Cultureworx helped bottle the “Secret Sauce” to be replicated in restaurants across the U.S.
CultureWorx Helped Operationalize Culture to be Replicated in Restaurants Across the U.S.
Introduction
One of the largest quick-service restaurant franchisees in the country with hundreds of restaurants across the United States, recently achieved 25 years in business. This significant milestone and aggressive trajectory for growth caused new leadership to pause and package the winning company culture that ultimately brought the business to this successful point.
The company aimed to evaluate, define, operationalize, and sustain the culture behind its thriving company to be replicated in restaurants across the U.S.
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What they wanted to achieve:
- Arrow-right Scale the organization’s thriving culture across all locations
- Arrow-right Identify opportunities to improve talent attraction and retention
- Arrow-right Provide leaders tools for effectively engaging and interacting with employees
- Arrow-right Define a clear development path for leaders in the organization
- Arrow-right Continuously improve and sustain the employee experience
Situation
Company culture has been a top priority for the company since its founding 25 years ago and continues to be a primary driver behind the company’s growth and success.
When the company underwent a significant leadership transition this year, the new President saw an opportunity to evaluate, identify, and package assets of the existing company culture that have led to its success. More specifically, they sought expert facilitation and organizational constructs for:
- Arrow-right Establishing clear definition around its core values
- Arrow-right Effectively communicating and instilling these core values in the company
- Arrow-right Integrating the core values into operational practices for new and tenured leaders
- Arrow-right Assimilating new leaders into the desired workplace culture
- Arrow-right Strategically fostering alignment and understanding of the culture across locations
In seeking a solution for this organization-wide undertaking, the company was referred to CultureWorx. They were specifically drawn to our systematic approach and expertise in helping organizations intentionally formalize and reinforce the practices that lead to a winning company culture. The company saw that we could help them articulate the core values and behaviors that led to their success to scale and sustain the leadership culture that has brought them to this point.
Solution
CultureWorx provided just what the company needed.
We offered our empirically-driven methodology and approach to scaling and operationalizing the company culture, called Culture Performance Management™ (CPM™).
With an imminent vision for growth and acquisitions, the timing was right for the company to develop a framework that would equip existing and future restaurant leaders with the tools necessary to replicate the winning culture.
The company selected our most comprehensive CPM™ solution, The Culture Transformation Package™. We spent two weeks touring their high-performing and opportunity restaurants across the country to view the company culture through the lens of employees, leaders, and customers. Together we collaborated on individualized development plans, succession plans, and executive coaching. Our goal was to ultimately instill ownership, accountability and alignment around the current and future state of the company. This year-long engagement established their cultural foundation, enabling the senior leadership team to successfully:
- Arrow-right Select a culture value system for the organization
- Arrow-right Define behavioral standards aligned to core values
- Arrow-right Connect behavioral expectations to leaders’ daily practices
- Arrow-right Equip leaders with learning practices and tools to drive cultural competence
- Arrow-right Practice and sustain the learned behavioral standards
Outcomes
The company and CultureWorx mobilized 400+ restaurant leaders with the tools and strategies needed to replicate the winning company culture. This work supported the successful acquisition and culture integration of 10 new restaurants, all of which were staffed and scaled quickly.
CultureWorx worked with the company’s c-suite, director-level employees, and area leadership to instill ownership and accountability and foster alignment and understanding around the current and future state of the company. Leaders participated in hands-on workshops, leadership development sessions, and strategic discussions to learn, practice, and embody the leadership behaviors that underpin the core company values that define the company’s culture.
Scaling the organization’s thriving culture across all locations
The company refined its purpose, mission, vision, and core values with correlating leadership behaviors and expectations that were built into the daily operations model of the company. Area coaches and general managers received evaluations, development tools, and resources to reinforce how to engage and interact as leaders.
Identifying opportunities to improve talent attraction and retention
The company enhanced its candidate recruitment tools to include a clear and concise articulation of the company culture and employee experience. New hire onboarding, interview protocols, and job descriptions were overhauled.
Providing leaders tools for engaging and interacting with employees
The company established priorities and KPIs aligned with their core values. These focus areas were instilled and reinforced through tools and resources deployed in each restaurant.
Defining a clear development path for leaders in the organization
The company developed a succession planning model to align all levels with their track for progression in the organization and ensure development resources were available for each group. Executive-level behavioral-based coaching was implemented, and modularized training and certification programs were developed and deployed.
Continuously improving and sustaining the employee experience
The company received complete curriculums, systems, and processes to continuously foster their leadership behaviors, including “train-the-trainer” programs and leadership development programs to drive reinforcement and sustainability of the company culture in existing and future restaurants.
Continuously improving and sustaining the employee experience
The company received complete curriculums, systems, and processes to continuously foster their leadership behaviors, including “train-the-trainer” programs and leadership development programs to drive reinforcement and sustainability of the company culture in existing and future restaurants.
“We are so thankful to CultureWorx and Dr. Donte Vaughn for helping us get to the root of our success to standardize and systemize key ingredients of our company culture for the next generation of leaders. We are confident that through the systems and frameworks we developed with CultureWorx that our company culture will continue to be reinforced and replicated across the U.S., contributing to more healthy workplaces, opportunities, and jobs for our incredible team members.”
