How To Manage Teams Across Multiple Restaurant Locations

Are you managing one location (or several) of a multi-unit restaurant business? If so, you’re not alone – 3 in 10 restaurants are part of a multi-location business, according to The National Restaurant Association.

Managing multiple restaurant locations comes down to one thing: consistency. Labor costs typically make up 25-35% of total restaurant sales, and that number rises when each store runs on different habits, tools, and standards.

We’ll show you how to spot the most common pitfalls and build a system for scheduling, compliance, and reporting across every store.

The Challenges of Managing Multiple Restaurant Teams

To manage multiple restaurant locations, you need one operating playbook across every store, plus centralized scheduling, labor data, and communication. This way, you can compare performance and fix issues before they affect your bottom line.

Balancing staff across locations

You have a finite bench of employees, and when multiple stores get busy at once, it’s hard to find coverage. Rushes make things worse, especially when one location is slow and another is slammed. This shows up in last-minute call-outs, spikes in overtime, and inconsistent service between locations.

Multi-state labor compliance

Compliance is complex when employees work across stores or when you operate in multiple states. Small mistakes—like tracking hours by location instead of overall hours—can turn into overtime violations.

• Overtime rules: Under the FLSA, employees working more than 40 hours across two locations under the same enterprise must be paid overtime.
• Predictive scheduling: Fair workweek laws can limit clopens and require advanced schedule notice in certain cities/states.
• Wage differences: Minimum wage and break rules can vary by jurisdiction—even between nearby locations.

Miscommunication between locations

When locations don’t share the same channels, it’s easy to lose information. That makes scheduling, coverage, and day-to-day execution harder than it needs to be.

Your employees might overlook policy updates and the list of 86’d items. Your managers might miss who’s swapped shifts and who’s approved to work at certain locations.

Time-consuming manual reports

When each location runs its own process, reporting is messy and time-consuming. Manual calculations for labor cost percentages, overtime, and location comparisons are prone to error. If you’re exporting spreadsheets to reconcile labor and payroll, you’re already behind.

Tracking tasks and performance across locations

Consistent task management is crucial for standard operating procedures—especially when you can’t be in every building. You need consistency across closing and opening checklists, catering setup, and inventory ordering. When locations run different processes (or none at all), guests and employees have a different experience at each location.

Monitoring employee engagement at scale

Things might be going great for your favorite server at one location, but at another, she’s easily overwhelmed and doesn’t mesh with the staff. You can only be at one restaurant at a time, so getting a gauge of staff engagement across locations creates an added layer of difficulty. If you’re not hearing from staff regularly, you won’t spot burnout until it appears as no-shows or resignations.

Solve These Common Multi-Location Restaurant Management Problems

It’s easier to manage multiple restaurant locations when your systems work together. The goal is simple: one source of truth across scheduling, labor, and performance.

1. Centralize your restaurant tech stack

Restaurants with a unified tech stack are more likely to succeed. When every location runs the same core tools, you can compare performance and act faster.

Start with integrating your POS with your payroll, time clocking, and scheduling tool. You’ll have fewer spreadsheets, less errors, and better decisions informed by data. Make sure your restaurant technology operates seamlessly across locations.

2. Automate multi-location labor compliance

The larger your restaurant group, the more compliance risk you carry—especially across cities and states. Fair workweek rules, overtime, and break requirements can change by location.

To stay on top of these laws and (avoid the lawsuits and fines that come with breaking them), use restaurant labor compliance software. It ensures your schedules follow regulation and save the most money no matter where the restaurant is. It flags labor violations like clopens, overtime, minor laws, and schedule notice requirements.

Recommended Guide: Free Restaurant Labor Compliance Guide

3. Standardize operating procedures

A standardized approach to common tasks will help drive consistency for guests and eliminate confusion for your team.

Some restaurants print out restaurant checklists for each shift, but that makes it impossible to analyze task performance. Instead, task management software standardizes restaurant tasks across locations, with custom edits available for different locations and roles. Managers can then learn which teams are most efficient at completing their tasks and which ones might need more support.

4. Forecast demand and schedule accordingly

The smartest schedules match up with actual demand. If Fridays run hotter than Mondays, schedule for it—then get more precise from there.

• Forecast by: daypart, role, channel (dine-in vs. off-premise), and location.
• Goal: the right people, in the right roles, at the right store.

For example, Sunday sales might match Thursday, but Sunday could skew toward delivery. That’s when you staff more counter support on Sunday and more floor coverage on Thursday.

This gets easier when you integrate your POS with your scheduling tool. Software like 7shifts can forecast sales to help you build shifts within your labor budget.

Recommended Reading: Restaurant Forecasting: How To, Formulas, Methods, and More

5. Automate scheduling across locations

Availability, role coverage, and store-by-store demand can turn scheduling into a weekly headache. When coverage is off, you either overspend on labor or underserve guests.

With scheduling software that factors in forecasted demand, you can head into each shift with the right amount of people in the right roles for success. You can also allow employees to trade shifts across locations, which increases the chance of an employee finding coverage if they need to miss a shift.

6. Use real-time reporting to compare location performance

Making the schedule is step one. The real gains come from reviewing what happened—and adjusting quickly.

Even a 1-2% labor improvement can move the bottom line. Real-time reporting from restaurant analytics software makes it easier to spot which locations are drifting from the plan.

Across every store, track labor cost percentage, overtime hours, sales per labor hour, and schedule vs. forecast variance.

Having quick access to accurate, digestible metrics on labor helps you assess the performance of region-specific locations, as well as the business as a whole. These insights give you the ability to make quick, relevant, and impactful changes to help your restaurants operate more smoothly.

7. Track employee engagement across locations

You might think you’re keeping your employees happy. Are you sure?

As restaurants continue to struggle with labor shortages, your restaurant needs to do everything in its power to retain staff.

One solution proven to boost retention rates by 13% is employee engagement software. It gathers direct feedback from your employees across locations to see who your most reliable, satisfied, and at-risk employees are.

These tools give you the insights to reach out to all-star employees to see why and how they feel engaged. Conversely, reach out to unhappy employees to see if there is a better position or location for them in your restaurant group. Staying on top of performance metrics helps you work with the right staff members at the right time to reduce turnover and keep your staff united.

8. Build consistent lines of communication

Multi-location teams need one consistent way to communicate. If messages live in texts, DMs, and calls, details fall through the cracks. Instead of bouncing between calls and apps, use a team communication app so everyone talks in one place.

• Centralize: announcements, shift coverage requests, policy updates, and location-specific notes.
• Benefits: fewer message threads, faster responses, and less confusion between stores.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I motivate teams across multiple locations?

One of the best ways to motivate employees is through gamification, friendly competition among teams across locations. Michigan’s Pita Way shares loyalty sign ups by location with its employees, who then feel motivated to outperform their colleagues at other locations. Other ways to motivate team members include wage and benefit increases, employee recognition awards, and clear growth opportunities.

How do I hire for multiple locations?

The most efficient way to hire employees for multi-location restaurants is to set up a hiring tool that’s capable of sourcing and tracking candidates for the entire restaurant group. Applicant tracking software centralizes the entire restaurant hiring process and helps multi-location restaurant businesses hire at scale. Remember to be proactive in hiring by listing job opening immediately, creating referral programs, and re-engaging prior applicants.

How do you manage employees at multiple locations?

Standardize SOPs and communication, then use centralized scheduling and reporting so you can staff each location based on demand and performance.

What software do multi-location restaurants need?

At minimum: scheduling/labor management, POS, team communication, and real-time reporting. Ideally these tools are integrated so data doesn’t live in spreadsheets.

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