We know that our success stems from our exceptional team of more than 35,000 managers and staff members in our restaurants, bakery facilities and corporate support center. In 2016 we were proud to be named one of the FORTUNE "100 Best Companies to Work For®" for the third consecutive year! We know that our sustainability commitment and programs played a big part in awarding us this honor. To help us further our sustainability commitment and better our engagement with staff members and our communities, we dedicate resources to our Sustainability Department. Leading us in this effort is Megan Bloomer, our Director of Sustainability. Ms. Bloomer comes to us with a diverse background, including a Fortune 500 company, where she led the efforts to manage environmental impact and increase stewardship and overall sustainability. Now that Ms. Bloomer leads our Sustainability Department, her focus areas in 2016 include development and training of system-wide energy and water conservation programs and the creation and implementation of a sustainable sourcing policy focused around holistic animal welfare and social justice practices.
A number of efforts are underway to help us communicate to and engage with our staff members regarding sustainability. Our internal magazine -Slice- features a recurring sustainability section. We realize that our staff members are in the best position to help us not only identify potential sustainability improvements, but also, to help us implement them. Our partnership with our staff members seeks to engage them in helping us become more sustainable, including by offering them venues to communicate their ideas to us.
Continuing to better engage our staff around sustainability will be a vital component as we move forward with our program and look to reach our goals.
Our holistic approach to sustainability also translates to devoting considerable resources to staff training and development. We believe we have one of the most comprehensive training programs in the industry. We offer tools ranging from a state-of-the-art online Learning Management System to extensive and continuous restaurant management training and development, including mentoring and coaching. We design unique programs for our new managers, provide broad classroom and side-by-side restaurant staff member training programs, and offer corporate and bakery training programs targeted to specific professional and skill development requirements. Our goal is to foster complete engagement, one of the many things that make The Cheesecake Factory a truly great place to work!
We offer a total rewards package to our staff members, including competitive wages/salaries, meaningful benefits and wellness programs. Many of our benefits are available to both full-time and eligible part-time staff members and place an emphasis on staff member wellness.
Our customized selection process enables us to select the best talent in the industry, matched to the right position. This approach, combined with our dedication to the growth and development of our staff members through innovative training and learning, is a significant factor in our industry-leading retention levels.
We are committed to celebrating the diversity of our staff members and respecting each staff member as we work together to achieve excellence in our business. For more than 10 years, we have supported the Women’s Foodservice Forum, which provides a platform for our female leaders to focus on their professional development. We continue to increase the percentage of women and minorities hired into management and promoted into senior positions. In addition, recognizing that a large percentage of our staff members in our bakery facilities and in our restaurants are not native English speakers, we provide many of our communications and materials in Spanish to ensure that we are effective in our outreach. We are also piloting a program that provides English as a Second Language training.