Why Darden Restaurants prioritizes an inclusive workplace

Her philosophy in that role has always centered around inclusivity and creating an organization that people want to be involved with.

“That’s how you become relevant,” she said during a recent interview. “It’s easy to get sucked into all the noise, but it's better to try and ignore that and focus on the relevance.”

This is one of the reasons she has been a longtime member — and former chair — of the Women’s Foodservice Forum.

“I love that WFF has always been open to men and women because you’re going to most likely lead women or work for women or work with women,” she said. “And from a macroperspective, WFF doesn’t change its mission. It’s inclusive, but it does bring a heightened perspective of what it's like for women to grow their careers because there are some unique challenges that women face, whether it's being primary caregivers or having children, or whatever the case may be.”

She brings learnings from her WFF involvement back to Darden, and vice versa, and has used those lessons to inform her company’s people strategy. Despite McKinsey & Company’s recent report showing stagnation of women in the C-suite, Darden has actually grown its representation at the top. Four of its brands — LongHorn Steakhouse, The Capital Grille, Eddie V’s Prime Seafood, and Seasons 52 — are led by women in Laura Williamson, Falon Farrell (Capital Grille and Eddie V’s), and Laurie Casler, respectively. Nearly 60% of Darden’s executive leadership team is comprised of women and/or people of color.

“If you want representation at the top, you've got to build the pipeline to feed it. We stay very focused on that at Darden,” King said. “We spend a lot of time building our pipeline. Our three female brand presidents are a product of targeted development for many years.”

Despite a challenging backdrop in which DEI has come under attack and women's progress has grinded to a halt if not reversed, this work at Darden has continued to be intentional because the restaurant industry overindexes on such representation, particularly on the frontlines.

“I’ve always focused on inclusion throughout my entire career around the world. Building inclusive workplaces withstands the test of time. It withstands the test of politics, of cultural nuances,” King said. “I believe it’s important to build inclusive workplaces where everybody feels like they can come to work and be their authentic self. That’s what this industry did for me.”

King admits to feeling like a bit of a lost soul when she was younger, but “the hospitality industry was my savior." Because of this experience, she’s motivated by paying it forward and making sure others feel just as comfortable as she did when nothing else felt like a fit for her.

“These are my people where I can be myself and that has stuck with me all these years,” King said. “Whether it’s through Darden, WFF, or whatever other organizations I'm involved with, let's focus on building these inclusive workplaces that people want to show up and all that other noise will be what it will be.”

MAJC

King also continues to pay it forward through her involvement as an advisor for MAJC — a new workplace engine designed specifically for the hospitality industry — alongside James Beard Award-winning chef Andrew Zimmern and other top chefs in regional markets.

MAJC is an AI-powered mobile-first matching platform designed to act as a sort of job board and digital networking tool. King said the objective is to create a community that helps operators find the right employees to fit their business and ideally reduce turnover, while employees can connect with the community to better understand if an establishment is the right fit. The intended audience is smaller and independent businesses that don’t have the same resources to target and vet workers like large employers.

“This is a way to find talent that is actually talent-matched versus a spray-and-pray approach. It’s almost like LinkedIn meets Tinder,” she said. “It’s very targeted, which is really important because we have a turnover problem in this industry and it’s expensive. And for employees, it creates a community, so people feel like they belong to something.”

In other words, King’s work with MAJC aligns with her work at WFF and Darden, and it certainly aligns with her priority of creating an inclusive environment.

“This industry has created so much opportunity for people, including me, and I feel a responsibility to give back as much as I can in whatever way I can,” she said. “I found my people and my place in hospitality, and I want others to do the same.”