Five Guys overcomes staffing crisis in the hospitality industry: “Mystery shopper is key to our success”
Its arrival in Spain was a sensation. Countless queues for weeks to try the burger that arrived with the label of being Barack Obama’s favourite. And although the fever subsided in the following months, the news of each new opening rekindled the phenomenon. More than six years after the opening of its first restaurant at number 44 Gran Vía (Madrid), Five Guys is accelerating its expansion with the aim of reaching 30 locations by 2023.
When asked what sets Five Guys apart from other burger chains, Daniel Agromayor usually talks about simplicity. Considering himself the driving force behind the Better Burger concept in Spain, he takes for granted the quality of the ingredients they use, including La Finca beef. But in the eyes of its general manager for the Iberian Peninsula, the key to the brand lies in its people.
Since arriving in Spain as a gateway to Europe, Five Guys has generated thousands of jobs. It closed 2022 with more than a thousand workers in our country, which was more than double the figure for 2020, when 100% of the workforce was maintained despite the forced stoppage of its activity. Always following its policy of indefinite contracts and internal promotion, it encourages employment among those under 30 years of age, who represent approximately 65% of the workforce.
The company’s staff is divided into two main groups: management and crew. In addition to the remuneration, they differ in that within the crew there are many people who combine their work in the chain with other tasks. Five Guys Spain has an absolute commitment to quality employment, promoting the hiring of groups with high unemployment rates, such as young people, people at risk of social exclusion and disabled people. It also tries to promote the recruitment of women victims of gender violence.
As staff shortages are an obvious problem in the restaurant industry, Five Guys can boast of filling vacancies without major headaches. “We have a very low turnover in management and crew, but because of the profile of the people. I think because we treat the team very well, we pay better than the industry average,” explains Agromayor.
According to the remuneration tables for 2021, its team staff in restaurants received, on average, some 17,761 euros per year. For their part, the positions of responsibility in their premises (managers, assistants or shift managers) earned 22,913 euros, while the staff of their offices in central services received 56,950 euros.
Mystery shopper bonuses
However, one of the differentiating elements in Five Guys’ remuneration policy is its mystery shopper programme. As a salary incentive, it represents an important catalyst for retaining talent and competing in the demanding foodretail sector.
This mystery shopper programme brings significant additional income to all Five Guys restaurant staff in the event of a positive evaluation. “It is the most powerful in the industry and one of the keys to our success,” says the head of Five Guys in Spain. The company usually makes two visits a week to restaurants. “Each establishment receives one hundred visits a year, when the normal thing is to have one a quarter or semester. They are carried out at different times, some even before closing time”.
The mystery shopper is a person hired by Five Guys who visits a specific establishment and pretends to be a customer to analyse the shopping experience. “Each visit has a monetary link for the staff in the form of a bonus. Having a financial benefit gives them a stake in the success of the store and generates incredible staff involvement”.
The importance of this programme lies in achieving greater customer satisfaction, the main objective promoted by the Murell family, the founders of Five Guy. And the figure in charge of ensuring that this is achieved is the manager, who decides on all the fundamental aspects of the management of the premises.
On the other hand, a performance appraisal system for office and restaurant management staff was launched in 2020. The aim was to explore the link between performance (what you do), behaviours (how you do it), and attitudes (why you do it the way you do it), as well as to get information on how employees want to grow professionally, and what support they need to achieve this.
The importance of location
With a closing forecast of 60 million euros in 2022, the brand expects to match the six openings it signed last year in 2023. To do this, it hopes to reach new locations, although Five Guys already has a presence in Madrid, Catalonia, Seville, Valencia, Alicante, Granada, Malaga and Bilbao.
For this year, the forecast is that the growth in units, sales and profitability will follow the current trajectory, once the roadmap altered by the pandemic has been resumed.
Agromayor acknowledges that the most important aspect when it comes to expansion is the choice of premises, which are usually signed with a twenty-year contract. “It has always been very difficult for us because we are quite demanding in what we want. As we don’t do marketing, we need to be on key axes or avenues where there is a lot of pedestrian or vehicle traffic that allows us to give visibility to the brand”. And to gain this visibility, the linear metres of façade are key.
