Understanding Restaurant Manager Turnover

Operating franchise restaurants is not for the faint of heart, especially when it comes to finding and keeping great employees. You've likely been there when you have groomed the perfect manager only to find them hightailing it to the next job and leaving you holding the bag and looking for someone to run the restaurant. There are no easy answers, but a new survey by Gecko Hospitality sheds some light on the triggers that can lead to managers abandoning ship.

The study examined 2,000 restaurant professionals and identified 10 lifestyle issues that cause people to leave their jobs. Two lists - one for male managers and one for female managers - were compiled.

The top five reasons for both men and women to leave their restaurant jobs were: better opportunity, unemployed, relocation, not satisfied, and no growth.

Interestingly, leaving a job for monetary reasons was far down the list for women and doesn't even show up on the men's list.

Here are the complete lists:

Top 10 reasons female managers leave

• Better opportunity
• Unemployed
• Relocation
• Not satisfied
• No growth
• Long commute
• Quality of life
• Monetary
• Business closed
• Returning to another industry

Top 10 reasons male managers leave

• Better opportunity
• Unemployed
• Relocation
• Not satisfied
• No growth
• Business closed
• Quality of life
• Returning to another industry
• Long commute
• Downsized