As labor costs rise, David Cantu, cofounder of restaurant industry tech provider HotSchedules, said that the biggest challenge is finding and retaining workers.
"The fight for quality labor is incredibly difficult," Cantu said in an interview. "Finding high-quality resources to deliver against the increased expectations you have around brand, and the brand promise, and the concept you're trying to deliver is very, very hard."
Panera CEO Niren Chaudhary told Business Insider last week that the top challenge was maintaining relevance with customers. No. 2, Chaudhary said, was doing the same with employees.
"How do we create engagement in employees?" Chaudhary said. "What do we need to do to hire the best, retain the best, and train the best that we can find?"
Read more: Panera plans to slash meat from half of its menu as customers seek vegetarian options and fear of climate change heats up