Jordan Boesch is the visionary founder and CEO of Seven Shifts, the leading labor management platform that has revolutionized how restaurants handle scheduling, payroll, and workforce management. Starting from his experience with his father’s two Quiznos franchise locations, Boesch identified the massive gap in restaurant technology and built Seven Shifts into a powerhouse serving 50,000 restaurants and 1 in 9 restaurant workers across the US.
Key Insights on Restaurant Labor
The Hiring Crisis Continues: Hiring remains the #1 challenge for restaurant operators, with managers consistently short-staffed and struggling with no-shows.
Strategic Shift to Cross-Training: Rather than hiring more people due to tight labor costs, restaurants are increasingly investing in cross-training existing staff. This creates a win-win scenario – operators get more flexibility from reliable employees, while staff gain the career growth opportunities they’ve been seeking.
Seven Shifts’ Market Position
With 50,000 restaurants using their platform (serving 1 in 9 restaurant workers in the US), Seven Shifts has become the marquee leader in labor management by focusing on:
- Ease of use – emotional connection through intuitive design
- Deep connectivity – seamless workflows across the entire employee lifecycle
- Restaurant-only focus – understanding industry-specific needs
- Strong customer support
From Paper to Digital
A striking 65% of new customers still come from Excel and paper-based systems, highlighting the massive digitization opportunity remaining in the industry. Seven Shifts focuses on bringing operators online first, then gradually introducing advanced features and insights.
The AI-Powered Future
Boesch envisions a conversational AI future where managers can use voice commands for tasks like checking compliance, running payroll, or modifying schedules – moving away from desk-bound management to more mobile, intuitive interactions.
Strategic Focus on Independents
Despite advice to target enterprise clients, Seven Shifts deliberately serves independent operators (85% single-unit restaurants), driven by Boesch’s passion for supporting the community heartbeat that independent restaurants represent.
The company continues expanding into payroll services and exploring training solutions, always with the philosophy of solving “hundreds of paper cuts” through integrated workflows rather than just alerting operators to problems.
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