Benefits June 23, 2006

Chick-fil-A Owner: My Marriage Worked, Yours Can Too

June 23, 2006 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - When the seemingly endless offering of marital advice from friends and family is not enough, wedded Chick-fil-A workers now can opt for an additional round of counsel coming from their employer.
Reported by

According to USA Today, the owners of the chicken quick stop have been married for 57 years and want to help their employees enjoy the same longevity.

Founder S. Truett Cathy has set marriage-friendly policies such as marriage retreats and lunchtime sessions and counseling from psychologists that are on call.

The unorthodox policies by Chick-fil-A prompts a familiar question for human resource managers: how deep should employers delve into the personal lives of their employees to ensure happy homes make happy workers?

For Cathy, the answer is a simple one and one that is worth spending millions of dollars each year. The marriage-friendly policies in place at Chick-fil-A’s Atlanta headquarters as well as for the 900 franchise operators who run its 1,250 fast-food restaurants across the country stem from the idea that “You can’t expect people to do well in their business if they’ve got problems at home,” according to Cathy.

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