Wendy’s has introduced employee benefit and experience enhancements that set our Company employees up for success and make Wendy’s a great place to work 

Enhanced employee benefits  

In 2021, we expanded our paid sick time policy to provide paid sick time to all eligible part-time hourly employees on a permanent basis. Accrued sick time can be used for absences due to illness, injury and any other medical condition, including medical, dental and vision appointments, whether for treatment or preventative care, for employees and their applicable family members. It can also be used to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. 

Parental Bonding  

We enhanced our parental bonding leave for all eligible Company employees following the birth or adoption of a child and will support our working mothers by reimbursing the cost of shipping breast milk during overnight business travel.  

Flex Work  

For much of 2020, many of our Restaurant Support Center and field office employees worked remotely and had to be flexible and adaptable to stay connected as a team. We quickly learned that our business could be successful in this new way of working, so the Company adopted a Flex Work Program that provides eligible office-based employees with options for flexibility in their work schedules and locations while allowing teams to maintain productivity and culture.  

Training and Development 

Wendy’s offers robust training and development programs to help our team members achieve their potential. Our training journey is based on a progression – from programs that cover the core and limited-time menu items, to programs that can be leveraged to help amplify leadership and development. In 2021, across the Wendy’s System, [SH1] team members completed nearly 1.7 million hours of training, including a mix of online and hands-on training in the restaurant, as well as mandatory food safety standards courses.

Restaurant managers and multi-unit operators can participate in Wendy’s University, which includes targeted training to develop management and leadership skills. Wendy’s University also provides programming for Company management, including diversity training, people manager training, leadership dialogues and the opportunity to participate in third party conferences and training. 

Engagement and culture 

For the seventh consecutive year, we partnered with a third party to administer our Voice of Wendy’s (VOW) employee engagement survey for all Company employees, and franchisees also had the option to engage in the survey for their own organization. Over the lifetime of the survey program, over 300,000 Company and franchise team members have participated, and engagement scores have consistently outperformed industry benchmarks

• In 2020, the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) and Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) recognized VOW as a winner of the 2019-2020 Human Resource Management Impact Award.
• ​​​​​​​Forbes named The Wendy’s Company one of the world’s 300 most female-friendly companies — one of only three restaurant brands to make the list.
• Human Rights Campaign (HRC) named The Wendy’s Company a Best Place to Work for LGBTQ Equality, and we received a 100% score on the organization’s Corporate Equality Index.

Restaurant dress guidelines 

Our restaurant teams transitioned to new uniform guidelines, which now include jeans and T-shirts.  

Wendy’s People Helping Wendy's People