Cheesecake Factory Only LA-Based Company To Land On Fortune's '100 Best Companies To Work For'
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — There is a reason The Cheesecake Factory is among Fortune Magazine's "100 Best Companies To Work For."
Even before Obamacare, the Los Angeles-based restaurant chain offered health insurance coverage to its employees, including part-time employees, who work at least 25 hours per week.
It is one of the reasons so many employees tend to stay with the company long-term.
"I have four children, and they all work for The Cheesecake Factory right now," 20-year employee and senior general manager Frank Harris said.
Founder and CEO David Overton says the employee loyalty is due in part to the company's friendly, favorable approach to personnel, including alignment meetings that feature cheers for employees who perform well.
"If they're not happy, if they're not nice, and if they don't come in with the right frame of mind, you'll never be a great restaurant."
Part of the company's solid relationship with its employees is due to their wages, with servers reportedly averaging about $41K per year, and managers averaging about $60K.
Meanwhile, the company maintains an appeal with customers, based on this quality of inner workings, in addition to an evolving menu, which is reported to have 250 choices.
"We change our menus in each of our restaurants twice a year," Corporate executive chef Robert Okura said. "So, you're putting things on (and) taking things off, at Cheesecake Factor every six months."
While employees of restaurant chains generally come and go relatively quickly, the tendency for The Cheesecake Factory employees to remain with the company is rather unique.
In fact, The Cheesecake Factor is the only Los Angeles-based company to make Fortune's list.
Compared to the national turnover rate of 44 percent and specifically a 66 percent turnover rate for the restaurant and hotel industry, The Cheesecake Factory's six percent turnover rate catches attention.
"Six percent last year. (The company) had its workforce leaving voluntarily," Fortune Magazine senior editor Christopher Tkacyzk said. "Keeping that low turnover rate is a testament to the fact that The Cheesecake Factor is a really great place to work."
While the company currently has 181 locations, it plans to expand with around a dozen more restaurants opening in the future.
