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Customer success stories

The Cheesecake Factory

How The Cheesecake Factory hires 40,000+ annually with a great candidate experience​.

Founded:
1972
Industry:
Restaurants
Employees:
40,000+
iCIMS products:
Applicant Tracking System
Candidate Relationship Management
Onboarding
Text Engagement

An extensive dessert menu isn’t the only thing The Cheesecake Factory is known for. The company’s secret recipe for providing an excellent customer experience starts with hiring and retaining its thousands of talented people.

Each year the organization hires between 40,000 and 45,000 employees across its brands, including the Grand Lux Cafe and North Italia.​ However, the number and quality of applicants dropped significantly during and after the pandemic, creating a challenge for the company.

The Cheesecake Factory's approach

To deliver the excellent guest experience (and cheesecakes) the brand is famous for, The Cheesecake Factory’s recruiting team needed to find new ways to attract quality talent on a truly massive scale.

The recruiting team at The Cheesecake Factory knew they needed to remove any barrier to an excellent candidate experience. Specifically, this meant leveraging their technology to make it quicker and easier to apply without compromising quality. Previously, long applications were followed immediately by a talent assessment that took 10-20 minutes to complete.

The Cheesecake Factory Employees carry plates of cheesecake
Team photo of employees at The Cheesecake Factory

Attracting more high quality applicants

The recruiting team shrank the application process by half and removed the assessment altogether. Now, applicants share their work experience and answer just three key knockout questions. All other screening questions and EEO information are collected and added to a candidate’s profile later.

The company further streamlined the experience by making it easy to apply from a mobile device. Candidates can text “cake jobs” to 97211 to apply from their phones. Today, between 60-75% of the company’s applications come from mobile devices.

Creating a strong employer brand

With no shortage of competition, The Cheesecake Factory stands out by leaning into its strong employer brand. The recruiting team has no shortage of material for their recruitment marketing campaigns, which are organized using their candidate relationship management system.

It doesn’t hurt that the company has been recognized on the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For® list for 10 years in a row. The Cheesecake Factory also prides itself as a place where people can grow their careers. This is evidenced by the fact that more than half of the company’s roughly 800 yearly manager hires are promoted from within.​

Three employees at The Cheesecake Factory

We hire a ton of people every year. The last few years presented challenges which have had a significant impact on our ability to hire at the scale and quality needed. We’ve made it easier for applicants to apply and consistently focused on the candidate experience.

Manager of Talent Systems

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