Focused on food: JKK Enterprises, LLC and the McDonald’s Restaurant Industry
Katie Kenworthy and her husband, Chip, have always worked in the McDonald’s restaurant industry. “Straight out of college, we both started as crew people for my husband’s uncle’s restaurant, obviously with the ultimate goal to be owner-operators,” said Katie. “I mean, that’s all we’ve ever done.”
The Kenworthys settled in Tennessee for 16 years and, after completing the McDonald’s owner-operator program, they purchased their first McDonald’s store in 2004 and then opened a second store in 2007. Originally from Indiana, Katie and Chip decided to take their business back home, and, in January of 2009, they sold the two McDonald’s locations in Tennessee and opened two restaurants in Newburgh, Indiana.
““We moved our top staff to Indiana and purchased the two stores here and have since purchased two more,” Katie explains. The Kenworthys switched over to AllianceHCM in 2009 for their workforce needs and, in that time, doubled their storefronts with a total of four McDonald’s restaurants.
The Gig Economy vs. Quick Service Restaurants: How the Kenworthys offer better perks by utilizing AllianceHCM
While discussing the advantage of running their own business, Katie was quick to respond: “The best part is the people that we get to work with, for sure,” she said.
Although Katie greatly cares for all of her crew members working across their four McDonald’s locations, she too experiences staffing challenges like other quick service restaurants. With the gig economy in full swing, more flexible jobs are becoming commonplace, and people are choosing to become independent contractors and freelancers instead of full-time employees.
Quick service restaurants are now competing with ride-hailing apps, retail delivery apps and food delivery apps that otherwise did not exist a few years ago.
“We’re just in that industry where we’ve lost a lot of people to an entirely new industry, which is delivery,” explained Katie. “And anybody who has independent transportation [can utilize] that delivery aspect.”
To demonstrate how important their crew is, the Kenworthys have implemented several employee perks across their McDonald’s restaurants to make a better work environment for their crew members.
“We’re providing them with [additional] benefits, which is a huge reason I do weekly pay,” explained Katie. The Kenworthys implemented weekly payroll about four years ago as a way to help retain their employees. “People really like it. I mean, it’s a much bigger cost to us,” explained Katie. “We’re the only [operators] in the area that do it, but we feel like it’s worth it.”
Thanks to AllianceHCM’s integration with QsrSoft, however, the process of switching over to weekly payroll was as easy as the Kenworthys’ decision to offer it.
I just changed my [payroll] file on QsrSoft and they [AllianceHCM] started sending it once a week, so it was no big deal.
Katie Kenworthy
Owner/Operator
Among other employee benefits, the Kenworhy’s also offer their crew members flexible payment options with pay cards and early wage access.
I utilize next-day pay through [AllianceHCM] for our employees. So, the ZayZoon [integration] is a huge thing for our [crew members]. They use it quite a bit. So, those are two big things that we try to offer through payroll just to stay competitive.
Katie Kenworthy
Owner/Operator
COVID, PPC, WOTC and more: How AllianceHCM helped JKK Enterprises through the pandemic
When the pandemic broke out in 2020, companies worldwide were instantly impacted, especially the restaurant industry. AllianceHCM recognized the need to support these businesses and offered several different services during that time to assist with new regulations, as well as compliance.
“How [AllianceHCM] handled COVID was amazing,” said Katie.
“When COVID hit, they put the payroll protection loans in place and we had to do all this to be compliant,” Katie explained. Though the process was tedious and there was a lot of paperwork to be filed, “AllianceHCM did all the calculations for me, essentially.” said Katie. “Now, granted, I had to [document] when [my employees] were out for COVID, but you guys had a line item for it. It was just very easy for me to put in. It was very, very easy.”
In addition to Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) services, AllianceHCM offered Employee Retention Credit (ERC) and Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) assistance to those who needed it.
How [AllianceHCM] handled the ERC money and the PPP, was hands down worth every penny that I paid for you all to handle that. So, that was great. And I will say that another big thing for me with AllianceHCM is the WOTC credit. The WOTC is a big deal just because it’s money straight off of the operator’s taxes.
Nicole Moreland
HR Director
With these comprehensive services, AllianceHCM was able to successfully support the Kenworthys throughout the pandemic, and they were awarded the financial compensation they deserved during that time.
