Panera is losing nearly 100% of its workers every year as fast-food turnover crisis worsens

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Panera Bread faces 100% annual employee turnover, and that's considered success in a fast-food industry where workers leave at rates as high as 130% to 150% each year. Panera thinks better training will help get workers past the critical 90-day mark before quitting. Others think fast food will be the first fully automated industry run by robots.

For fast-food chains employee turnover is 130% to 150%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports.Some experts believe it is inevitable that fast food will be the first job sector ruled by robots.If you think it sounds like a mathematical impossibility for a company to lose more than 100% of its workers every year, you've never worked in the fast-food industry.

Batt said decades of fast-food industry efforts to standardize and "routinize" jobs — take the skill out of them — has been intended to create turnover-proof jobs. "If you lose someone, it is not a real cost, because they are so easily replaceable. ... The industry has thrived on this HR model of turnover-proof jobs for many years, because they could get away with it," she said, through a slack labor market or absorbing the cost of high turnover.

Cornell's Batt said a survey of restaurants she helped conduct in 2013 put the cost of fast-food turnover at $1,600 per worker, and that was at a time when turnover was significantly lower.The cost per employee now is estimated by the National Restaurant Association at $2,000 per employee. Those figures will vary by restaurant type as fast-food employees are still less expensive to turn over than those in upscale dining.

Portalatin said there has been a dramatic increase in digital ordering, especially consumers placing orders from mobile phones. Total customer traffic has been flat over the past year, but there has been "a monumental shift" to digital ordering, and NPD Group expects digital orders to increase 23% a year over the next half-decade. Restaurants have an economic incentive to make sure this shift continues to accelerate.

Panera is betting that better training can help. "All training had been in back of kitchen; now it is all on iPhones, and I can see it going to goggles — employees see it right in front of them, training them in a fun and interactive way," Panera CFO Bufano said. There are no other job segments in the U.S. that have higher turnover than the fast-food and fast-casual segments of the restaurant industry, according to DiPietro at the University of South Carolina's School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management. "Not even retail."

 

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gee, it's almost like paying people shit & treating them like garbage isn't a formula for keeping them on staff

Better wages and perks would solve that problem.

pay em more! $25 hour to start! bunch of dam liberal cheapskates!

Maybe it's because they treat staff sooo poorly! Employees say they hate working their and that is not healthy for anyone! Especially for customers!

100% and strangely I know 3 people who've worked there for 5+ years.

And still they offer excellent food and service every single time.

It’s like the late 80’s all over again.

Good... This is when pay usually increases

I work at places for free, because I usually steal more than enough to support myself.

Panera loses employees due to lack of bread. Film at 11... irony 😂

People have more options now. The fast food places have to compete with the gig economy. Lots of them only pay $7.25 an hour. Low skill people can drive for Uber or Lyft and make more in 2 days than fast food would pay them for a week.

That's funny. People work at Chick Fill A for years. I wonder what da Chick is doing that the others aren't. Maybe higher pay, more benefits and Sunday off?

Better wages and benefits will end that problem

Panera Should Open Stores In Australia...

They weren’t like this not long ago. Different management a/o they cut worker pay? Panera used to be great. Had lunch there last week & place was disorganized, tables dirty, trays piled up, food slapped together. Staff were sullen & overworked. Bet they close lots of stores. 😔

fast-food industry is just gonna switch to automation soon anyways

Well, they’ve also messed up just about 7/10 pick up orders too, sooooo ... I mean...

Come on robots

If they paid a living wage, they would lower turnover.

Panera also sucks ... I’m not a fan of anything stale they sale

A failure of Leadership and not a good Metric for investors

Maybe it’s because there food is horrible and it’s slow all the time 😳

Good for the people,s Health!

Get some “robots;” like McDonald’s...

Pay higher wages, idiots, cost more to retrain and find help.

Good work environments can help lower this along with better pay. How come starbucks and In-N-Out don’t have this problem?

If you are a good worker working for a company that treats and pays you like they don’t care they will leave. That is part of panerabread ‘s business model. If you don’t like that, don’t work or buy food there.

Thank you Mr President! They all have found better jobs!

Insane central bank asset bubble going to pop. Inflation to the moon along with rates

Let me tell you why the employees they are lazy long waits dirty tables. Dry bread cold food bad management and no team work

Higher wagers and benefits will end that problem

Don’t go into these restaurants in after 4p.m. They have no one to take your order.

And this is how you get wage growth, not mandating an artificial income floor.

Who opened this Panera’s Box?

Housing crisis ...if housing was available for All incomes..at affordable and unto free as nutrition assistance then bracket as income goes up ...stablility in all brackets of industry...long term employment careers

Do we care since they went private?! Was a cash cow now it's nothing

Stunned, and yeah, robots...

So they should probably raise wages.

The positive side of free market

Solution: give the employees free food

There was another article today stating that Fast Food jobs will become obsolete due to automation. So, they are very smart.

People don’t deserve $15 an hour to almost always screw up an order.

Sell sell sell... did I do it right jimcramer ?

Low pay hard work in a tight labour market = this story.

CNBC Compensate them appropriately!!!!!

CNBC lot people doesn't like Panera food

CNBC Look at all the liberal stupidity on here. It’s a damn entry level job, not a career!

CNBC Eh, their best album was Far Beyond Driven so it was mostly old stuff anyway 🤷‍♂️

CNBC Guess that's why my last visit sucked

CNBC Don't expect loyalty when you don't pay your employees a living wage.

CNBC Big surprise

nskaluba CNBC pay more and raise prices

CNBC Mediocre process food for a pricey price. And poor customer service. Maybe if you sold quality food and pay your employees, to make ends meet. They would do better job and the food would be worth our dollars! YouNeedToCheckYourself panerabread

CNBC Maybe they shouldn’t charge the same price for a meal as actual restaurants that make real food. Just a thought

CNBC The real reason the restraint and retail environments have so much turnover is because workers are overworked to the point they can no longer function! RetailJobs and front line employees are the bread and butter of any company's profits! RespectMe

CNBC Pay a living wage and reduce your employee turnover rate.

CNBC Do they get free meals? I've seen workers there all the time sitting down with full plates and just kinda thought they eat free or heavy discount.

CNBC Maybe it’s Panera🤷🏽‍♂️

CNBC You mean the Trump tax cut actually isn’t increasing wages and trickling down to the lower classes?

CNBC I love Panera. Where else can you get a $12 tuna fish sandwich?

CNBC raise wages and keep your employees

CNBC It is as plain as the nose on your face what the issues are. Low pay, not enough and or erratic hours, no benefits to speak of especially health insurance or retirement programs Only a moron can't figure why people don't stay.

CNBC The thing i dont see mentioned here at all is how gross the job is. Its seen as less than retail despite pay because its gross . You can get burned etc ... not much risk of that at a cashier job at TJ maxx

CNBC 'Maybe fast food companies should try paying their workers a living wage.'

CNBC Fast food Industry is designed toward high school kids and college kids for part-time jobs for extra money. It was never designed to make a living off of.

Tough job🤡👹

Here's an idea...pay a living wage. Problem solved.

Teens and young adults are living in a life of transition and are not too likely to work anywhere for very long.

Panera used to be our go to place, last three visits were bad

There quality has gone down very quickly 📉

IF THEY LOSE NEARLY 100% OF THEIR WORKERS THEN HOW DO THE RESTAURANTS OPERATE?

Are robots going to buy and eat the food too? Just pay employees a better wage and provide some minimal benefits panerabread McDonalds everyone knows this is the solution that makes sense.

Low wages will yield high turnovers every time.

It’s not the pay, it’s the FOOD 🤮

kuku27 Such lovely eatables and look at state of affairs in business, pity

They don’t pay a living wage! panerabread Starbucks amazon Walmart just to name a few.

Fast food places dont pay enough for anyone to live on. The cost of living is way beyond the pay scale at these places.

Just an FYI to the Boards of Directors out there, corporate citizenry is EXTREMELY important in the decision of where to go to eat out. There are so many choices. Keep that in mind when trying to sell this 💩 to the public.

Time to lift those wages, and hike your prices.

OK, but isn't it really about the pay?

So what?

Considering the amount of money panerabread has in profit, paying a livable wage would be justified. Or people can stop going there. ProblemSolved

The Panera in Maple Grove Minnesota has the worst service and food quality of any store in our area. They could use some employees and management turnover panerabread

Have you tried paying enough so they don’t leave?

supply meets demand at the market clearing price. Try increasing wages, its basic econ theory people

Sounds like a problem that wouldn't exist if they got paid a living wage

An excuse article to justify AI and robots. Gee, how else could we hold onto our workers? Maybe... Higher Pay?

Solution? Robots

Maybe they’re hiring Americans?!?

Perhaps they are not paying the employees enough bread

Lol

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