“We often have high turnover, so we were solving for two things,” said Ilene Eskenazi, chief human resources officer at Chipotle, speaking at Fortune’s Workplace Innovation Summit in California this week. “In the restaurants that have higher turnover, where we’re constantly having to train and retrain new employees, performance is not as high as teams that have longer tenure. And in addition, we have been on a really high-growth trajectory.”
At the time, Chipotle already offered employees a tuition reimbursement benefit, said Shah, who also spoke at Fortune’s summit. However—and this was key—traditional reimbursement programs are often out of reach for frontline workers, the very cohort companies hope to target with such offerings.
“Tuition reimbursement requires the employee to take out-of-pocket dollars, use them to go get educated, and then get reimbursed after the fact,” explained Shah. “And that works really well when you have more than $300 in your bank account, available and accessible to you.”
Now, Chipotle has a program that allows for both reimbursement and assistance, said Shah. The programs “provide access to specific opportunities and then broader opportunities,” she said.
Eskenazi said hearing individual stories from employees who have moved up after getting involved in the program is one of her favorite parts about the impact of the initiative.
“We have all these amazing stories where you talk to people, and they immigrated to this country 10 years ago and started as a crew member, and now they’re taking a six-figure job in leadership, and they just put one of their children through college or they bought a home,” she said.
Eskenazi said the tuition-reimbursement program initially focused on business and technology, both areas that align with the fast-casual chain’s strategic plan. Over time, Eskenazi said, she heard feedback that people were interested in the program, but they wanted more flexibility to explore new areas. Now, it includes some 100 different degrees people go after. Chipotle has also charted and structured advancement opportunities for employees so they can visualize their career path and see precisely how further education can result in upward mobility.
“When we look at the business now, and we talk to our teams, there’s a lot of belief in the program, and there’s a lot of belief in the opportunity for career progression in the company,” she said.
Shah added that the “virality” of the program—one coworker embarking on a journey and then telling another coworker about it—helps to drive greater adoption.
“People start to see their coworkers, see mobility opportunities, and see change happening in their life,” she said. “There’s just a confidence. There’s something about getting educated that builds your confidence.”
Plus, it identifies ambitious employees who are motivated to move up.
“Seeing who enrolls in it is a really good indicator of who’s motivated, who’s excited, who’s inspired, who wants to invest in themselves,” Shah said. “You probably all have latent talent inside your organization that is just waiting for their potential to be unlocked.”
