 2021