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Growth often tests a company’s soul. We’ve seen it happen many times, values that once defined a company slowly fade under the weight of expansion. But CAVA, a fast-casual Mediterranean brand with more than 400 restaurants and 12,000 team members, is proving it doesn’t have to be that way.
When I sat down with Kelly Costanza, CAVA’s Chief People Officer, she shared how they’ve built a people-first culture that’s as operationally tight as it is deeply human. The secret isn’t in slogans—it’s in systems. CAVA’s “MVC Framework”—Mission, Values, and Competencies—acts as an operating system for culture, linking everyday actions to a bigger purpose.
Here’s what every CHRO can learn from how CAVA turns ideals into measurable action.
Listen to the episode here on Apple Podcast & leave a review!
Connect Mission and Culture—Then Revisit It as You Grow
Kelly joined CAVA at a turning point: during the pandemic and right after the company acquired Zoe’s Kitchen. Instead of treating culture as static, her team used that transition to rebuild it. Over six months, they partnered with executives to define which behaviors would move the business forward for the next five to seven years.
“You can’t bring heart, health, and humanity to food unless you bring it to your people first.” – Kelly Costanza
CAVA’s mission isn’t just a marketing statement—it’s the north star for how the company treats its team members. Their employee experience is built on heart, health, and humanity, aligning perfectly with their customer promise. It’s a reminder for every leader: when your employee value proposition mirrors your brand mission, culture becomes self-reinforcing. Your people live the purpose they serve.
Build Culture People Can See, Touch, and Practice
Most organizations talk about values. CAVA operationalized them.
Their MVC Framework breaks culture into three layers:
- Mission – The “why” behind the company.
- Values – Five clear principles: Generosity First, Passion for Positivity, Acting with Agility, Constant Curiosity, and Collective Ambition.
- Competencies – Seven concrete behaviors that define what those values look like in action.
CAVA’s success lies in its ability to turn its values into what Kelly calls “muscle memory.” The company doesn’t rely on one-off training or posters; it embeds culture into the employee lifecycle from day one.
How to Turn Values Into Everyday Actions
CAVA didn’t stop at PowerPoints. They embedded culture into the workflow. From Value Cards used to recognize peers to MVC Awards and Competency Champion Trainer (CCT) certifications, the culture shows up in real, tactile ways. During our conversation, Kelly shared how CAVA has reimagined several traditional HR practices to make culture tangible:
- Hiring for Fit, Not Just Skill: Every candidate is evaluated using behavioral interview guides and a personality assessment called OAD, which identifies how someone naturally shows up in a role. It’s about alignment with values, not just qualifications.
- Onboarding With Purpose: Every new hire, from hourly team members to executives, goes through The CAVA Way—a structured onboarding that immerses them in the MVC framework.
- Replacing Reviews With Real Conversations: Forget once-a-year evaluations. CAVA replaced performance reviews with Impact Plans, ongoing dialogues that connect personal goals to behaviors and business results.
- Teaching Leaders to Teach Culture: Through the CCT Program (Competency Champion Trainer), standout leaders are certified to train others in how to model and reinforce cultural behaviors—a peer-driven approach to consistency.
- Recognizing What You Want Repeated: The company uses MVC Awards and Value Cards to celebrate employees who live out the mission daily, reinforcing that culture isn’t abstract—it’s what gets rewarded.
Each of these systems functions as a feedback loop, turning beliefs into habits and habits into results.
When values are visible, repeatable, and celebrated, they become muscle memory across the organization. This sends a clear message for CHROs: Culture sticks when people can see it, feel it, and celebrate it daily.
Listen to the episode here on Apple Podcast & leave a review!
Keep Human Connection at the Core of Technology and Inclusion
While many organizations lean heavily on process to maintain consistency, CAVA leans equally on empathy. Kelly believes the human side of culture is just as structured as the operational side—it’s designed intentionally.
Programs like Allies in Motion (AIM) create space for storytelling and shared understanding, allowing team members to talk openly about identity, hardship, and growth. The Love Button gives every employee the power to give away meals to guests—simple acts of generosity that turn hospitality into a daily ritual. And after social crises or difficult moments, CAVA hosts company-wide listening sessions with licensed therapists, reinforcing that empathy isn’t a reaction—it’s part of the business model.
These initiatives aren’t side projects; they’re the connective tissue that keeps a fast-growing brand feeling personal and human.
Balance Empathy with Accountability and Future-Ready Adaptability
CAVA’s culture is caring, but it’s also disciplined. Accountability is one of their core competencies—leaders coach in the moment, use clear scorecards, and maintain business rigor even while nurturing well-being. Kelly acknowledged the need to avoid burnout and survey fatigue, scaling back engagement pulses to focus on action rather than endless feedback.
Looking ahead, she’s exploring how AI can elevate—not erode—employee and guest experience. CAVA is piloting tools in three areas: worker productivity, guest experience, and innovation. Meanwhile, the new Flavor Your Future program is expanding career pathways for hourly employees and adding stock grants for General Managers, honoring the founders’ original mission to give others a better life.
For CHROs, it’s a blueprint for sustainable culture: balance heart with performance, and innovation with humanity.
Culture Is a System, Not a Slogan
Culture can’t just live in words, it has to live in workflows. And scaling doesn’t have to mean losing your soul. CAVA’s story reminds us that culture is about systems that make human behavior measurable, teachable, and celebrated, and Kelly Costanza’s work shows how to design those systems so they scale without losing warmth.
When you treat culture like an operating system, not a poster, it stays relevant no matter how fast you grow.
If you’re leading a team, building a culture, or simply trying to make work feel more human, this episode offers a blueprint worth studying. Listen to the full conversation with Kelly Costanza, Chief People Officer at CAVA, on Future Ready Leadership to learn how to make your culture come alive—one system, one story, and one act of generosity at a time.