👨‍🍳 Why HR Support Is Becoming Essential for Swiss Restaurants

👨‍🍳 Why HR Support Is Becoming Essential for Swiss Restaurants
The silent crisis behind the kitchen doors

Switzerland’s restaurant scene is rich with flavor, creativity, and passion. From fine dining in Geneva to mountain huts in Graubünden, the industry prides itself on excellence. But behind the polished service and well-plated dishes lies a growing challenge that few talk about openly: how restaurants manage (or often don’t manage) their people.

While menus get updated and kitchens modernized, staff management is still often stuck in outdated routines—and it’s costing businesses more than they think. 💸

😟 “We can’t find anyone better…”

It's a sentence echoed across the country, from village cafés to trendy bistros. Owners and managers privately admit they’re holding on to employees who no longer fit. Not because they want to—but because they don’t know how or where to find someone else.

There’s a real fear of change. And beneath it? A lack of tools, training, and time to manage recruitment or HR properly.

🔍 What’s really going wrong?

Here are some of the most common patterns seen in Swiss restaurants:

❌ No structured recruitment – Hiring through word-of-mouth or last-minute fixes.
📄 Lack of onboarding – New hires arrive without guidance.
⚠️ Unclear compliance – Contracts, hours, and rights often misunderstood.
🚪 High turnover – Staff feel unmotivated or unsupported and leave.

It’s not about poor leadership. Most restaurant owners are incredibly hardworking and passionate. But many were never trained in the people side of the business.

💡 Where technology helps—and where it doesn’t

Some issues are easy wins with the right tools. HR software can:

🖥️ Post and manage job ads
✅ Organize applications
📋 Create digital onboarding checklists
🕒 Track working hours and absences
📌 Keep you compliant with Swiss labor laws

But not everything can be automated. Choosing the right team member, building trust, or resolving tension—those require the human touch. And often, there’s no in-house HR person to help.

💬 Real talk: The cost of “just guessing”

Take a mid-size restaurant in Bern. For years, they managed hiring on instinct: quick kitchen chats instead of interviews, Word contract templates from 2012, no feedback system.

Result? High turnover, low morale, and a worn-out manager. Once they introduced some basic HR structure—defined roles, onboarding plans, team check-ins—they saw major improvement. Staff stayed. Guests noticed. The business grew. 📈

🔄 A culture shift is coming

Restaurants are beginning to realize that running a kitchen is no longer just about food. It’s about people. And that means shifting from chaos to clarity. Not bureaucracy—just simple systems that support your team and your goals.

👥 When you care for your team, they care for your guests.

If you’re in the restaurant world and feel like you’re just making it up as you go when it comes to hiring or people management—you’re not alone. And you don’t need to have all the answers. But doing nothing? That’s no longer an option.