“HR is more than ‘Fill out these forms and don’t get into trouble,’” said the HR Director of an NYC restaurant group 3Sixty Insights interviewed. He will be anonymously referred to as “JS” in this case study.
In November 2024, JS was hired to expand the HR function at this restaurant group, a New York City-based multi-franchise owner of 41 Dunkin’, Wendy’s, Wingstop, and Taco Bell locations across four of the five boroughs of NYC, as well as vendor stands on the Staten Island ferry.
JS and his two HR teammates oversee the HR needs of 650 employees, 250 of whom are full-time and approximately 30 of whom are in administrative roles at the company’s corporate office.
The restaurant group’s employee base is as eclectic and diverse as the city it’s based in, with 80% of its employees speaking English as their second language.
From the Kitchen Table to the Boardroom
Part of JS’s strategy was to structure procedures and streamline everything that touches HR, a process he calls taking the locations “from the kitchen table to the boardroom.”
While the restaurant group owns all of its locations, many still operate like mom-and-pop shops, with inconsistent practices and procedures and no HR there to enforce the rules. “HR was reactive, not proactive,” JS explained.
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