Article

How Cafe Rio's 'chief people officer' recruits, retains top employees

CPO Andy Hooper chats about how the recipe for the chain's success is more than just serving burritos and making money. Hint: It's about giving employees a 'why' for getting up in the morning.

Cafe Rio h as 90 locations employing more than 3,500 people and spends about 20 percent of its annual General & Administrative budget on training and rewarding them.

March 24, 2016 by Cherryh Cansler — Editor, FastCasual.com

The employee culture at Cafe Rio Mexican Grill is so important to the chain's success that it hired Andy Cooper, chief people officer, to ensure employees are treated with respect in an industry that isn't always known for making employees a top priority.

"Our purpose is defined by leading a culture dedicated to the way food is made and the people who make it," Hooper said. "There's a ton of pride, passion and excellence that goes into what we do every day. When people are proud of what they create, and passionate about service, it translates into a fulfilling place to come to work every day. When we're on top of our game, our customers notice — they see how different we are from everyone else in the restaurant space."

Based in Salt Lake City, Utah, Cafe Rio has grown by 20 percent each year since Hooper joined the team four years ago when it had 44 units. It now has 90 locations employing more than 3,500 people and spends about 20 percent of its annual General & Administrative budget on training and rewarding them.

"It's a unique experience to be a part of a company that doubles in size every four years and creates so many opportunities and changes lives along the way," Hooper said. "To truly differentiate yourselves as a great place to work, the first step is getting clear on a purpose for doing what you do. 

FastCasual.com chatted with Hooper about how the recipe for the chain's success is more than just serving burritos and making money. Hint: It's about giving employees a 'why' for getting up in the morning.

FC: How is training different at Cafe Rio?

Hooper: It is very much like boot camp. We actually draw a lot of parallels to the Marine Corps in our training — it's about Pride, Passion and Excellence — it's about discipline and doing the right thing always, even when it's hard.

With complicated recipes, there could be a temptation to take short cuts, and we want our teams to understand why creating something amazing from scratch and maintaining the high standard is critical for supporting each other, and supporting the growth of the company. There's a good deal of mutual accountability in the training, and our teams leave energized and excited to be keepers of that flame in their restaurants.

FC: What specific training programs to you use?

Hooper: In 2013, we built the C.R.A.F.T (Cafe Rio Advanced Food Training) Institute here in Salt Lake City. Every new GM and sauce cook go through a rigorous, multi-day training program that focuses on the history and heritage of our recipes, and the detail and precision it takes to produce them at a consistently high level, day in and day out.

It's critical for our leaders to not only understand what is expected, but why we do everything that we do.

FC: Does Cafe Rio promote from within?

Hooper: A good percentage of our GMs started in entry-level team member positions in the company, and all of our managers go through rigorous training to learn every food production position in the restaurant. Each of our GMs can make tortillas, each of them can make sauces and each of them can make desserts. They might not be as fast as those who are doing it every day on their teams, but their proficiency in that is critical for their credibility with their teams.

Having a strong internal development pipeline is key to supporting our growth — learning Cafe Rio takes much longer than most other restaurant concepts — so developing from within is essential. We have dozens of success stories from leaders who started as cashiers, floor ambassadors and line cooks who are now running restaurants or even regions for the company. That progression is a huge motivation for new members who join the team.

FC: Can all that rigorous training be a deterrent to finding employees?

Hooper: It's actually quite the opposite. We find that our teams take great pride in the process. People want to work for a winner, and they want to be proud of what they create at work, whether that's in the food industry, in tech, in financial services, or in their personal lives with their families.

The extra effort required to do things right and at a high level becomes a major selling point for us during the recruitment process. Our teams hand-scoop 8,000 avocados a day, dice 46,000 tomatoes, squeeze 17,000 limes and grate 18,00 pounds of cheese on a daily basis at our 90 locations. It's hard, but it's worth it, and you can taste the difference." 

FC: How are you able to keep good people when their lives may take them elsewhere?

Hooper: Transplanting successful managers has been a big part of our growth over the history of the brand. We have several leaders who have even moved around the country multiple times to support our growth objectives. 

The company pays for relocation for them, and we do our best to help support them as they assimilate into their new market. Existing managers are great brand ambassadors when we enter new markets.

FC: What other perks do you give your employees?

Hooper: The Executive Team at Cafe Rio has made a commitment to make taking time off a priority for our GMs, and one way we can do that is to schedule the vacation for them! Every year, we bring all of our GMs and their supervisors (Area and Region Coaches), and our “best-of-the-best” team members, along with a guest, to Hawaii for five days and four nights.

We celebrate the previous year's results and give the teams a chance to unwind and relax with their families. It's been a huge hit with our employees, and I think they appreciate not only the trip, but the commitment the company makes for them to spend time with their families and the priority we place on their health and well-being outside of work.

Our teams are the hardest-working teams in the restaurant business. It's tough to turn it off sometimes, and it's especially tough when you work for a business that's open 363 days per year.

FC: Do you think the time, money and effort, including 20 percent of you G&A budget, spent on employee programs has produced the results you intended?

Hooper: The time, effort and financial investment has been essential to our growth and our performance. We were just voted the No. 1 Mexican Restaurant in the country by Sandelman & Associates for the seventh consecutive year, and we were the top-ranked concept (across all types of food) for Taste of Food and Quality of Ingredients.

That's a tremendous source of pride of our teams, and we feel responsible to keep that going for those that come behind us as the company continues to grow.

FC: Are there any new programs or plans on the horizon when it comes to improving the company's employee culture?

Hooper: One big thing we've done recently is unveil plans to give our GMs a financial stake in the business through a profit-sharing plan. We just shared the highlights of that with them on our trip last month to Hawaii. 

Moving forward, we're going to continue to look for ways to let the people doing the lion's share of the work participate in the upside of the company. 

One thing I'm very proud of is our commitment to taking a personal interest in our employees — we care about them at work, but we also care about them at home. A focus on them as human beings (not just workers) will always be central to our work on identifying future programs and projects that help keep them motivated.

About Cherryh Cansler

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Cherryh Cansler is VP of Events for Networld Media Group and publisher of FastCasual.com. She has been covering the restaurant industry since 2012. Her byline has appeared in Forbes, The Kansas City Star and American Fitness magazine, among many others.

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