The so-called Chip Chats are an open invitation to every Chipotle employee to call in and talk about how they are feeling, a major issue they want top leadership to understand and to offer up ideas on making the world a better place.
CEO Brian Niccol and chief diversity and inclusion people officer Marissa Andrada have been engaging with their employees on the Chip Chats for more than three years. These informal chats are credited with helping Niccol propel his company from one with a $6 billion cap to one that is greater than $50 billion and to growing his workforce to more than 100,000 strong.
When Andrada joined Chipotle in 2018, it did not have an HR department. One barometer of the program’s success is how management can quickly make adjustments after one 60 minute session.
"Sometimes we'd have calls in the morning, and by the afternoon we'd have another one because at that point we had figured it out,” Niccol said.