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Tanishia Beacham is helping Sonic Drive-In use technology and support systems to focus on people

Beacham has used the labor shortage pain point to refocus a tech-supported, employee-oriented business

Joanna Fantozzi, Senior Editor

January 18, 2022

3 Min Read
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Last year, restaurant operators’ challenges were defined by industry-wide labor shortages. But Tanishia Beacham, senior vice president of operations and operating systems with Sonic Drive-In, saw those difficulties as an opportunity to double down on her people-focused goals with the Inspire Brands concept.

“The crux of this past 18 months is being on top of communication — especially when you're a majority franchise-operated business — and making sure that your franchisees feel supported and have the data and the information they need in order to make effective business decisions for their organizations,” Beacham said.

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Hear more from Beacham here.

Beacham’s career started out on the client services side, and then she began to work with Sonic in marketing before switching over to the operations side, eventually becoming the vice president of operations for the eastern half of the country. She has been in her franchise operations role since last year. 

Part of her strategy in making sure franchisees feel supported is to use technology to make their lives and jobs easier, especially with labor shortages still going on — everything from training tools to vendor innovation and making sure everything in the back of the house runs smoothly.

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“The old method of sitting at a computer and staring at a training video for an hour when these days people get bored looking at an Instagram ad for 15 seconds just wasn’t going to cut it,” Beacham said. “So we have to learn to use technology to train them in the way that they’d want to be trained.”

Communication is the cornerstone of what she does every day, and it’s in communicating with her franchisees that Beacham learned how to mitigate some of these labor challenges. This year, Sonic launched its first national recruitment campaign based on employee feedback.

“We focused on Sonic as an opportunity, not just for a paycheck, but you can make a career out of this job,” she said. “We highlighted stories of our franchisees who were grill cooks, and now they own 70 locations.”

Moving forward, Beacham hopes to help people like herself succeed at Sonic and in the restaurant industry.

“Being a woman of color in operations in this industry is a little rare,” she said. “So being in any way, shape or form an example or a coach for someone is something that I really do look forward to.  … If anybody on any team at Sonic is like, ‘Hey, you know what, you came from marketing and now you’re in operations, how did you do that?’ then I can encourage them. Having advocates is important and making sure that people feel supported.”

Read more:

Contact Joanna Fantozzi at Joanna.Fantozzi@informa.com

Follow her on Twitter: @JoannaFantozzi

Read more about:

Sonic Drive-In

About the Author

Joanna Fantozzi

Senior Editor

Joanna Fantozzi is a Senior Editor for Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality. She has more than seven years of experience writing about the restaurant and hospitality industry. Her editorial coverage ranges from profiles of independent restaurants around the country to breaking news and insights into some of the biggest brands in food and beverage, including Starbucks, Domino’s, and Papa John’s.  

Joanna holds a bachelor’s degree in English literature and creative writing from The College of New Jersey and a master’s degree in arts and culture journalism from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. Prior to joining Informa’s Restaurants and Food Group in 2018, she was a freelance food, culture, and lifestyle writer, and has previously held editorial positions at Insider (formerly known as Business Insider) and The Daily Meal. Joanna’s work can also be found in The New York Times, Forbes, Vice, The New York Daily News, and Parents Magazine. 

Her areas of expertise include restaurant industry news, restaurant operator solutions and innovations, and political/cultural issues.

Joanna Fantozzi has been a moderator and event facilitator at both Informa’s MUFSO and Restaurants Rise industry events. 

Joanna Fantozzi’s experience:

Senior Editor, Informa Restaurant & Food Group (August 2021-present)

Associate Editor, Informa Restaurant & Food Group (July 2019-August 2021)

Assistant Editor, Informa Restaurant & Food Group (Oct. 2018-July 2019)

Freelance Food & Lifestyle Reporter (Feb. 2018-Oct. 2018)

Food & Lifestyle Reporter, Insider (June 2017-Feb. 2018)

News Editor, The Daily Meal (Jan. 2014- June 2017)

Staff Reporter, Straus News (Jan. 2013-Dec. 2013)

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