At Raising Cane\u2019s Chicken Fingers, success is all about setting the benchmark for quality on both the employee and customer sides.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat makes us truly stand out is that our culture is real,\u201d Raising Cane\u2019s Restaurant Leader Gregory Elchert said. \u201cIt\u2019s rooted in the appreciation for our crew. That\u2019s how we started this company: one man, Todd Graves, taking care of his crew. It\u2019s still that way today, and that\u2019s really why we are who we are. We never really strayed away from that. I can tell you 9 out of 10 conversations I have with my leadership is about our crew. How are they doing? Are they getting the opportunities that they deserve? Are we providing the atmosphere that\u2019s going to be best for them in their growth which will ultimately help us in our growth, right?\u201d<\/p>\n
That dedication to crew is just one of the reasons Raising Cane\u2019s Chicken Fingers, on Hamilton Boulevard in Lower Macungie Township, was named to The Morning Call\u2019s Top Workplaces this year, making its first appearance to the list and placing second among companies with 500 or more employees.<\/p>\n
In 1996, Graves opened his first Raising Cane\u2019s restaurant in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Today, the restaurant company has more than 900 restaurants in 42 states and five countries.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re a feel-good restaurant,\u201d Elchert said. \u201cWe\u2019re a family environment. We\u2019re here to do one thing perfectly, and then we\u2019re here to be with you. We\u2019ve been making hand-battered, cooked-to-order chicken fingers for going on almost 30 years now, and we honor that every day by doing it with integrity. We really love what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to a healthy customer experience, a healthy employee culture is equally important. For Elchert, the key to ensuring a healthy work culture at Raising Cane\u2019s is cultivating and nurturing relationships.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt starts from the top, but it goes along with a lot of reward and recognition,\u201d Elchert said. \u201cHere we\u2019re constantly celebrating our crew, whether it\u2019s just by them running a really great shift and being a great crew member that day or by simply going along with what we call our crew journey. We\u2019re always trying to guide our crew to the next phase and next step in the next challenge in their career, and we\u2019re kind of always surprising people with careers. \u2026 Seeing people where they\u2019re at and investing in them and helping them directly is really the secret.\u201d<\/p>\n
But a successful work culture is about more than investing in people. For Seth Gregory, an assistant restaurant leader, a collaborative environment is also about striking the right balance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe love working hard while having fun,\u201d Gregory said. \u201cWho we are and what we do is deeply rooted in celebrating our team and all of our successes. We create a really good culture by offering great benefits to our team and just keeping a good energy with our team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Additionally, for Gregory,\u00a0 the best thing about Raising Cane\u2019s is having the ability to evolve with the organization.<\/p>\n
\u201cI actually found this job through a recruiter who I\u2019d been working with for several years,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is my 11th year in food, beverage and hospitality, and I had worked through a recruiter who really set me up and kind of sold me on what Raising Cane\u2019s is all about. It has allowed me to achieve many things personally and for my future and for where I want to land as far as potentially being like a restaurant partner one day, which is a great program that Raising Cane\u2019s offers. The ability to grow with this company has sold me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Raising Cane\u2019s has almost three decades in business, and a major aspect of its continued success has been staying relevant. A big factor in that relevancy has been a dedication to and support for both employees and customers.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be relevant is to be relatable,\u201d Elchert said. \u201cWe\u2019re always kind of updating the way we do business to ensure that we\u2019re always taking care of the community that takes care of us. At the end of the day, we need to be recognizable to the people who come in and enjoy our food, but also to the people who work with us, and the only way we can do that is by being authentic. The best way to stay relevant is to really just be authentic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sunni Battin is a freelance writer.<\/p>\n
Raising Cane\u2019s Chicken Fingers<\/p>\n
Founded: 1996<\/p>\n
Ownership: Private<\/p>\n
Sector: Restaurants<\/p>\n
Lehigh Valley employees 68<\/p>\n
Website: raisingcanes.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At Raising Cane\u2019s Chicken Fingers, success is all about setting the benchmark for quality on both the employee…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124503,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,60,58385],"class_list":["post-124502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-business","tag-top-workplaces"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}