Flexible schedules, communication earn chicken shop praise from Tucson workers

Promotions don’t mean losing sight of the grunt work, which is why supervisors and managers can often be seen cleaning up the dining room, standing over the fryer or hauling out the trash at Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers.

The Baton Rouge, Louisiana, company has landed the No. 1 spot in the Tucson Top Workplace awards for large employers.

The company’s willingness to adjust to employees' lives with flexible schedules and constant communication were among the comments received from dozens of the nearly 400 crewmembers who work in the five Tucson shops.

“Managers do well in trying to softly and effectively correct where we may need improvement,” one crewmember said. “They’ll show you first and watch you do it after just to make sure you have the methods down. They are willing and ready to help where they are needed (and) push teamwork.”

Another said, “Everyone at this establishment is welcoming and respectful to me. My questions are never unanswered, and they take everything I say with consideration. The environment is extremely fun, and I look forward to coming to work.”

Manny Lopez, area leader of restaurants in Tucson for Raising Cane’s, said that culture is expected and part of the training the company provides workers.

Lopez himself started out as a crewmember with Raining Cane’s and, like most of the leaders, didn’t have previous management experience.

“You can have all the experience in the world, but if don’t care about people you don’t fit in with us,” he said. “We know if you love your job, you work a little bit harder and you care.”

Lopez said the restaurants are staffed to accommodate everyone’s life needs, and the company offers tuition reimbursement.

“We have an early shift for working parents, and afternoon shifts for younger students who can’t work too late and the late-night shifts for college students,” he said. “When you don’t have the stress about juggling school and work, you have a better time at work.”

As crewmembers move up the ranks into management positions, including regional managers, they are required to close a restaurant once a week alongside a team, whether it be as a cashier, fry cook or mopping up the dining room.

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“It’s a way to be present for crewmembers to reach out to us,” Lopez said.

Raising Cane’s was founded by Todd Graves in at the North Gates of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge and named after his yellow Labrador, Cane.

His business plan of opening a restaurant that served only chicken fingers received a bad grade in business class, and he couldn’t find a bank or investor willing to take a chance.

Graves decided to save up the money himself and worked as a boilermaker in California and as a commercial fisherman in Alaska before returning home to renovate a run-down building that would become the first Raising Cane’s.

The “One Love” logo is about being centered around chicken fingers.

The menu is simply chicken fingers, fries, toast, coleslaw and its signature sauce.

Today, Raising Cane’s is one of the fastest growing restaurant brands with more than 800 restaurants in 40 states with plans to open 100 more this year.

It is still corporately owned, not a franchise, and employs more than 60,000 crewmembers and has received numerous workplace accolades.

Cane’s is also philanthropic in its communities and focuses on supporting education, feeding the hungry and pet welfare, as well as smaller gifts and donations that crewmembers request at the local level.