Carlson Restaurants
Company: Carlson Restaurants Worldwide, Carrollton, Texas
Company Description: Carlson Restaurants Worldwide Inc., the parent company of TGI Friday’s Inc. and Pick Up Stix restaurants, is a privately held company owned by Minneapolis-based Carlson, a world leader in the hospitality, travel and marketing industries. As of April 11, 2006, Carlson Restaurants operate franchise and license 934 restaurants in 55 countries.
Nomination Category: Individual Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Human Resources Executive
Nomination Title: Anne Varano, Senior Vice President, Human Resources & Communication
1. Tell the story about what this nominee achieved in the past year (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:
2005 was a record-breaking year for CRW and its people practices, thanks in large part to Anne Varano, Senior Vice President of Human Resources & Communication for Carlson Restaurants Worldwide (CRW). She has demonstrated a commitment to organizational effectiveness through a number of strategic initiatives that drive the Company’s performance. Her industry expertise, coupled with a laser focus on organizational objectives, has established her as a strategic business partner, and she has consistently played a definitive role in making CRW a great place for great people to do great work.
Delivering the Brand PromiseSince joining CRW in 1995, Varano has developed a number of value-add initiatives designed to leverage human resources and reinforce delivery of the brand promise. With her leadership in 2005, Friday’s recorded a 20.22% manager and a 90.8% hourly turnover rate – Registering the highest level of manager and team member retention in the history of the Friday’s brand.
Initiating InnovationThroughout 2005, Varano played an integral role in reinforcing HR strategies that contributed to the revitalization of the Friday’s brand and the overall Company performance. * She challenged herself and her team to develop innovative processes and systems that created value and increased knowledge for all team members at every level, and the response was outstanding. * Based on the Gallup Organization’s Employee Experience Survey (EES), or Q12 report, CRW’s HR department scored in the 92nd percentile of all Gallup’s participants – 2.2 million employees from more than 220 companies around the world. * Varano has also been key in identifying innovative strategies to best implement new, electronic hand-held devices to improve efficiency in the restaurants.
The Quest for ExcellenceDedicated to achieving “HR Functional Excellence,” Varano places critical focus on supporting the right talent in the right position, and maintaining an engaged, motivated workforce. She has facilitated efforts to strengthen organizational relationships across all of Carlson’s operating groups and encouraged the sharing of industry best practices among the Company’s strong bench of leaders. Varano also guided the advancement of a benefits program that provides nontraditional benefits to encourage a healthy work-life balance…a program that was recognized in Chain Leader magazine’s 2005 “Best Places to Work” edition.
Leadership that RocksOver the last year, Varano has built strong momentum within the Company through a solid commitment to Leadership Effectiveness. Embracing the organization’s objectives, she led the development of a mentoring program that identified high potential leaders in the organization and provided them with coaching to increase their effectiveness. Moreover, Varano advanced career mapping and ensured that each HR team member had a personal development plan in place by year-end.
From Good to GreatOver the last year, Varano has been responsible for a number of CRW’s HR successes, which the industry responded to with great recognition. In the last year, the Company has received major awards, including: - “Catalyst Award” given by People Report, recognizing outstanding people practices - “CEO Leadership Excellence Award” presented to President and CEO Richard Snead by the Texas Diversity Council for the Company’s strategic commitment to diversity - “HR Excellence Award” given by HR Solutions, Inc. - “Workplace Excellence Award” presented by the Maryland Work-Life Alliance - “Best Places to Work” award from Dallas Business Journal
2. List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:
Carlson Restaurants Worldwide Receives Award for Excellence in Employee Satisfaction
http://fridays.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=press_releases&item=61
T.G.I. Friday’s Receives ‘Catalyst Award’ from People Report
http://fridays.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=press_releases&item=58
Carlson Restaurants Worldwide Receives 2004 – 2005 Workplace Excellence Award
http://fridays.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=press_releases&item=42
Richard Snead to Receive CEO Leadership Award
http://fridays.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=awards
T.G.I. Friday’s Nontraditional Benefits offer managers Choice and Flexibility
http://fridays.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=news_headlines
Culture Club: Carlson Restaurants Worldwide Engages its Entire Organization in Diversity
http://fridays.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=news_headlines
3. Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the nominee:
Anne Varano brings a focus on organizational effectiveness, retention and diversity to her role as senior vice president of human resources and communication at Carlson Restaurants Worldwide. She leads an award-winning team in the areas of organization development, benefits, compensation, team member relations, recruiting, training, communication and corporate services. She is an astute strategic business partner on the executive team and actively integrates HR strategy into the overall business strategy. Varano joined CRW in 1995 as director of compensation and benefits and has served in a variety of senior management HR roles for the company. She was recognized in 2004 by the Elliott Group as Motivator of the Year.