Staff Shortage Solutions for Restaurants
The restaurant industry faces a severe staffing crisis. Learn practical strategies to maintain excellent service with fewer team members — using smart technology, workflow optimization, and automation.
Key Benefits
Self-service ordering
QR code ordering lets guests browse the full menu on their phone, customize their order, and pay — all without waiting for a waiter. One server can now handle twice as many tables because they only need to deliver food and handle special requests. In busy restaurants across Prague and Bratislava, this single change has allowed owners to operate Friday and Saturday evening shifts with two fewer front-of-house staff, saving thousands of euros monthly in labor costs while actually improving service speed and guest satisfaction.
Streamlined kitchen workflow
Digital orders go directly to the kitchen display or printer — no handwritten notes, no miscommunication, no illegible handwriting causing wrong dishes. This eliminates up to 95% of order errors and significantly speeds up preparation times. Kitchen staff receive clearly formatted orders with all modifications and special requests highlighted. During peak hours, this streamlined flow means the kitchen can handle 30-40% more orders without additional cooks. The result is less food waste from wrong orders and faster table turnover across the entire restaurant.
Automated notifications
Push notifications and sound alerts instantly inform staff about new orders, ready dishes, and customer requests. No one needs to constantly monitor screens or physically relay orders between front and back of house. Staff can focus on their current task knowing the system will alert them the moment attention is needed elsewhere. This eliminates the need for a dedicated expeditor role during busy shifts. Restaurants using FoxiFood report that communication-related delays between kitchen and service drop by over 60%, making the entire operation smoother with fewer people.
Focus on hospitality
When technology handles the mechanical aspects of order-taking, upselling suggestions, and payment processing, your staff can focus on what truly differentiates a great restaurant — genuine human hospitality. Waiters become hosts rather than order-takers: greeting guests warmly, recommending personal favorites, checking on satisfaction, and creating memorable moments. This shift in role actually improves job satisfaction for your remaining staff, reducing turnover. Restaurants that implement QR ordering consistently report higher customer review scores, because the human interactions that do happen are more meaningful and less transactional.
The Czech & Slovak staffing crisis
The hospitality staffing crisis in the Czech Republic and Slovakia has reached critical levels. The Czech HoReCa sector has been short 15,000-20,000 workers since 2022, and the situation in Slovakia is proportionally similar. The average waiter salary in Prague is 30,000-35,000 CZK per month, while in Bratislava it ranges from 1,000-1,300 EUR — yet restaurants still struggle to fill positions even at these rates. Young workers are choosing other industries with better hours and conditions. Technology is the key to bridging this gap: rather than fighting a losing battle for scarce labor, smart restaurant owners are redesigning their operations to deliver excellent service with smaller, better-paid teams.
Cross-training made easier
When QR ordering handles the front-end customer interaction — menu presentation, order-taking, and payment processing — new staff need dramatically less training time. Instead of learning the full menu details, POS system operation, payment handling, and upselling techniques, new hires can focus on food preparation basics and core hospitality skills. Typical onboarding time drops from two full weeks to just 3-4 days. This is transformative for restaurants with high seasonal turnover or those in tourist areas like Prague Castle district or Bratislava Old Town that need to ramp up staff quickly for peak season. Lower training investment also means less financial risk when an employee leaves early.
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