A Restaurateur’s Employee Incentive: Pay-to-Vaccinate

Among the most valuable rules that any restaurant-chain executive can attest to is this one: If you’re looking for a good idea, ask your franchisees. After all, it was McDonald’s franchisees who devised some of the chain’s most popular menu items, including the Egg McMuffin, the Filet-O-Fish and the Big Mac. Subway’s profitable decision to add conveyor toasters to its locations also originated from a franchisee suggestion. And the original bacon cheeseburger—yes, the very first one a chain put on the menu? You can thank an A&W franchisee named Dale Mulder for cooking up that idea in 1963. And so, a few weeks ago, when Chris Elliott got wind of something nervy that one of his franchisees was up to, he paid attention. Elliott is CEO of Tampa-based FSC Franchise Co., a national operator of a pair of eateries: a craft-beer establishment called The Brass Tap and a family-friendly sports concept called Beef O’Brady’s. The franchisee’s name is Chris Overbeck, who operates an O’Brady’s in Hudson, Fla. Overbeck’s innovation wasn’t a new menu item but, rather, an offer he made to his employees: He promised to give $100 to each worker who showed him proof of their Covid-19 vaccination. An off-menu restaurant offering When Elliott saw the good response that Overbeck was getting—both from his staff and from the local media—he made the decision on the spot. “It just makes sense to offer it for the whole system,” he told Adweek, “[and] we will pay for it out of the marketing funds.” Employees still retain the option to not get vaccinated if they choose. And the $100 comes in the form of an Amazon or other major gift card, not cold hard cash. Even so, the moment Elliott rolled out the incentive systemwide, he took a big step beyond the sort of inducement that the bulk of service-industry employers have been offering in recent weeks. As Adweek reported in late March, restaurants from Krispy Kreme to Shake Shack to Olive Garden have all adopted a policy of giving employees paid time off (from three to six hours, usually) to go get a Covid-19 shot. An owner digging into his pocket and paying them to do it, though, is a different sort of carrot to dangle. And it’s not a cheap one. With an average of 25 employees in a two-concept system with 176 total locations, some 4,400 workers could theoretically step forward with a vaccine card and an outstretched palm. “We figured out if everybody got vaccinated,” Elliott said, “it’s somewhere between $400,000 and $500,000.” An investment, not an expense This comes at a time when revenues for most restaurants are already down by double digits because of the pandemic. For Elliott, however, the theoretical half million isn’t only an expense, but an investment—in the health of his workers, foremost, but also in the public image of his brands. From the start of the pandemic, Elliott said, “we were adamant about the CDC protocols—safety first. So when you say that to your owners and your customers see it in stores, in our actions, that sends the signal that we want to send.” Translation: It’s safe to eat here, so please come in. Having introduced his $100 incentives just two weeks ago, Elliott said it’s a bit too early to judge the impact. “We’re in 25 states, and each state has a different protocol for when [and how] to get vaccinated, so it's a little bit of a slow start,” he said. “But we know it will pick up momentum.”

Food Industry News

A Florida Restaurateur Is Giving $100 to Each Worker Who Gets a Covid-19 Vaccine

It's a costly incentive, but the marketing benefits are apparently worth it

Robert Klara

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Robert Klara