Desperate To Find More Staff, Some Fast Food Restaurants Recruiting Customers

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Would you like fries with that? Or how about a job? A fast food chain is pitching not just fried chicken, but employment opportunities to every customer they serve.

Morning Insider Tim McNicholas shows us some unique approaches to a dire labor shortage.

When restaurants all over town are looking for workers, it's time to think outside the to-go box.

"We're starting at $15 an hour. How much do you make at your job right now?" Colby Ledet, a supervisor at national fast food chain Raising Cane's, asked a customer.

Raising Cane's employees are approaching customers at their Naperville, Illinois dining room and drive-thru, asking them to apply, and even handing out "We're Hiring" cards.

Ledet is one of about 100 Dallas-based employees who have been temporarily relocated to help with recruitment efforts. He's on the corporate staff, but a couple weeks ago he hopped behind the register so the Naperville dining room could stay open on a Friday night.

"We're so understaffed that most areas we can't open the dining room, or we're just drive-thru only, or we have to close earlier than our normal business hours," Ledet said.

Raising Cane's said they've hired about 4,000 people across the country since early October, and they're still looking to hire about 6,000 more.

They're not alone. Just down the street, Panera Bread encourages people to text them about job opportunities.

That's also a method Raising Cane's uses.

Lizette Torres is a cosmetology student who just started at Raising Cane's this week.

"My friend works here, so she was telling me about the job, because I need a job, and I was like, 'I need a dependable job. I need something consistent,'" she said.

"We are out here doing almost anything and everything we can think of," Ledet said of the fast food chain's recruitment efforts.

Every Raising Cane's customer passes a table near the counter—a big red advertisement for the hiring efforts, all before they even order their chicken fingers.