Restaurant Franchising & Innovation Summit
Trade leaders will collect on the Restaurant Franchising and Innovation Summit to share actionable methods for reworking office tradition and expertise into a strong engine for expertise retention and long-term profitability.
Picture: Willie Lawless/ Networld Media Group
January 29, 2026 by Mandy Wolf Detwiler — Editor, Networld Media Group
Within the aggressive world of franchising, your crew is not only a line merchandise — they’re the engine driving your profitability. A session on the Restaurant Franchising and Innovation Summit on Tuesday, March 17, referred to as “Earnings By way of Individuals: Constructing an Unstoppable Franchise Workforce” peels again the curtain on how a resilient, high-performing workforce immediately fuels your backside line, transferring past concept to supply the concrete instruments you could reach right now’s risky market.
The session will deal with the trade’s most urgent labor shortages head-on, sharing confirmed blueprints for attracting top-tier expertise and crafting compensation packages that really stick. From constructing an genuine tradition that staff by no means wish to go away to leveraging the most recent tech for seamless scheduling and compliance, you may stroll away with a roadmap to remodel your operations and maximize worker satisfaction.
Key takeaways:
- Fight labor dhocks: Determine and deploy proactive methods to safe certified workers, even in a decent hiring market.
- Retention by fesign: Grasp the artwork of optimizing advantages and cultural initiatives to slash turnover charges.
- Tech-friven rfficiency: Harness trendy instruments to streamline coaching, automate scheduling, and guarantee your compliance is ironclad.
Session audio system embody Stacey Gelber, vice chairman of human assets for Blaze Pizza; John Lucas, vice chairman of brand name and franchise growth at Farmer Boys and Matthew Partitions, president and chief shops officer for Edible Manufacturers. Brittney Wilganowski Harrison, head of income for HigherMe, will average the occasion.
“At Blaze Pizza, we made tradition tangible by shifting to a mindset of accountability and possession on the restaurant degree. By clearly defining expectations round staffing, coaching, and engagement — and measuring them persistently — we decreased turnover, improved pace of service, and elevated visitor satisfaction. That cultural shift confirmed up immediately in labor effectivity and restaurant profitability,” Gelber mentioned in an e mail interview.
At Farmer Boys, a family-owned and -operated enterprise, Lucas mentioned staff can anticipate an open‑door atmosphere and direct entry to each the model’s founders and senior management crew.
“Our franchisees really have a seat on the desk and play an lively function in shaping each model technique and day‑to‑day techniques,” Lucas mentioned in an e mail interview. “In an period of consolidation and huge restaurant conglomerates, this degree of connection and partnership is more and more uncommon. It is a core a part of our tradition and one of many key causes Farmer Boys is such a powerful and rewarding model to franchise with. That is our ‘secret weapon’ for attracting high quality candidates.”
The Restaurant Franchising and Innovation Summit will probably be held on the Loews Coronado Bay Resort in San Diego, California, March 16-18. Click on right here for extra info and to register for the summit.
About Mandy Wolf Detwiler
Mandy Wolf Detwiler is the managing editor at Networld Media Group and the positioning editor for PizzaMarketplace.com and QSRweb.com. She has greater than 20 years’ expertise masking meals, folks and locations.
An award-winning print journalist, Mandy brings greater than 20 years’ expertise to Networld Media Group. She has spent almost twenty years masking the pizza trade, from impartial pizzerias to multi-unit chains and each measurement enterprise in between. Mandy has been featured on the Meals Community and has gained quite a few awards for her protection of the restaurant trade. She has an insatiable urge for food for studying, and might let you know the place to seek out the very best slices within the nation after spending 15 years touring and consuming pizza for a dwelling.
