One of the pillars of any business is team management. The way a company, regardless of the sector, leads its team is as crucial to its longevity as any other aspect. For some time now, the foodservice industry has been struggling to recruit employees, as shown by data from the Brazilian Association of Bars and Restaurants (Abrasel), released in 2023. According to a study by Glassdoor, 70% of people globally view the industry as a temporary job.
In the panel “Restaurant 2030: Operations, Technology, and People,” held on the second day of iFood Move 2025, Cristina Souza, CEO of Gouvêa Foodservice, highlights that, in restaurants, turnover is 70%, and, in fast food, globally, this percentage rises to 200%.
“We work in a market with an increasingly short-term employee mindset. Besides being an entry-level market, meaning young people are arriving for their first job opportunity and everything else, they’re not interested in staying with me for long,” she states.
But there is a solution to this problem that plagues foodservice. According to Cristina, the role of industry leaders is to build this optimal environment so that, while employees are still employees, they are happy, with clear proposals and promotions and mutual flexibility. She adds, presenting data indicating that 30% of employees don’t plan on staying more than two years with the company and that 60% complain that promotions are not very clear.
“So, let’s go, I earn a salary of R$1,790, I’ll be a store coordinator, and I’ll have the opportunity to earn R$1,900 with 50% more responsibility than I had before. Does that make sense for employees these days? It doesn’t seem like it, right? It’s okay to encourage them with goals and everything. And please, don’t take this from your business perspective. Take it from a market perspective. And then maybe in your business you’re doing very different things,” she explains.
Customer-Employee Relationship
During her presentation, Cristina highlights the “biggest villain” that often makes the employee experience in the workplace bad: inappropriate customer behavior.
One example she cited was the method adopted by Isabela Raposeiras, owner of Coffee Lab, in her establishments. The businesswoman installed the famous “We’ve been X days without an accident” sign, but with the message “We’ve been X days without being mistreated by customers.” However, Cristina says that, a few days ago, Isabela posted on her social media that the sign had to be reset after episodes of aggression from customers towards her employees.
“This kind of pressure has been a major driver of our employees in general. And then the question becomes: OK, but why do I work here? Why should I continue working here?” asks Cristina.
Cristina says that, after talking with several people to understand employees’ perspectives, she came to the following conclusion:
If I’m valued, I stay.
If I’m trained, I stay and I’m happy.
If I’m well cared for, I stay, I’m happy, and I’m balanced.
With flexibility and recognition, I stay, I’m happy, I’m balanced, and I feel like I belong.
Image: Envato
*This text was translated by AI
