Whataburger's three-day WhataGames competition, designed to test the skills of the chain's team members in operations, corporate history and customer service, has come to a conclusion.
Competitors included employees from Whataburger's more than 700 restaurants in 10 states. The three winning teams reaped $140,000 in cash prizes.
The gold prize-winning team was Unit 526 from Fort Worth, Texas, which earned $5,000 for each of the 10 team members that attended the games and an additional $500 for each team member back at home.
The silver medal winners, Unit 396 from Corpus Christi, Texas, took home $2,500 each and $250 each for their restaurant team members, and bronze medalists, Unit 782 from San Antonio, Texas, were awarded $1,000 each and $100 each for their restaurant team members.
The competition, which officially started in November, included a series of elimination rounds involving mystery shoppers, pop quizzes and restaurant evaluations. The field was narrowed to 16 finalists in early March.
The finalists spent April 3-5 in Dallas participating in the WhataGames finals, a three-part competition involving a simulated 30-minute lunch rush at a nearby Whataburger restaurant ("What's Cookin'"), a game show-style competition ("WhataYaKnow") and a card game related to Whataburger's procedures ("Texas Hot Hold 'Em").
A WhataGames team is comprised of 10 members from a local restaurant: one general manager, one manager, two team leaders and six team members.
Maintenance team competition
WhataGames also featured a competition between six teams from the company's maintenance staff to determine which team best services and maintains equipment such as fryers, grills and drive-thru speakers.
The gold prize-winning team earned $5,000 for each of the three team members, including Cody Pugh, Floyd White and Kevin Stocks. The silver medal winners, Juan De La Cruz, Orlando Hernandez and Jimmy Gonzales, took home $2,500 each. Bronze medalists, Ray Postle, Gabe Tiscareno and Bryan King, were awarded $1,000 each.
In addition to the WhataGames finals for restaurant and maintenance teams, Whataburger also presented the Thomas E. Dobson award to the top corporate general managers from 2009 and 2010, each of whom receives $25,000.
Nominees are chosen based on performance, positive feedback from their supervisors and evaluations from the company's Chairman and CEO, Tom Dobson.
The 2009 winner was Dory Ferlo from Destin, Fla. The 2010 winner was Mavis Fernandes from Cypress, Texas.
