Background Check: Shake Shack v. In-N-Out
The companies that compete for customers are the same ones that compete for talent. Major businesses pour major cash into their customer-facing brands, but do they pay the same attention to their candidate-facing brands?
In this series, we’ll put the employer brands of two major companies head to head and declare a winner.
We’ll examine each company’s career page, social media content related to employer branding and employee recruitment, and the relationship between customer-facing and candidate-facing brands.
Today’s competitors are America’s favorite artery cloggers, Shake Shack and In-N-Out. By the time I declare a winner, I will be bloated with fries, have milkshake coming out of my eyes—and I will be completely satisfied.
Company careers page
Both burger chains hit the basics: benefits and compensation, what jobs are open and how to apply, and a video about the company.
Shake Shack
In-N-Out
Unlike Shake Shack, In-N-Out’s page has a strong FAQ section that includes information about the interview and hiring process, advancement opportunities, and types of shifts and schedules they offer. Big bonus here.
Social media
No exciting news here. Both brands miss huge opportunities to use social to brand themselves.
Shake Shack
In-N-Out
Shake Shack does give their employer brand some real estate on their Instagram profile, but it’s relegated to a short highlights reel that hasn’t been updated in six months, which is a bad look for sure.
More bad news: Employer branding appears to be completely absent from In-N-Out’s social media channels.
Customer-facing vs. candidate-facing brands
The goal here is to use the employer brand to build on the customer-facing brand in a way that attracts potential candidates.
Shake Shack
In-N-Out
Shake Shack achieves consistency between the two sides of their brand. Check. Their customer-facing brand focuses on providing exceptional hospitality and positive experiences for their customers, and their employer brand translates that to exceptional hospitality and positive experiences for their employees.
In-N-Out also nails consistency between colors, type, and imagery—a modern version of Americana road-trip nostalgia—but there’s no differentiation between the two sides.
Winner
Shake Shack offers the better candidate experience and wins this round. They put a little more elbow grease into iterating on their customer brand for an employee audience, and their video does a better job of showing vs. telling. Their message is this: We run a business that people love, and that’s what keeps us excited to come to work.
Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza writes about workplace culture, DEI, and hiring. Her work has appeared in Fast Company, From Day One, and InHerSight, among others.
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