Labor shortages remain one of the toughest challenges in the restaurant industry. Currently, turnover rates can exceed 100% for frontline roles. The constant cycle of hiring and training isn't just exhausting your frontline managers, it also hurts your customer experience and brand. 

The good news? The solution is already at your restaurants. One of the key ways to reduce churn in frontline roles is to give employees skill-building opportunities to advance in their careers. Giving people in the highest-turnover roles a clear path forward keeps them engaged, boosts retention, and ultimately, helps your business grow.

Let's see what it looks like in practice. 

Your frontline keeps the business running, but it’s also where your future leaders are taking shape. Every shift, employees sharpen key restaurant leadership skills like communication, decision-making, conflict resolution, and people management.

The question isn’t whether frontline staff can lead. It’s whether your organization is giving them the learning opportunities to step into those roles. When you invest in their growth, employees stay longer, operations run smoother, and customer experiences improve.

Here are three ways to turn frontline potential into a leadership pipeline:

One of the most effective ways to retain frontline staff is to establish a clear path toward future career growth. This means mapping out step-by-step career paths and aligning them with learning opportunities that clearly showcase how to get from point A to B.

When employees can connect education and training to career growth, engagement skyrockets.

The takeaway: Don’t just offer training and education. Make sure employees understand exactly how it moves them closer to their next role.

Generic leadership training can often fall flat in a high-turnover environment. The most effective programs focus on two things:

It’s also important to identify key job areas that would benefit most from leadership training. Shift Leads are a perfect example. They frequently become de facto managers during peak hours and off-shifts, meaning their leadership, decision-making, and communication skills directly shape guest experience and team performance. 

For Shift Leads, structured cohorts can help them step into Assistant Manager roles with confidence, improving both retention and performance.

The best programs only work if employees feel empowered to participate. That means removing barriers like upfront tuition costs for employees, while encouraging people managers to actively promote learning.

At Taco Bell, one General Manager discovered that his mandatory management on-the-job training counted toward a bachelor’s degree. He might never have known if his Chief People Officer had not made it a priority to highlight and champion education opportunities.

Leaders set the tone. When they support learning, employees follow.

Building a leadership pipeline doesn't just solve your turnover problem in the short-term; it also boosts retention over the long haul and helps you identify promising talent that you can promote from within.

When you invest in employee growth, you’re not just keeping staff longer. You’re turning churn into loyalty and frontline team members into the leaders who will shape the future of your business.

Looking for more leadership development resources? Download our three-part talent playbook for practical tips on how to design a workforce development strategy that reduces turnover and builds future restaurant leaders.