One of its Bible-based rules is that branches must be closed on a Sunday. The restaurants are encouraged to promote themselves in churches, and one franchisee in Glen Allen, Virginia, has Bible studies on two mornings a week with free breakfast to all who attend. Regarding the Christian principles, S. Truett Cathy says: “You don’t have to be a Christian to work at Chick-fil-A, but we ask you to base your business on biblical principles because they work”. The company makes it easy to start a franchise for people who have ambition but little money, expecting an initial franchise fee of just $5,000, in return for which it buys the land, and builds and equips the restaurant. Some of its rules sound intrusive by British workplace standards: it prefers married workers and offers relationship advice through its WinShape foundation, another charity set up by the founder. It asks franchise operators to disclose their marital status, number of children and personal involvement in charities and church groups. The article states:
“If a man can’t manage his own life, he can’t manage a business,” says Cathy, who says he would probably fire an employee or terminate an operator who “has been sinful or done something harmful to their family members.”
Whether or not this is legal is a moot point: as a private company it can ask what it likes at interview, though it has been sued for discrimination in the past. Franchise operators are not technically employees but independent contractors so employment law does not apply to them, but it will do to the frontline staff employed by each franchise. One Muslim sued the company after he refused to join in a prayer to Jesus Christ in 2000 and was fired the next day. One way the company gets round these problems is to be very cautious about only hiring people who will fit in and not cause trouble, some hiring processes taking up to a year and involving several interviews.
To some extent Chick-fil-A’s employment and retention policies are a Christian rendition of the secular management policy of peer review. Under this approach new employees are chosen to fit in with an existing team ethos, ensuring they are likely to be aligned to the company’s values and their colleagues alike. An illuminating comparison can be made with Pret A Manger, a British fast-food chain that requires all potential employees to spend six hours working in a branch. At the end of the shift, the other workers then have a say in whether the individual is offered a job[14]. Pret A Manger has staff turnover rates strikingly similar to those of Chick-fil-A. One report states that turnover in the fast food industry is as high as 400 per cent, but at Pret it is as low as 60 per cent[15]. This figure is identical figure to the Chick-fil-A quoted by Forbes. Fostering the culture of a self-selecting and like-minded community in a fast-food outlet clearly has benefits, but it is not exclusive to Christianity.