Franchise networks have their own employee training nuances. There’s a fine line we have to walk in the franchised world, and that line can be blurry at times. We want to be very careful not to venture into “joint employer” territory, where, if I at the franchisor level am telling employees what to do in the franchisee, those employees become employees of two companies.
While this might sound appealing since I’m not paying them, it’s not cool when liability doors open and the franchisor becomes exposed to litigation for things happening in restaurants that are somewhat out of our control. Here are three ways we’ve walked that line, while making training behaviors stick at store level.
Incentivizing Team Members Through Gamification
The first approach involves incentivizing team members. How do you get an individual – a team member you don’t control, who doesn’t really work for you – to do what you want and need them to do? Free stuff, absolutely! We created a loyalty program, but not for our guests – we created one for our team members. We thought about how to get individuals (that we had no ability to communicate directly with) to take training, and to want to be present and learn information.
So, we gamified the learning experience where every single thing you do in our Learning Management System (LMS) is tracked and employees earn points. When points are earned, suddenly they’re very interested in doing everything possible to earn as many points as possible.
They earn points for logging in, watching Limited-time Offering (LTO) videos, and doing compliance training through our micro-modules. Those compliance trainings that nobody likes to do – now they’re actually craving them and completing them the moment they expire. Frontline employees have the most learning and point-earning opportunities. We’ve implemented micro-learning for the whole team member training program, opening doors for them to earn many more points.
We offer cool branded merchandise like hot dog slippers and hot dog ponchos that our franchisees’ employees love. This is how we dangle that carrot (or hot dog!) in front of them. Now they’re craving training and actually asking when the next LTO video will be posted because they want more points.
The program costs about $80 per store on average, with $90 per store in shipping; it costs more to send the merchandise than the items themselves cost. However, the program is at no cost to the franchisee, which was the key buy-in factor since cost is usually the first question when rolling out anything new. We as the franchisor bear the program cost, but we see benefits in increased employee knowledge retention, excitement, and willingness to learn, plus their desire to stay longer because they have something to chase.
Looking to the future, we could reduce shipping costs by moving to digital products like gift cards, potentially cutting program costs in half. However, digital items are like a flash in the pan – you get them, you’re excited, you spend them, and they’re gone. Physical items like hot dog slippers or “I Heart Wieners” hats can be worn for a long time, showing ongoing brand love.
Bringing Team Members Into the Circle
The second approach involves bringing team members closer – not literally, but into our circle. We conduct many meetings and road shows, typically only for franchisees and general managers, but we wanted to create a program where everyone could be invited and feel part of something bigger. When you’re a team member at a restaurant, you feel like a tiny piece in a large machine. When we invite them in, and they get to spend time with us participating in activities together, they feel more valued.
We created the Wiener Olympics. This brand-wide competition offers five all-expenses-paid trips to Hawaii for our National Operator Seminar, generating significant interest. We wanted to open it to every organizational level. I shamelessly adopted this idea from my CHART friend Rachel Richal, who created the Blazin’ Games for Inspire Brands. I took some pieces and “wienerized” them from her Buffalo Wild Wing competition.
We invited all team members into 22 different meeting rooms throughout the country, holding road shows in major cities with three competitions. Since we were in meeting rooms with limited equipment and no product, we conducted a knowledge competition straight from our operations manual; information team members would and should know. We did a portioning competition with sauce, scales, and squeeze bottles, asking them to portion out half an ounce of sauce. We discovered not many people know what half an ounce really is, which was enlightening for us and participants, as we found many products had severely under-portioned ingredients affecting taste and food quality.
We also held a building competition with ingredient cards and portions where we’d call out products, like on a Kitchen Display System (KDS), and they’d have to build them. We scored these activities and brought the top 20 from around the country to our test kitchen in Orange County, California, flying them in and putting them up for a night.
The results showed 1.2% sales growth for stores that attended versus those that didn’t. All other participating states outside of California actually had double the success during the trailing three months. This demonstrated real ROI. While there are real costs for franchisees to send employees to training, these costs were recuperated through measurable metrics. We attributed real positive business metrics to this particular event and shared that information system-wide, which was eye-opening for everyone.
Delivering Just-in-Time Information
The third approach involves delivering just-in-time information – meeting team members where they are. And, where are our team members? Working. They’re on the line, at stations, in drive-thru, at front counters – not in front of computers.
We created Ask TDO (The Delicious One), an Alexa-type chatbot using a large language model in a closed loop. Our operations manual and core materials are within this knowledge base, but that’s it – it’s not open to external data. You can’t ask it about who the Grammy winners are; it has no idea. But it knows how to run a Wienerschnitzel and can provide information in layman’s terms rather than operations manual jargon, pulling information from what can be a dry document. Ask TDO can query information at a moment’s notice without digging for it, you’re bringing information closer to team members and meeting them where they are.
Recognizing that there’s not much English spoken in Southern California quick-service restaurants, we have this available in Spanish. Our source materials aren’t in Spanish – we have Spanish videos on the LMS, but our manual is in English. This allows individuals to query information in Spanish and get answers in Spanish straight from the manual without additional translation. We’re not translating source materials every time we make updates or publish new procedures – we upload one document and it gets updated information in real time.
Five years ago, none of this was possible. Innovation is crucial, and our brand is 65 years old. We must continue innovating, even as a legacy brand.
The Future: Virtual Reality (VR) Training
We’re completely revamping new hire and ongoing training using VR. While VR isn’t necessarily cheap, you can make it timeless by not focusing on products, which change, but on service, which doesn’t really change. The way people want to feel and be treated remains consistent.
We approached MadXR, who developed modules for Whataburger and Chick-fil-A. We wanted a VR module focusing on service rather than products. Since 70% of our guests come through drive-thru, we focused efforts where guests are – elevating drive-thru service. With AI now more integrated into everything, we can plug AI into service modules and have unique, real conversations with individuals as if they’re in cars at the drive-thru, potentially having service issues. Employes can practice handling disgruntled guests in a risk-free environment.
We’re excited and optimistic about our future direction. It’s never too late to innovate. Just because you’ve done something for 65 years doesn’t mean the next five can’t be completely different.
This article was inspired by my breakout session at the February 2026 Workforce Management in Fast Casual & QSR Summit.
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