As the Nation Reckons With Diversity, Five Guys Finds Its 'Superpower'

Newsweek

a day ago

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Five Guy. Five core values.
Executives and employees at the company, however, reveal that one of those values rise above the rest.
On its website, Five Guys describes "integrity" as being "honest," saying "what you mean" and doing "what you promise." And it's by those same morals that the Virginia-based fast-food chain carries out its views on diversity.
Erin Roberts knows that better than most and not just because she serves as Five Guys' chief people officer. It's also because, as a mixed-race person who looks white, she's heard plenty of comments that probably wouldn't have been made in front of her if her racial background was more obvious.
Reflecting on those experience, Roberts told Newsweek that's precisely why Five Guys is a workplace where employees are expected to do the right thing, even when people aren't looking.
"You live those values all of the time, regardless of whose presence you're in or what people think of you," she said. "There is a place for everyone [at Five Guys] as long as you believe in our system and respect your coworkers."
This year, Five Guys received four stars on Newsweek's ranking of America's Greatest Workplaces 2025.
The restaurant chain, which has more than 1,900 locations worldwide, also appeared on America's Greatest Workplaces for Diversity 2025, America's Greatest Workplaces for Women 2025, America's Greatest Workplaces for LGBTQ 2025, America's Greatest Workplaces for Gen Z 2025 and America's Greatest Workplaces for Black Americans 2025. All six rankings were published in collaboration with Plant-A Insights Group.
This year, Five Guys received four stars on Newsweek's ranking of America's Greatest Workplaces 2025.
This year, Five Guys received four stars on Newsweek's ranking of America's Greatest Workplaces 2025.
Photo-illustration by Newsweek/Getty/AP/Canva
At a time when the federal government is targeting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts, corporate initiatives to promote fairness and belonging have become among the most controversial decisions that a business can make. Five Guys, however, recognizes that its commitment to welcome employees from all walks of life is more about strengthening its existing workforce than anything else.
"We are a product of our industry," Molly Catalano, the chief marketing officer at Five Guys, told Newsweek. "We are a diverse workforce and so...it's not hard to be a diverse company."
"In any initiative, it's looking around at who is there and saying, 'How do we take advantage of the best of what everyone is?'" Catalano said.
As the nation's second-largest private sector employer, the restaurant and food-service industry, which provides 15.7 million jobs or 10 percent of the total U.S. workforce, is more diverse than the overall U.S. workforce.
According to an April data brief published by the National Restaurant Association, 51 percent of restaurant and food-service employees are minorities, compared to 41 percent in the overall workforce, and 55 percent of restaurant and foodservice employees are women, compared to 48 percent of the overall workforce.
"Regardless of any noise in the system around diversity, equity and inclusion, the restaurant industry is diverse," Erika Cospy Carr, vice president of the Multicultural Foodservices and Hospitality Alliance (MFHA), told Newsweek. MHFA, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing DEI across the restaurant industry, is an affiliate of the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation.
Leaning into the diversity of the industry is a "superpower," Cospy Carr said.
"Five Guys is doing this very well and touts it as one of the factors, if you will, about what has made them successful," she said.
An employee at Five Guys is pictured smiling.
An employee at Five Guys is pictured smiling.
Five Guys
Even more remarkable than the industry's racial and gender diversity is its age diversity.
While only 13 percent of U.S. employees are under the age of 25, that age group accounts for 40 percent of employees in the restaurant industry, according to National Restaurant Association. That trend continues into employees under the age of 35, which make up only 35 percent of the overall workforce but a whopping 60 percent of the restaurant and foodservices workforce.
One of the things MHFA has learned about the Gen Z workforce is their appreciation for consistent training and leadership development, Cospy Carr said.
"If young professionals are coming into the restaurant industry, we want the relationship with their closest manager to be one that is in support of their long-term growth and in support of their career trajectory," she said.
"We're find that the middle-manager relationship is very, very important and when it is out of sync with their development and growth within the industry, there's so many other options that they can step away from the industry to go into the gig economy or work for themselves," she said. "We want a stickiness factor that keeps them within the industry."
So far, it seems Five Guys has that stickiness. Roberts, for example, has been with the company for 15 years. Steven Steele, vice president of culture at Five Guys, has been there for nearly 18 years. Catalano is coming up on 20 years.
"It's burgers and fries," Roberts laughed. "But it's also 12,000 lives that we want to take care of. We want to make sure each one of those people has a good experience and gets what they want out of it. They want a part-time job? Great, we have a need for that. If you see this job as a stepping stone to the next opportunity, we have that too. We can meet them where they are."
Will Martin, now a candidate experience specialist, is a living and breathing example of that commitment to professional development.
"I was a burger flipper," Martin told Newsweek.
Martin started as a general manager of a Five Guys restaurant before he moved over to the company's training department, where he got to travel the world and pursue his "personal passion" of teaching other employees how to make burgers and fries. But then he suffered an injury and could no longer train other members of Five Guys' staff.
"I really didn't know what I was going to do," he said. "I never in my wildest dreams thought I would be working a traditional corporate office job. That's just not how I was raised."
Still, Five Guys reached out and after Martin hit it off with Steele, the former "burger flipper" was brought over to the culture department.
"Will's position didn't exist when I came over to HR," Roberts said. "He has made it incredibly successful. He has tons of experience, but he's also continued to learn."
Martin is not the only one.
"There is a career for people who want to learn our system, who believe in our food and our experience and work hard," she said. "It doesn't require an advanced degree to start a Five Guys, and if you are willing and able to do the job, you can advance as far as you're interested in. There are people who are now at the executive VP level despite starting as general managers and assistant managers."
All of that is by design. Five Guys has heavily invested in its employees' professional development across the board. The company offers to pay for degrees, trains its emerging leaders, promotes internally and encourages cross-training so that their staff can spend time exploring other departments within Five Guys. Roberts is especially proud of the company's mentorship program.
"For a long time, we're very good at teaching people burgers and fries, but not necessarily on how to manage staff, expectations, performance reviews and all of that kind of stuff, which is all very important," she said.
To Steele, this dedication to building up employees goes hand-in-hand with Five Guys' commitment to integrity.
"There used to be a saying that nobody's above taking out the trash. That's because everybody has been in these roles, whether that's starting as a crew member, mopping the floors, cleaning up in the kitchen, doing the dishes or all that good stuff," Steele told Newsweek.
The idea that every employee is as critical to the company as the next, that every employee is responsible for the success of Five Guys, is much like the mouth-watering burgers that its restaurants make every day, he said.
"When you're making the perfect burgers and fries, there's all these different toppings and there's all these different ingredients," Steele said. "But just like our employees, there's no one employee that's more important than the other, just like there's no ingredient that's one more important than the other."