The private company based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has a total of 750 employees, including 500 in its Dallas office. Of these, 250 will go to the field as front-line employees. Another 250 who work as marketers and trainers will move on to catering and recruiting jobs.
Employees will be accommodated in hotels for one to two weeks at the company’s expense. Other company employees will work to recruit more workers or work in one of the company’s more than 500 drive-thru departments.
“It’s all on deck,” said co-CEO and COO AJ Kumaran.
Most of the company’s employees will already have been trained as a French fries cook or cashier, the company said.
Kumaran said he saw the effects of the labor shortage in mid-September, when job applications suddenly declined online.
“Fairly quickly, we had to start reducing hours of operation, we had to cut back on some of our channels, like mobile orders and dining rooms,” Kumaran said.
Cane’s is looking to hire 10,000 more people in 50 days.
Kumaran also said Cane will invest $ 70 million in workers’ wages, with hourly workers receiving 15-22% wage increases over the next few weeks.
“This is obviously an unprecedented time, there is no manual on how to get by,” Kumaran said.
Meanwhile, 71% of restaurants are understaffed while battling supply shortages, with nearly all restaurants surveyed – 95% – claiming to have experienced supply delays or food or drink shortages. keys over the past three months.
Sean Kennedy, executive vice president of public affairs for the National Restaurant Association, said “our nation’s restaurant recovery is officially being reversed.”
CNN’s Anneken Tappe and Vanessa Yurkevich contributed to this report.