In this episode of The Financial Advantage with GSS, host Nick Stauff sits down with Melissa Duque, Associate General Counsel and HR Manager at Accurate Employer Solutions.

What does it take to build a restaurant team that performs every shift, even when turnover spikes and margins shrink? Operators know the challenge: one day you have a full roster, the next you’re scrambling to fill gaps and keep guests happy. Every decision about your people ripples out to the guest experience and bottom line. David Drinan , Managing Partner at BlackThorn Strategic Advisors, has guided both struggling units and fast-growing brands. His conclusion: without the right people, no system or strategy can succeed. Why Team Performance Drives Restaurant Success Operational excellence begins with people. Technology helps, but service breaks down fast if your team doesn’t care. Team culture directly shapes guest experience. Staff who trust each other and feel valued show up with pride, while a weak culture creates inconsistency. Chick-fil-A proves the point: by investing in people and setting clear expectations, they generate industry-leading revenue and unmatched guest satisfaction. But building and sustaining that kind of team also requires operational breathing room—and that’s where the right back-office support becomes critical. That’s exactly what Global Shared Services (GSS) provides: financial clarity, smart tools, and time-saving services that allow restaurant leaders to focus on their people instead of their paperwork. Step 1: Hire for Attitude, Train for Excellence Hire people who show up curious, honest, and ready to work—even if they’ve never bussed a table. Build interview questions around real-life scenarios to gauge cultural fit. Involve current team members in hiring to reinforce culture. Create structured onboarding: clear expectations, hands-on training, and mentorship. When people feel invested in from day one, they gain confidence and deliver consistent guest experiences. We’ve seen this play out in real restaurants. One GSS client—a Tropical Smoothie Café franchisee —built a top-performing team by pairing structured onboarding with GSS payroll support, which eliminated admin headaches and let managers spend more time coaching new hires during their most formative weeks. 

Learn restaurant financial planning with a 4-week forecast process to manage cash flow, labor costs, and prime cost effectively.

Restaurant forecasting helps predict sales, optimize labor, and reduce waste using real data, proven formulas, and actionable tools.

The FTE Model explained for restaurants: boost accounting consistency, control costs, and scale with fixed-capacity teams embedded in your finance workflow.

In this episode of The Financial Advantage, host Nick Stauff sits down with David Drinan, Managing Partner at BlackThorne Strategic Advisors.

Restaurant technology moves fast, but choosing the wrong platform can cost as much as hiring a bad employee.

Learn why most restaurant budgets fail and how to create a plan that drives profit, improves forecasting, empowers teams, and keeps your business in control all year.

Restaurant operators need better systems to compete and scale, but they face an overwhelming array of vendor promises, conflicting advice, and the constant fear of making expensive technology mistakes. With hundreds of solutions competing for attention, how do you choose technology that works? "Buying the wrong technology for your restaurant is the same as hiring a bad employee. It's super expensive," warns Rich Sweeney , Lead Solutions Engineer at Restaurant365. Poor technology decisions can drain resources that set businesses back months or years. The challenge has intensified dramatically. Restaurant technology exploded from virtually nothing to an overwhelming array of options in just 15 years, explains Marc Cohen , Solutions Architect at Restaurant365. In this blog, you will learn about the importance of restaurant technology and some key facts about how to choose the most suitable option for every business. What You'll Learn: Key criteria for evaluating technology partners who understand restaurant operations Red flags that signal expensive mistakes before you sign contracts A proven implementation strategy that builds sustainable foundations Security practices that protect your investment and operational data Restaurant365 experts Rich and Marc share lessons from thousands of technology decisions, revealing what works versus what vendors promise. Understanding the Restaurant Technology Environment Restaurant tech went from virtually nonexistent to overwhelming in just 15 years. Industry events now require parking lots just to accommodate all the technology vendors. This rapid evolution created a challenge similar to restaurants that suddenly go viral — operators know they need to capitalize on available technology, but often lack the knowledge or infrastructure to implement it effectively. The Core Problem: Data Without Direction The real challenge isn't a lack of technology — it's making it work together effectively. The restaurant industry's rapid technology adoption created a new problem: data overload without integration. "We've been collecting all of this data for the last 15 years, and now we're trying to figure out what we do with it all and how we get it all to talk to each other," explains Marc about the challenge of connecting disparate systems and extracting meaningful insights. This data collection problem has created a broad spectrum of adoption: Some restaurants still rely on handwritten tickets and cash registers Others have implemented comprehensive platforms integrating accounting, inventory, scheduling, and analytics Most operators fall somewhere in between, struggling to connect disparate systems and extract meaningful insights The latest technological developments — from AI-powered phone systems to automated accounts payable and restaurant robotics — promise to solve these integration challenges. However, success depends on choosing technology partners who understand restaurant operations and can deliver on their promises.