How much time does your team spend, during peak hours, on tasks that the customer doesn’t see? Taking an order at the counter, giving change, calling out an order to the kitchen, answering the phone: taken one at a time, these tasks seem trivial. But when you add them all up, they often keep one person fully occupied—at the very moment when there’s already one person short. Because in the hospitality and restaurant industry, there’s often one person short: recruitment remains a challenge for nearly one in two businesses.
Key Takeaways: According to France Travail’s 2026 Labor Needs Survey, the hospitality and restaurant industry expects nearly 319,000 hiring openings this year, and 44% of these are considered difficult by employers. Recruiting remains necessary, but it’s not enough: to handle peak times with a smaller staff, it’s essential to streamline tasks that tie up staff without serving customers, starting with taking orders, processing payments, and relaying orders to the kitchen.
The annual survey by France Travail highlights the scale of the problem. The hospitality and restaurant industry is the second-largest hiring sector in France, with nearly 319,000 planned hires in 2026—a 5% decrease from the previous year, according to the GHR. Of these planned hires, 44% are considered difficult by employers, down from 50% in 2025.
The improvement is real, but it doesn't change the day-to-day reality of a restaurant: nearly one in two hiring efforts remains challenging. Pressure remains high on chefs and management, and the most in-demand positions are those that keep the restaurant running: servers, cooks, and general staff.
Whether it’s a neighborhood restaurant, a fast-food chain, or a franchise network, the result is the same: smaller, often less experienced teams that have to handle the same lunchtime rush. So the question isn’t just “How do I recruit?” but also “How do I organize service with the team I have?”
👉 Going further: 9 tips for finding restaurant staff
Before changing the way things are organized, you need to know where time is being wasted. In a high-volume restaurant, there are four tasks that keep the team busy without adding much value for the customer:
The simplest method is to observe a full service: time about ten customers at the counter, count the number of orders taken between 12:00 p.m. and 1:30 p.m., and note any order errors reported by the kitchen. These three metrics are enough to know where to start.
Each tool serves a specific purpose. The goal is not to automate everything, but to relieve the team of tasks that do not require specialized skills.
This is the most common request we hear from restaurant owners who contact us. “The pizza chef greets customers, takes orders, and handles payments—I’d like to eliminate that step,” one of them explains. An ordering kiosk takes orders continuously, suggests add-ons and set menus to each customer, and sends the order directly to the kitchen. It doesn’t lower the average check—quite the opposite: according to Atlas 2026 data (a panel of restaurants equipped with Innovorder, January through October), the average check (excluding tax) at the kiosk is €16.85, compared to €12.38 at the register. For table service, ordering at the table via QR code serves the same purpose: the customer orders and pays from their phone, while the server focuses on providing service.
With a production screen, every order—whether it comes from the register, the kiosk, or the website—arrives in the kitchen without needing to be announced or re-entered. The team can see the preparation instructions and the estimated wait time for each order. This means fewer trips back and forth between the counter and the kitchen, and fewer mistakes that need to be corrected.
At a kiosk, the customer pays by card without any assistance from staff. If the customer prefers to pay in cash, they confirm their order at the kiosk and pay at the register: the order is already entered, so the staff member simply needs to process the payment. At the end of the shift, a register connected to the kiosk and the online order system eliminates the need to reconcile data across multiple systems.
Some of the lunch orders can be placed earlier in the morning, with a designated pickup time slot. The kitchen prepares them at the right time, and these customers don’t have to wait in line or call in. Fewer calls during the rush means one more team member is available to serve customers.
👉 Learn more: What digital solutions are available for managing peak hours in the restaurant industry?
These tools don’t replace a team—they free the team from repetitive tasks so it can focus on what the customer sees. The time saved at the counter can be redirected toward food preparation, greeting guests, keeping the dining room clean, or tidying up between services. In a restaurant that’s short-staffed, this is often what makes the difference between a rushed service and a well-run one.
Restaurant owners who have adopted the system have noticed this over time. “At first, the kiosk was supposed to be a secondary option; today, it’s practically the main channel,” says a fast-food franchisee using Innovorder’s system. The change is also evident to the staff: less pressure at the counter, tasks distributed more evenly, and service that’s less dependent on the presence of each individual.
There’s one more condition: the kitchen has to keep up. If the kiosk brings in more orders than the kitchen can handle, the line simply moves from the counter to the pickup area. That’s why it’s important to start by measuring the actual bottleneck and then addressing it.
👉 Learn more: Labor Costs in the Restaurant Industry: Reducing Costs Without Compromising Service
Want to organize your department with a smaller team? Talk to an expert
According to France Travail's "Labor Needs 2026" survey, 44% of the nearly 319,000 hiring plans in the hospitality and restaurant industry are considered difficult by employers, compared to 50% in 2025.
It replaces a task—taking orders—not a person. The time saved is reallocated to food preparation, greeting guests, or serving, which makes it possible to handle peak hours with a smaller staff.
By simply monitoring a midday shift, you can identify which task is causing the most bottlenecks. That’s the one you need to address first: the most useful tool varies depending on whether the problem originates at the counter, in the kitchen, or on the phone.
.jpg)
