The Client
SUBWAY Restaurants is the world’s largest submarine sandwich franchise, with more than 18,000 locations in 75 countries. It is also the largest fast-food chain in the world. Headquartered in Milford, Connecticut, SUBWAY was co-founded by Fred DeLuca and Dr. Peter Buck in 1965. That partnership marked the beginning of a remarkable journey, which has made it possible for thousands of individuals to build and succeed in their own businesses.
Recently SUBWAY received the distinction of being named the number one franchise opportunity by Entrepreneur magazine, an honor it has enjoyed for 11 of the past 15 years; the winner of the gold award for the sandwich category in the Restaurants and Institutions Choice in Chains Award; and has received the Menu Masters Award for best menu/line extension as presented by the editorial board of Nation’s Restaurant News.
The Solution
Wonderlic Basic Skills Test (WBST): This forty-minute timed test measures basic math and verbal skills of SUBWAY franchise applicants helps SUBWAY determine training priorities for chosen candidates; and improves quality assurance in the franchisee selection process.
SUBWAY has a required WBST score range for applicants, ensuring that the quality and success rate of selected franchise operators is at consistently high levels.Wonderlic Basic Skills Test content and results are directly tied to the Department of Labor’s Occupational Information Network (O*NET) and Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT). The DOT contains minimum required skill levels for more than 12,000 positions.
The WBST has also been approved by the U.S. Department of Education to determine student eligibility for the Ability to Benefit program (under Title IV funding for financial aid).Wonderlic Personnel Test (WPT): Since the early 80s, SUBWAY has included the Wonderlic Personnel Test as part of its interview process for all hourly and salaried partner’s internal job applicants.
The 50-question WPT, which has been used by thousands of organizations since 1937, is a 12-minute timed test that accurately measures a candidate’s ability to learn a specific job, solve problems, understand instructions and apply knowledge to new situations.
This test provides hiring managers with objective information, enabling them to more accurately match people with positions within SUBWAY that suit their learning speed and aptitude.
Wonderlic Basic Skills Test Helps SUBWAY Screen Thousands of Franchise Applicants
Sorting through the thousands of applications for franchise licenses submitted every year is no small effort for the franchise sales team at SUBWAY Restaurants, the popular submarine sandwich shop that now has more than 18,000 stores in 72 countries, and has more U.S. locations than McDonalds. Last year alone, SUBWAY opened 2000 new shops and was named Entrepreneur Magazine’s Number One franchise for the 11th time in 15 years.
Achieving and maintaining such a huge status in the restaurant chain industry requires more than simply issuing licenses and opening restaurants. SUBWAY’s franchise selection process involves intensive evaluation, training and support to ensure every store owner is highly qualified and prepared to succeed, says Don Fertman, SUBWAY’s Director of Franchise Sales.
When the company first began offering franchise licenses, the focus was primarily on increasing SUBWAY’s presence in the marketplace, but as the expansion and success rate grew, it became clear that a more formal pre-qualification process was needed, Fertman says. “In the beginning it made sense to give franchises to anyone with enough money and interest,”; but with success came a deluge of inquiries from thousands of potential franchise owners, many of whom were from non-U.S. countries, and not native English speakers. “We needed to know if they had the basic skills to succeed.”
In early 1990 Fertman went looking for an appropriate evaluation tool—but he didn’t have to look very far. SUBWAY had already been using Wonderlic’s Personnel Test since the mid-80s, as part of its hiring process to gather objective data about internal job candidates’ abilities.
The WPT didn’t give Fertman the distinct skills-evaluation data that he wanted, but Wonderlic’s Basic Skills Test did. The 40-minute timed test measures the basic math and verbal skills required for nearly any corporate training program and occupation. “It was the kind of test that would work well for our needs and we already had a relationship with Wonderlic,” Fertman says.He implemented the WBST later that year as part of a rigorous pre-qualification effort, which also includes conducting face-to-face interviews and credit histories.
Today, every SUBWAY franchise applicant who makes it to the interview process in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand takes the WBST. In order to be considered for the franchisee training program, applicants must receive a minimum total score that is roughly equivalent to an eighth-to-ninth grade skills level.
Since SUBWAY started using the Wonderlic’s Basic Skills Test, Fertman says the caliber and quality of franchisees who make it through the system has definitely improved. The test helps his team weed through the thousands of applicants that approach SUBWAY each year—in 2002 alone, 150,000 people inquired about opening SUBWAY franchises and 35,000 people made applications, Fertman estimates. Of those, only 4,300 licenses were issued, and only 1,200 of those went to new owners.
While there are many steps in the process that can eliminate candidates, the Wonderlic Basic Skills Test is a quantitative tool SUBWAY uses to evaluate candidates and whittle the number down to a reasonable number of people who are most likely to succeed. “The correlation between how well applicants do on the test and how well they do in the training class is amazing,” says Fertman. He even re-tests applicants at the beginning of training to verify their scores, and those who do poorly often fail the training course. “The test has proven to be a very useful indicator that these candidates have the necessary skills to succeed.”
The WBST has been so valuable, that SUBWAY is considering using versions of it in the non-English speaking countries in which their presence is growing. “Of course, there’s no test that can guarantee how good a franchisee will be until they open the store,” Fertman says, “but the Wonderlic Basic Skills Test establishes a range and eliminates those who don’t fall into that range.”
