No chicken on Sunday
If you ever hanker for chicken on a Sunday, you won't get it at Chick-fil-A, the second-most popular purveyor of chicken sandwiches in the United States. Plain and simple, its 1,500-plus restaurants are closed on Sunday. The other six days are enough to bring Chickfil- A's annual revenue to $3.4 billion.
The closed-on-Sunday policy was not initially based on religious principle, according to Dee Ann Turner, a 25-year company veteran who serves as "vice-president of talent" (human resources). In an interview with Mark Russell in Faith In The Workplace Newsletter, she discloses that it came about because founder Truett Cathy was tuckered out.
"He needed rest," she says. "He said that if a person couldn't earn a living in six days, then he needs to do something else. It was about rest, but also about spending the time to rejuvenate and get strong again to serve his customers. As he hired people, he also realized how important it was for his employees to also have a day off." While the policy began for practical reasons, it is also consistent with Cathy's Christian belief that God is honored when we take a day of rest, says Turner.
"People always say to Truett, 'You could make so much money if you opened on Sunday.' His response is that we've been so successful because we have not been open on Sunday. When we started in the mall business, Chick‑fil‑A always led all the restaurants in sales even though we were only open six days to their seven. I think that is still true even though the majority of the restaurants are now free‑standing."
Turner oversees recruitment, selection and retention of 750 corporate staff and 1,000 Chick‑fil‑A franchisees. She screens franchise applicants for moral character, competency and "chemistry" — the ability to fit in with the team and have similar good chemistry with their own community. Researching and selecting the right franchisees, who operate as independent contractors, is important in preserving the company's values, she says. "You have to make sure you are choosing the right person. At Chick‑fil‑A, we don't just work together, we do life together. We hope to be in a relationship with the franchisees and staff members for a very long time. We have to understand how to live and work with one another."
It's an expensive process but worth it, Turner says. As a result, "we very rarely have to end an agreement with a franchisee."
The biblical Golden Rule is never far from her view. "I have to make a lot of decisions about people's lives," Turner says. "When I am interviewing someone, it may be the fourth or fifth person I'm interviewing that day, but it can be a 30‑year decision for the interviewee. Some decisions are easy to make, but others are very difficult.... It is not an everyday decision. It really is about someone's life and livelihood. When I have to turn down a candidate, I remember that this is someone's husband or wife, father or mother, son or daughter. I want them to be treated in the way I would want those people in my life to be treated."
Turner has come to see her work as a ministry, though initially she had other plans for "full-time" Christian service. "I now realize that 'my full‑time ministry' is to help others find their path in life and discover where they can use their gifts and talents at Chick‑fil‑A."
