Shake Shack Calls Its Employees '51%ers'

Shake Shack

Shake Shack just filed for its IPO. 

When a company files for an IPO, they give away all kinds of great details not just about how the business is doing, but the philosophy behind the business. 

Buried in Shake Shack's filing is a disclosure that it refers to its employees at "51%ers."

Here's Shake Shack:

We believe that the culture of our team is the single most important factor in our success. We aim to recruit and develop a team with the innate "personality to please" that cannot be taught. We look for people who are warm, friendly, motivated, caring, self-aware and intellectually curious team members, or what we call "51%'ers." We use the term "51%" to describe the emotional skills needed to thrive at the job and "49%" to describe the technical skills needed for the job. Our 51%'ers are excited and committed to championship performance, remarkable and enriching hospitality, embodying our culture and actively growing themselves and the brand. 

In its filing, the company also touts the "Shack Pact," which it displays in its stores for employees to see and is what the company calls, "the agreement we make with ourselves and with each other to uphold our principles and to hold each other accountable."

Here's the "Shack Pact":

• Hospitality - We stand for following the 5 Tenets of Enlightened Hospitality (Taking care of Each Other, Our Guests, Our Community, Our Suppliers and Our Investors) to create raves through every stakeholder interaction.
• Team - We stand to hire 51%'ers to create teams that are excited and committed to championship performance, remarkable and enriching hospitality, embodying our culture and actively growing themselves and the brand.
• Food & Drink - We stand to be a worldwide culinary leader in our interpretation of the classic American roadside burger stand.
• The Shack - We stand to design, build and maintain the most engaging, thoughtful, safe and clean environment for our teams to work in and our guests to gather in.
• Communication - We stand to be aligned with each other every day so that mutual understanding leads to progress.

Since 2010, annual revenue has increased from $19.5 million to more than $83 million through just the first nine months of this year. 

So it seems like regardless of what Shake Shack is calling its employees, the business is growing.