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Subway, Yum cultures help elevate women to QSR leadership amidst industry strewn with challenges

What impedes female QSR professionals en route to the top of the world's biggest chains? And what difference can women make once they reach the C-level? Female executives from Subway and KFC weighed in on these questions and others.

April 29, 2019 by S.A. Whitehead — Food Editor, Net World Media Group

Editor's note: This is the first of a two-part series on women's forward-progress in QSR leadership and how its changing the quick-service industry overall. The second part of this series publishes on this website on Wednesday, May 1. 

Over the past 40 or even 50 years, the media has increasingly covered the emergence, existence and now the still under-representation of women across all industries, with the restaurant QSR sector no exception. For women the path to the top of the world's leading fast food enterprises is still sullied with obstacles, but women are making it. And once there, they are making a noticeable and positive difference, according to the 14 individuals QSRweb recently interviewed on the subject. 

But we wanted to get a feel for both what women's journey to the top looks like and what type of effect they're having on these organizations once they get there. To do that we went to two big QSR companies — Subway and KFC — for some answers. 

"KFC and Yum have changed the punctuation we use in growing leaders from 'You're not ready - period' to 'You may not be ready today, but you will be when you work on 'x, y and z.'"                         -KFC U.S. Chief Legal Officer Melanie Bootes

What we learned  — at least at these two global restaurant companies — is that women's presence as the top is not only palpable but might even be measurable. The dozen executive women and two men we interviewed at these chains noted a couple of distinct changes in their organizations thanks to an increasing female presence at the top. Most notably, they told us women leaders just seem to essentially put the wheels on great ideas and make them reality. In short, women make things happen in the QSR business.  

Fertman    (Photo provided)

"I've found in my years of Subway experience that our female leaders in the field are paying close attention to the drivers of our goals, primarily restaurant operational excellence and always providing excellent superior customer experience," said Don Fertman, Subway Chief Development Officer for Field Development. "They bring a level of thought to company initiatives that has helped to crystallize the steps necessary to achieve our objectives."

Bootes.(Photo provided)

At KFC, Chief Legal Officer Melanie Bootes agreed and expanded on that idea after considering her past 16 years with the Louisville-based chicken brand. 

"It has changed dramatically," she said. "When I started out in 2003, there were no female members of the KFC U.S. Leadership team. Now there are four. There were no female chief legal officers at Yum or (its) three brands (KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut), and now the CLO of each U.S. brand is a woman, in addition to a number of female CLOs in our international business units. ... 

"KFC and Yum have changed the punctuation we use in growing leaders from 'You're not ready - period' to 'You may not be ready today, but you will be when you work on 'x, y and z.'"

Beyond those plusses though, many interviewed also cited women's almost innate ability to listen, coach and nurture effectively as relatively new and refreshing traits that increasing numbers of female corporate and field managers have brought to the industry.

"Nurturing and growing another person is a natural to women," said Texas-based Subway franchise owner and Business Development Agent Jennifer English. "In leadership, it is important to know that you have the support, but you also have tenacity to see something through. 

"Sometimes we are someone's first job (and) come to find out that they never have cut a vegetable. Not only are we training them to do the job, but we also offered a life lesson. As we continue to see the gender gap close, we will see the brand transformation take off exponentially."

But there are still problems...

With those kinds of aforementioned substantial benefits, you might assume the need for women at the top is essentially a need met, right? Not yet. 

In fact, the other salient take-away from our interviews was that despite all the progress of the past decades around the need for more female restaurant leaders and despite all the positive effects women have had on this industry, it's still mostly a man's world, particularly at the top. 

Perhaps surprisingly, the results of one recent data survey by the restaurant scheduling provider, Homebase, found that many women start out making less than men in their hourly positions.  

"For all hourly workers, women earn 90 cents on the dollar, compared to men. For food and beverage sector employees women earned 82 cents on the dollar, compared to men."

-Homebase Head of Human Resources Carol Wood

"The 'good' news is that the wage gap for hourly workers appears to be lower ... than (all levels of paid workers) overall," Homebase Head of Human Resources Carol Wood said. "But, one of the largest employment sectors — food and beverage — has one of the largest wage gaps."

Wood said for all hourly U.S. workers, regardless of industry, Feb. 13 marks the the so-called "equal pay date," which reflects how much longer women must work than men to earn the same amount. The news is evern worse for restaurant hourly workers; their equal pay date is March 21, 36 days after the rest of the workforce. 

"This is unusual because usually in hourly work, based on the position, they all make the same. ..." Wood said. "For all hourly workers, women earn 90 cents on the dollar, compared to men. For food and beverage sector employees women earned 82 cents on the dollar, compared to men."

That alone could be a significant barrier to women even remaining long enough in their jobs to progress to leadership positions, since Wood said that often lower starting pay gets "compounded" over time.

Interestingly, Wood said this difference flattens out in cities with higher minimum wages, like San Francisco, where there is a nearly $15 minimum wage mandate. Little or no wage gap between men and women in hourly foodservice positions exist in those cities.

"Another factor can be attendance," Wood said. "You may be surprised to find out how many restaurant employees and servers are also parents. Women still shoulder the responsibility of shuttling their children to childcare, more than men. 

"This can impact attendance and ultimately turnover, which means women may not be at the job long enough to get the next increase. Hourly service positions are positions with changing schedules making attendance especially difficult if you are the one that has to manage not only your own schedule but your children's schedule and child care as well."

Culture can change things

Big corporations with an awareness of these barriers can and do make a difference.

"At Subway, we've always had a balance of male and female leaders," said Cindy Kopazna, Subway 30-year veteran and Culinary Innovations project manager. "It's our strategic vison that has always been our key asset when it comes to leadership, regardless of gender."

Yum Brands also has a number of initiatives to shepherd women through those traditional career advancement barriers along with other issues. Significantly, Yum Brands CEO Greg Creed has "walked the walk," setting the example of a female-friendly workplace and even being honored last December by gender equity group, Women's Foodservice Forum, as one of the restaurant industry's top executives committed to advancing opportunities for women. 

That kind of top-down example is priceless in this particular fight, according to longtime KFC executives like the brand's  U.S. CFO Trip Vornholt, who also serves as executive sponsor of Yum's Women In Networking resource group that fosters female advancement in the company.  

"Yum Brands has been a leader in developing a culture that fuels results since I started with the company back in 1997. ..." Vornholt said. "Because of the great culture here at Yum I think any resistance (to female leadership and advancement) may be simply from unconscious bias. But training the organization on this and focusing on making strides in this area helps tremendously. The key is for all leaders, at all levels and especially at the top, to set the tone for this."

Feature and inset punch clock photo: iStock

About S.A. Whitehead

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Pizza Marketplace and QSRweb editor Shelly Whitehead is a former newspaper and TV reporter with an affinity for telling stories about the people and innovative thinking behind great brands.