USA | Chipotle has aimed to hire future billion-dollar business leaders in the company's new Burrito Season hiring push.
Chipotle Mexican Grill has announced it will launch a new hiring campaign to increase applications and ensure its more than 3,700 restaurants are fully staffed for "Burrito Season," the company's busiest time of year, running from March to May. Chipotle is also rolling out a new employee benefit and TV ads showcasing its real team members to help attract talent for the additional job openings.
With its focus on developing outstanding operators, Chipotle is committed to growing its employees as it continues to pursue its long-term goal of having 7,000 restaurants in North America. In 2024, the company promoted 23,000 team members, and 85 percent of all restaurant management role promotions were internal. In fact, five out of 11 Regional Vice Presidents at Chipotle started their careers as crew members and worked their way up to the senior level of operations, managing a region of the country with sales over USD 1 billion. At the company's Field Leader level, a leadership position responsible for a patch or an average of eight restaurant locations in a region, 84 percent have been promoted internally and they now oversee segments of Chipotle's business that achieve an average of USD 24 million in sales per year.
In October last year, Chipotle announced its partnership with Paradox to introduce a new platform that leverages AI to make the hiring process more efficient for its restaurant teams. The technology features a virtual team member named "Ava Cado" who uses Conversational AI to chat with candidates, answer their questions about Chipotle, collect basic information, schedule interviews for hiring managers, and send offers to candidates who are selected by managers.
To date, "Ava Cado" has made the hiring process more efficient for Chipotle's restaurant teams, notably shortening the average amount of time it takes for a candidate to complete their application and start on the job from 12 days to four days.
Chipotle has released three new "Behind the Foil" national TV ads featuring its real employees at its restaurants and behind-the-scenes footage of the company's kitchens and prep routines. All three employees featured in the ads have been promoted from crew member roles to restaurant management, demonstrating the potential accelerated career progression at Chipotle.
"'Burrito Season' presents candidates with an opportunity to start here, stay here, and reach their career goals with us," said Ilene Eskenazi, Chief Human Resources Officer.
"As current team members have demonstrated, our restaurants can be the foundation of a fulfilling career, and we're committed to bringing in the best candidates who share our values and onboarding them as efficiently as possible."
Beginning this year, all Chipotle employees have free access to the critically acclaimed Calm app. Calm aims to help users sleep more, stress less and live mindfully with a range of science-backed content and activities for daily mental health support. More than 73 percent of Chipotle's restaurant employees are Gen Z, a generation that outspends older customers on mindfulness-related wellness products such as meditation classes, mindfulness apps, and therapy session. Calm joins a growing list of Chipotle's industry-leading benefits that holistically support employees' financial, physical, and mental well-being.
Chipotle's benefits include a crew bonus, which allows its restaurant employees the opportunity to earn an extra month's worth of pay each year; access to mental health care and English as a second language courses for employees and their families; tuition reimbursement and debt-free college degrees; free meals and more. The company has found its retention rate is two times higher among employees enrolled in its education assistance program and crew members participating are six times more likely to move into a management role.
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