The Chick-fil-A Way: Invest in Your Employees

Lisa Fairfax had an interesting post on Conglomerate yesterday discussing the fast-food chicken restuarant, Chick-fil-A, and its focus on developing its employees.  Here is some of what Lisa had to say about that corporation's pro-employee management philosophy:

[Founder, S. Truett] Cathy focuses on investing in people early.  Hence, the company provides college scholarships to employees--something many other companies do.  However, the company also seeks to give all of its employees the ability to have some ownership-type interest in the company.  Not through stock options, but through operating franchises. To that end, the company invites any employee interested in operating a franchise to its corporate headquarters to learn about the company. Chick-fil-A also seeks to make franchises affordable in a variety of ways.   And according to the article, franchises are typically only $5,000.  Apparently as a result of these efforts, 65% of Chick-fil-A franchisees worked for Chick-fil-A in high school or college.   Also, employee turnover at Chick-fil-A is only 3.5%.  In Cathy's view these extra efforts with employees translates into more satisfied employees, customers and ultimately a higher profit.

PS