Yum China's 'People First' Approach To Unlocking Employee Potential and Career Growth

Sep 23, 2022 11:00 AM ET
Campaign: ESG Reports

As the largest restaurant company in China, Yum China provides over 450,000 jobs across the country and actively invests in each and every one of its employees along their journey with the Company. Providing targeted development opportunities for employees to realize their career aspiration has been key to ensuring long-term organizational sustainability. Notably, nearly 100% of the operations positions are filled by promotion from within. Only last year, Yum China invested a total of RMB 456,000,000 in a variety of initiatives designed to unlock career and personal development opportunities for employees at every level.

One of the most crucial systems put in place by Yum China in order to manifest the full potential of their employees is the Innovative and Comprehensive Training System. This set of advanced training regimes is structured in such a way as to better facilitate promotion from within the Company itself by offering in-depth and comprehensive training for a myriad of management positions, such as Market General Manager and Brand Operations Manager. The boon brought forth by this industry-leading training system is that Yum China can strive to achieve 100% of promoted positions from within the Company itself, truly establishing a path towards greater upper mobility for countless people.

Building off of the Innovative and Comprehensive Training System, Yum China offers programs that can enhance the growth of those employees who wish to ascend the managerial ladder, such as the "KFC Business School and Pizza Hut Management Institute." These two signature programs afford employees who have just graduated college the opportunity to advance from a restaurant management trainee to a restaurant general manager (RGM) in as short as 18 months, with participants acquiring the operational, financial, and managerial skills required for operating a restaurant. Furthermore, Yum China has sought to assist employees in continuing their university studies as well, offering sponsorships and scholarships through the YUMC College program.

In December 2021, KFC officially launched the YUMC Angel College Program in Guangzhou and Shenzhen. This program ensures that employees with disabilities are able to receive continuing education and improve their vocational skills through the Open University of China. This clearly demonstrates the commitment Yum China has towards their employees and their specifically tailored needs as the Company actively pushes to provide them with a variety of opportunities for whichever path they wish to take.

Led by a ‘People First’ core value, Yum China is committed to enabling a fair and transparent career development path and access to learning and coaching opportunities for employees at each stage of their career.

To learn more about Yum China's people strategy and progress towards its sustainability goals, read the 2021 Sustainability report here.