CHRO Conversations: Scott Weisberg - Wendy's
Summary
TLDRIn this insightful conversation, Scott Weisberg, Chief People Officer at Wendy's, discusses the multifaceted role of a CHRO in driving business success. Weisberg highlights the importance of influencing enterprise-wide decisions, managing human resources across a global franchise network, and addressing strategic challenges like rising labor costs and technological shifts. He also emphasizes the value of hiring for potential and fostering an adaptive, motivated workforce. Weisberg's approach to talent management focuses on leadership development and collaborative problem-solving, providing valuable lessons for HR professionals and aspiring leaders.
Takeaways
- 💼 The CHRO plays multiple roles: senior leadership team member, function leader, manager, advisor to the CEO, and confidant to the board.
- 🍔 Wendy's faces strategic challenges, including rising commodity and labor costs, increased competition, and the need for restaurant image updates and technology investments.
- 🛠 HR plays a crucial role in redesigning work systems, improving staff development, and incorporating automation to reduce costs and enhance the employee experience.
- 🔄 Wendy's is addressing high turnover (168%) by making jobs more desirable and improving work systems and management models.
- 🧑🤝🧑 Hiring for potential is key at Wendy's: they focus on hiring based on capability, then training for specific skills, especially for customer service roles.
- 🎯 Scott Weisberg's 'smart, mature, motivated, and courageous' criteria are key for assessing potential hires, particularly for leadership roles.
- 🤝 The relationship between Wendy's corporate HR and franchisees focuses on enabling them with systems, tools, and best practices rather than direct control, fostering a collaborative learning environment.
- 📈 Franchisees are eager for solutions that drive better outcomes, and good ideas tend to gain traction organically within the franchise network.
- 🎓 Motivating HR talent at Wendy’s stems from the opportunity to make a large-scale impact, such as developing training that benefits 200,000 employees.
- 💡 Weisberg emphasizes the importance of listening and adapting when ideas face resistance, as strong solutions typically gain support without needing to be forced.
Q & A
What is the primary role of a CHRO in the executive leadership team?
-A CHRO's primary role is to be part of the senior leadership team, making enterprise-wide decisions. While they lead HR, they also weigh in on broader business strategy and decisions from multiple angles.
What unique challenges does the CHRO face in a company like Wendy's?
-The CHRO at Wendy's has to navigate the complexities of managing human resources for both the corporate team and 400 franchisees, which own 95% of the restaurants. They must ensure strategies align with franchisees' needs while also addressing company-wide HR initiatives.
How does the CHRO balance decision-making between corporate leadership and supporting franchisees?
-The CHRO's role involves creating an agenda that aligns with the company's business strategy while also supporting franchisees. This includes providing tools, systems, and processes that can help franchisees improve their HR practices and operational efficiency.
What are some strategic obstacles Wendy’s is currently facing?
-Wendy’s is facing inflation in commodity and labor costs, increasing pressure on franchisees’ margins. Additionally, there is a need for investment in restaurant upgrades and technology to improve customer experiences, such as mobile and kiosk ordering.
How is HR involved in technological changes and automation at Wendy's?
-HR plays an architectural role, helping modify work systems and introducing automation where necessary to enhance the employee experience, reduce costs, and increase efficiency. HR assists in change management to ensure smooth transitions with new technologies.
What hiring philosophy does Scott Weisberg emphasize at Wendy's?
-Weisberg believes in hiring for potential and capability rather than specific skills. He looks for qualities like being smart, mature, motivated, and courageous, which he feels are essential for success and future leadership.
What does Weisberg mean by 'smart' when hiring for potential?
-Weisberg defines 'smart' not just as book knowledge but as incisiveness—being able to anticipate the right issue and having good instincts to address problems proactively.
How does the CHRO at Wendy's influence without direct authority over franchisees?
-The CHRO focuses on providing solutions, tools, and systems that franchisees find valuable. Instead of pushing ideas, the CHRO listens to franchisee feedback and adjusts approaches to meet their needs, allowing effective ideas to naturally take off.
What is one of the biggest challenges in HR for the quick-service restaurant (QSR) industry, according to Weisberg?
-One of the biggest challenges in the QSR industry is high employee turnover, which can exceed 160%. Addressing this requires making jobs more desirable, improving work systems, and focusing on employee development to reduce turnover.
How does Wendy's HR department support the development of franchisee HR teams?
-Wendy’s HR department provides franchisees with systems, processes, and tools to improve their HR outcomes. It also fosters a learning environment where franchisees can exchange ideas and best practices to elevate their human capital capabilities.
Outlines
🎤 Introduction with Scott Weisberg, Chief People Officer at Wendy’s
Anthony Nyberg introduces Scott Weisberg, Chief People Officer at Wendy’s, discussing his role and the complexities of being a CHRO in a global company. Scott explains the unique responsibilities of a CHRO as part of the executive leadership team, highlighting the need to contribute to enterprise-wide decisions while maintaining a focus on HR leadership. His role encompasses making strategic decisions for Wendy’s, a $10 billion brand with over 6,500 restaurants globally, and balancing the needs of both company and franchise operations.
📉 Strategic Challenges for Wendy’s Amid Rising Costs
Weisberg outlines the strategic obstacles Wendy’s is facing, particularly the rising commodity and labor costs. He emphasizes the inflation in both food input costs and labor wages, driven by competition and municipal mandates, which puts pressure on franchisee margins. Weisberg also addresses the economic challenges of providing affordable meals while managing operational costs, and the need for investments in technology, image updates, and customer experience enhancements to stay competitive in the quick-service restaurant industry.
🔧 Improving Operations through Work Systems and Technology
Scott elaborates on Wendy’s efforts to improve work systems and operational efficiency. He highlights the company's changes in management staffing models and the integration of technology such as mobile and kiosk ordering to streamline restaurant operations. These efforts aim to enhance employee experiences, reduce costs, and tackle the high employee turnover rate, which hovers at 168%. By automating certain tasks, employees can focus on enhancing the customer experience, while HR continues to redesign roles to attract and retain talent in an increasingly competitive labor market.
🧠 Hiring for Potential and Building a Strong Talent Pipeline
Weisberg explains his philosophy of hiring for potential rather than specific skills. He believes in identifying individuals with raw talent, energy, and capability, who can be trained for skills required on the job. For leadership roles, he emphasizes hiring individuals who exhibit four key traits: being smart (with good instincts), mature (open to feedback and learning from mistakes), motivated (driven to succeed), and courageous (willing to address difficult issues). This approach fosters long-term talent development and prepares employees for future growth within the organization.
🌍 Franchisee Relations and Influencing without Authority
Scott describes the unique challenges of working with independent franchisees, who make their own HR and operational decisions. The role of Wendy’s corporate HR is to provide tools, systems, and processes that support franchisees in improving organizational outcomes. Weisberg notes that the most effective way to influence franchisees is by providing valuable solutions, not by imposing corporate mandates. Franchisees, he says, are eager to adopt systems that work and drive success, emphasizing the importance of listening to their needs and adapting solutions accordingly.
🚀 The Motivation Behind HR at Wendy’s
Weisberg touches on what motivates HR professionals at Wendy’s—namely, the opportunity to make a significant impact across a large organization. He discusses how the HR team is driven by the desire to create systems and programs that enhance the capabilities of 200,000 employees, aligning with the company's overall strategic goals. He also addresses the importance of influencing through good ideas, as opposed to enforcing decisions, particularly in the context of working with independent franchisees who are ultimately responsible for their own HR strategies.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Chief People Officer (CHRO)
💡Franchise
💡Quick-Service Restaurant (QSR)
💡HR as Business Partner
💡Executive Succession
💡Cost Management
💡Technology and Automation
💡Hiring for Potential
💡Turnover
💡Board of Directors
Highlights
Scott Weisberg, Chief People Officer at Wendy's, discusses the unique role of the CHRO within the executive leadership team, particularly the need to provide input on enterprise-wide decisions.
Weisberg emphasizes the importance of balancing franchise and corporate leadership, managing both internal HR professionals and supporting franchisees' HR teams.
He explains the multiple roles of a CHRO: leadership team member, function leader, HR manager, and advisor to both the CEO and the board, particularly on executive pay and CEO succession.
The quick-service restaurant (QSR) industry is facing rising costs, including significant inflation in commodity and labor costs, creating challenges for Wendy's franchisees.
Weisberg notes that about 60% of Wendy’s restaurants need capital investment to improve their appearance and meet customer expectations for a better dining experience.
Wendy’s is investing in technology, such as mobile ordering and kiosk ordering, to enhance the customer experience and reduce operational costs.
High employee turnover in the industry (168%) is a major challenge, and Wendy’s is focusing on work system redesign and automation to improve retention and operational efficiency.
Weisberg highlights that HR's role in these innovations includes being an 'architect' of work systems to facilitate technological and operational improvements.
Wendy’s focuses on hiring for potential, looking for candidates who are smart, mature, motivated, and courageous, and then training them for specific skills.
Weisberg explains that hiring for potential at all levels helps build a stronger leadership bench and improves overall talent development within the company.
Weisberg believes in influencing franchisees by providing effective tools, systems, and processes, rather than enforcing policies, to improve HR outcomes across Wendy’s vast franchise network.
The importance of adaptability in HR is emphasized, as Weisberg shares that good ideas naturally gain traction, while ineffective ones do not, requiring HR leaders to listen and refine their approaches.
Weisberg stresses the role of HR in creating a positive work environment through better training, work systems, and technology, which leads to better customer service and lower costs.
Weisberg shares that his approach to HR involves designing solutions that elevate both employee experience and operational efficiency, benefiting the entire Wendy’s enterprise.
Weisberg closes by highlighting the excitement HR professionals feel in creating impactful training and development programs that can benefit hundreds of thousands of employees across Wendy’s.
Transcripts
[Music]
welcome to another CH ro conversation
hosted by the Center for executive
succession at the Darla Moore School of
Business
I'm your host Anthony Nyberg and today
we are speaking with Scott Weisberg
chief people officer and a member of the
Executive Council for Wendy's the
world's third-largest quick-service
hamburger company which includes more
than 6,500 franchise and company
restaurants in over 30 countries around
the world Scott thank you very much for
joining us today we sincerely appreciate
it as a CH ro can you tell us a little
bit about what the what's unique about
being a CH ro as part of the executive
leadership team compared to maybe some
of the other functions yeah I think that
if one way to look at the role of the CH
ro is to look at the various different
teams or roles that you end up playing
so I would say that the first and
foremost what I tend to think about is
that I am a senior leadership team
member so wow I'm the head of HR I'm I'm
sitting on a business team and we're
making enterprise-wide decisions for the
Wendy's brand which is a ten billion
dollar brand with over 6500 restaurants
and several countries around the world
and there are strategy decisions that we
all make and even though we have a
functional specialty we're responsible
for weighing in on all those decisions
from every single angle so that's the
first role that I play a second role
that I play is as function leader and
and that has a purpose both within the
company in terms of leading the HR
professionals and coming up with an
agenda to bring the business strategy to
life but within a corporation like
Wendy's where we have 400 franchisees
and 95% of our restaurants are owned by
those franchisees I'm putting together
that agenda to bring that strategy to
life that can be executed and we can
support franchisees as well as the HR
business partners throughout the company
there's a role that I play as manager
with the human resource leadership team
and so again there are management
aspects that I play with those folks and
then I would say that there are two
other roles that the HR leader plays
that's somewhat unique one is what I
call consigliere or a
to the CEO and then I would say that
it's also a unique relationship with the
board and so particularly when it comes
to executive pay decisions and when it
comes to matters of CEO succession
you're the one player on the team that
is both confidant to the CEO but also an
advisor to the board and how you play
all those roles builds trust and and
your relative effectiveness what are
some of the larger strategic obstacles
that Wendy's happens to be facing right
now yeah this is a time of significant
challenge for what I would call the Q SR
or quick-service restaurant sector
restaurant companies you know we've been
fortunate in the past few years in that
commodity costs which our input costs
have been relatively stable or down but
now we're seeing significant and play
inflation there well we're also seeing
is that labor costs are accelerating
quite dramatically and that's because
our competitors and other industries are
elevating their wages as well as certain
municipalities or elevating wages and
when you think of the pressure that put
that puts on our partners or our
franchisees that our small business
owners they're really feeling their
margins challenged and that happens to
be going on in at a time when I think
that we're experiencing kind of a
barbell economy and there are people
that are desperately shopping our
particular segment in the restaurant
industry looking for low price so what
you know the that's going to drive
people into our restaurants is low
pricing and yet what the franchisees and
what the company restaurant operators
are experiencing are higher input costs
right and then what we also know is that
the reason why people will come to a
restaurant is that they
look good and about 40% of our
restaurants have been what we call image
activated but that means 60% needs some
capital investment to look better and we
also know that people are leveraging
technology more and more for ordering
and for experiencing the brand in a
different way and that requires
investment as well so I would say that
this is a business proposition problem
and it's a leap of faith that a
restaurant operator would cut costs down
when input costs are rising betting on
the volume leverage that ultimately will
lead to a successful business
proposition so when you think about what
HR is there to help do is first thing
that we look at is our work systems and
so what we've actually done recently is
we've changed our management staffing
model to bring about greater
line-of-sight to the critical tasks that
need to be done and we can do it with a
better developmental path that helps our
young restaurant managers learn as well
as be a more effective on the job and do
it for less money we also are looking at
those work systems in the back of the
restaurant in terms of where to use
potential automation that actually
elevates the the experience of the
employee and makes it a better place to
work and at the same time takes costs
out as well as mobile ordering as well
as kiosk ordering in the front of the
restaurant so we can use our employees
to support the customer experience in
other ways rather than some of these
tasks and that's important what we're
seeing in the industry right now is
about a hundred and sixty eight percent
turnover and now that's off of a very
high historical base of about a hundred
percent annualized a year but I think
that we're going to have to continue to
push for ways to make our jobs more
desirable to keep that turnover
unchecked so it's interesting because a
lot of what you talked about there were
issues that people would not necessarily
associate with HR and even when you
talked about HR helping redesign
programs including thinking about more
automation also doesn't we don't
normally think of that as part of the HR
job so can you just say a little bit
more about how HR might be driving those
changes I don't know if it if we drive
all of them I think what ends up driving
them is the need to take advantage of
available technology or the need to
actually drive down costs and then I
think that it's the HR role to be an
architect to think of how do you modify
the work systems to make that happen in
the most effective way and I think that
that's the role that we play and so you
can be a player on the front end to
identify the need you can be a little
bit further downstream to once the need
has been identified to determine the how
or you can be involved even further
downstream in terms of working with the
relative management team and the
technology to come up with ways for the
change management to go more effectively
and smoothly the way your your going to
be involved in some segment of that or
potentially all of it I once heard you
say that you hire for potential can you
share a little bit about what you what
that means to you I believe that for
virtually every level at least deeper in
the organization as you're developing
talent it's better to hire for
capability and train for skill so for
example I have a belief that we can hire
for raw customer service aptitude and
skills and somebody that's got positive
energy and a great work ethic and likes
to interact with people and we can teach
them how to actually build sandwiches or
take orders on a register I think that
that's true though as well for
entry-level jobs I think that if you're
hiring someone for raw capability and
thinking about can you project them in
two jobs one two or three levels above
what you're hiring them for it creates a
much better success rate and it builds a
bench for potential talent so then you
might ask well what does it look like to
hire for potential and and and I could
give you competency speak and and give
you lots of words but I've simplified it
really and for various areas I say that
that's smart mature motivated and either
courageous or centered is the last one
and when I talk about smart it's not
just book smart what I think of is
incisiveness we all know that there are
people that tend to be successful that
tend to be on the right issue no matter
where they're working they anticipate
what is the right thing to do and where
to go that's what I consider smart
they've got good instincts and they
always seem to be on the right topic
the second is maturity and I think that
maturities critically important because
it's linked to this whole idea of not
being defensive when you make mistakes
so that idea to get negative feedback
incorporate it when you realize that
you've made an error and not be
defensive in the face of criticism is
critically important because that's what
helps you to grow from those experiences
and you've got to be mature to be able
to in the face of criticism or negative
feedback continue to grow obviously
motivation if you've got two people that
are equal levels of smart equal levels
of mature but one is just more motivated
than the other they're going to get more
times at the bat they're going to make
more mistakes they're going to
incorporate that feedback and they're
going to continue to learn from it more
times and if you think about that day
over day week over week month over month
year over a year
you see that the person that is more
driven is going to have significant more
experience in learning over the
course of a career and then finally I
talked about courageous or centered
because particularly for management and
leadership jobs sometimes you have to
address areas that people would rather
not hear about whether it's somebody
that's working for you sometimes you
need to wrestle with conflict with a
peer and sometimes you need to be
courageous until the boss that maybe
their ideas and worth pursuing and it is
amazing to me how many people shy away
from those discussions and as a result
you don't actually work the issue that
needs to be worked or you don't address
the problems that really need to be
addressed and and the organization is
less effective so I find that over the
course of time and it's not failsafe but
if you had to bet on only only four
things I go to smart mature motivated
and courageous and you think that those
work for this hiring for potential using
those four key attributes that is useful
across the whole across the whole
organization from hire and you talked
about a little bit at the entry level
and in the store but really everywhere
you're saying I think I think that it is
I think that that's very very helpful
you can probably get away with motivated
and and and and and mature and at the
entry level but as you're looking for
bets to make particularly for leadership
talent I think that you want to bet on
those four it's it's a pretty good set
of bets that sounds like it yeah so
being that chief people officer at an
organization like Wendy's with a number
of franchises must create a number of
really unique and interesting
opportunities and challenges can you
share what some of those might be the
thing that makes it exciting to interact
with franchisees is that franchisees are
independent business owners which means
they make their own hiring decisions
they make their own decisions around
promotion and determination and so it's
not our job as the franchisor
to actually elevate their human resource
organization what we're responsible for
is to make it easy for their respective
human resource organizations to get
better organizational outcomes and human
capital outcomes and I think that we can
do that by providing systems processes
tools available to them either through
third parties or creating venues where
they're picking them up with each other
so really what we're responsible for is
a learning environment that elevates the
actual human capital capability of a ten
billion dollar 200 thousand person
enterprise so when I think about
motivating the HR talent within Wendy's
I think that that's an easy thing to do
because I think that at the heart of why
people tend to get into HR it's that
they want to make an impact the best HR
people I've ever seen
whether it's very apparent or whether
it's a little bit more subtle or nuanced
can't stand the idea of putting their
feet in the sand and not making prints
right and the the idea and the notion
that you can come up with training
curriculum that's going to be helpful
for 200,000 employees is ultimately
exciting and I think that's what gets us
up in the morning so it's been really
interesting because now a couple of
times you've talked about the tremendous
responsibilities and all the hats you
have but having to influence without
having necessarily a lot of power you're
talking about that in terms of the
executive leadership team and now that's
very similar with the franchises where
you you have to help them develop their
own talent but they're independent so
you can't push enforce policies on them
necessarily so how do you do that how do
you manage to help them develop talent
develop their processes from an
influencer perspective more than a or
the hammer perspective I think that in
today's world we're seeing this more now
than ever before good ideas take off
bad ideas don't so i-i've once had a
boss early in my career saying you know
if you're working really hard to push an
idea maybe I ought to step back and
think about whether or not the idea is
that good right and I think that what I
find with our franchisees they're really
hungry for solutions that work and so
again if we can facilitate those ideas
those processes those systems that work
I think that that's a winner for
everybody and if I'm finding that we're
pushing an idea too much what I should
be doing is probably listening a little
bit harder about why this isn't working
for somebody and when you solve those
problems usually the idea takes off hey
Scott thank you very much for joining us
the wisdom you've shared with us as
always it's extraordinarily interesting
to me and I think will be very helpful
for HR professionals and HMH our
students going forward thank you for
joining us thank you very much I really
appreciated the opportunity you just
listened to another CH ro conversation
today Scott Weisberg of Wendy's shared
his perspective about how to drive
business success through identifying and
motivating talent on behalf of all of us
who are associated with the Masters of
human resource program here at the
University of South Carolina and the
Center for executive succession thank
you for joining us
[Music]
you
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