Checkers after Undercover Boss: staff bonuses launched, while training remained in test

After Rick Silva appeared on Undercover Boss in February 2012, Checkers extended bonuses to frontline workers and began a council for general managers, according to interviews he gave Nation’s Restaurant News and QSR Magazine. By May 15, 2013, Silva said the bonuses were operating, while a mentoring program was being tested and a centralized training system was still planned. Those accounts were checked on October 17, 2026; they document the changes through May 2013.

Silva told QSR that more than 1,500 employees benefited from the bonus program each month and that team members had earned more than $200,000 in additional pay across nine periods since its launch. The figures are his account of participation and payments, rather than independently audited payroll totals.

Why Checkers changed its bonus plan

Silva connected the idea to what he learned while working in restaurants for the show. He also told Nation’s Restaurant News that one location had temporarily closed during a Sunday shift and reopened the next morning with a new manager. He presented the closure as a decision made during that experience.

By September 2012, Nation’s Restaurant News reported that Checkers had begun an incentive program for cashiers and cooks matching one already available to managers. Silva said team members would receive a total of $250,000 over the following 12 months. That was a projection for future payments. He said the program had energized restaurant teams and that managers welcomed it.

QSR’s May 2013 account gave the bonus rules: employees at restaurants meeting monthly goals received payments tied to the number of hours they worked that month. Silva said this gave team members a financial incentive to improve service speed. His later figure of more than $200,000 in additional pay covered nine periods since launch, a different span from the earlier 12-month projection.

How the general manager council worked

Bonuses were one part of Silva’s account of changes after the show. In February 2012, he said Checkers was creating a general manager council so he could hear ideas from people running restaurants. He described it as a way to keep gathering insight from individual locations when he could no longer go undercover. His plan was to bring managers from the top 10 percent of the system into regular discussions with him.

QSR later described the council as drawing from the top 10 percent of general managers at both company-owned and franchised restaurants, about 80 people. Silva said the group gave quarterly feedback on proposals including products and promotions. That brought managers from both parts of Checkers’ restaurant system into discussions about ideas before they were put into practice.

Which Checkers training plans were still developing?

Silva also described a route for employees who wanted to move into management. In February 2012, he said Checkers was creating a mentorship program for promising team members. By May 2013, QSR reported that a program called Coach to Grow was being tested. It paired district managers with assistant managers and general managers with employees. The test was a step toward providing guidance at work, rather than a reported chainwide rollout.

A separate learning management system remained planned in QSR’s May account. Silva described technology intended to produce training information centrally and give employees a clearer path for career advancement. It had a different purpose from the manager council’s feedback meetings and the Coach to Grow mentoring test. Silva linked these initiatives to his experience on Undercover Boss; that link was his explanation for the changes.