BEST
KFC
BEST PRACTICE
PRACTICE
www.ethicalperformance.com/bestpractice
youth unemployment
Developing an
appetite for work
Youth unemployment is one of the scourges of 21st century Britain. Since 2011, KFC
has partnered with children’s charity Barnardo’s to offer a work experience
programme to young people who often fall through the gap in the regular education
system. The fast food giant now plans to grow and broaden the programme.
Y
um! Brands is the parent company of KFC, the
restaurant chain that boasts over 40,000
outlets worldwide, making it the largest fast
food franchise on the planet.
In the UK, the company regularly makes it into the
top 30 of companies in the Great Place to Work
Survey and it was feedback from this survey in 2010
that proved the original trigger for the Barnardo’s
partnership.
Ian Hagg, head of communications and CSR,
explains: “As a company we’ve been involved on a
global scale with the World Food Programme for a
while and it’s proved very successful. Looking at
those survey findings we picked up on the fact that
while our people love being involved in such
initiatives, they also wanted to do something on a
more local basis that made a difference in their
community.”
With two thirds of its workforce being under 25, it
made sense to focus on youth-oriented
opportunities that leveraged what the company was
good at.
“We know that we’re good at training, working with
young people and introducing them to the world of
work,” says Hagg. “So the prospect of developing
training geared to young people who may have
‘fallen through the workplace net’ made a lot of
sense, and Barnardo’s was a natural fit.”
KFC did consider several partners in the space but
chose Barnardo’s because of its national reach and
track record in delivering successful local
programmes. Hagg says the two organizations sat
down together to see how they could make a
difference. That difference would be to offer tailored,
in-store mentoring-based training.
The partnership began as a pilot in North West
England in autumn 2011 and has since expanded to
Scotland, London, Wales and the Midlands.
The programme offers disadvantaged young
adults the opportunity to participate in a four-week
work placement in a KFC restaurant, learning
valuable team-working and employability skills.
Participants follow a bespoke programme designed
to introduce them to the workplace, providing highly
transferrable skills such as food preparation,
customer service, working in a fast-paced
10 BEST PRACTICE | issue 19 | 2014
environment, and being part of a team.
Alan Dobie, an asset protection officer at KFC who
co-ordinates the programme in Scotland explains:
“The placement consists of 4 weeks of between
20-24 hours a week. During that time they get to
work in the four areas of the business: the kitchen,
middle house (making chips and burgers), front
house (serving customers) and a week getting a
general overview of the business.
“They receive the same induction as a regular
team member and are ‘buddied’ with a staff member.
The store manager sits down with them every week
to monitor their progress.
“After two weeks, their key worker at Barnardo’s
contacts the store to receive an update. If after the 4
weeks, the young person has done well and there’s a
vacancy, a job offer is likely.”
Nicholas Pinnock, KFC’s contact at Barnardo’s for
south London, says the programme stands out
because of its buddying role.
“The buddying system is key as is the individual
approach. As a young person, it is very easy not to
feel valued. At KFC, in such a busy environment, it’s
very important to have that in-store support,” he
says.
“Barnardo’s works with other employment training
programmes but the KFC partnership really gives
young people a taste of a real working environment.
It’s not a guaranteed job but it is guaranteed work
experience.”
Hagg is keen to underline that the programme is
not about getting a job at KFC but getting job ready.
It's not a
guaranteed job,
but it is guaranteed
work experience
The company
KFC is part of Yum! Brands, Inc., which is the world's largest restaurant system
with over 40,000 KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut restaurants in 125 countries and
territories. KFC Corporation, based in Louisville, Kentucky, was founded in 1952
and is the world's most popular chicken restaurant chain. KFC itself boasts nearly
14,000 restaurants in 112 countries.
KFC came to the UK in 1965 when the first store opened in Preston and has since
expanded to 850 locations some company operated and some franchised. In
2012, 2013 and 2014, KFC UK won the Top Employer Award from the Top
Employers Institute, becoming the first company to receive the accolade two
then three years running. In 2013, KFC also appeared in the Top 25 UK Best
Workplaces list for the fourth year in a row.
“We see huge jumps in self-belief, this is the real
measure of success as participants finish equipped
with new confidence. Participation can have a
powerful impact on both their previous experiences of
work and their future approach to job seeking.”
The programme emphasises employability skills
and work experience. Participants currently gain a
reference and KFC is working on issuing an
introductory food hygiene certificate too.
The programme works on many layers, believes
Hagg. “Feedback from the managers involved is
incredibly positive. It makes a huge impact. They tell
us they really love their mentoring role and the wider
team gets behind the scheme because for them it’s a
very clear example of how the restaurant is making a
difference in the local community – they really feel
they’re giving something back.”
The ‘local effect’ is an important part of the
business case for the programme.
“Local stakeholders rightly ask what can they
expect from a company at a local level, what
difference will KFC or any other big brand make to the
community and what sort of long-term community
investment can they expect? We’re in no doubt that
our work with disadvantaged young people goes
someway to answering these questions. We’re in this
- and similar schemes we’re working on - for the longrun. By example and impact we are giving local
stakeholders the the opportunity to view the brand
differently,” maintains Hagg.
The fact that the programme offers a very tailored
approach makes it difficult to scale up, admits Hagg.
“We are rolling it out nationally now but it’s been a
slow burn because the whole process is a careful
match making exercise - matching the right
participant at the right time to the right restaurant and
restaurant manager.”
In 2013, 40 young people took part, and so far
offered nine of them permanent team member roles.
Although recruitment into KFC roles for trainees was
not the objective of the programme it has been
another of the positive outcomes.
The ambition is to continue to grow the current
programme and potentially expand the partnership
into joint projects that may include opportunities for
volunteering or links with the company’s planned
in-restaurant community-facing Work Ready
training.
KFC also hopes the partnership will encourage
more businesses to follow suit, opening doors to
more young people who lack opportunities.
The impact on its teams in the restaurants taking
part in the scheme has been profound, it maintains:
“They have literally contributed to turning around the
lives of young people.”
Hungry for experience:
participants are buddied up
with KFC mentors for
maximum in store support
Contact:
Ian Hagg
Head of Communications and CSR
ian.hagg@yum.com
comment
KFC
SIMON WEBLEY, Institute of Business Ethics
It is always sensible to pilot a programme of this sort, adapt it as experience
accumulates and then roll it out more widely, again learning from experience all
the time. Partnering with Barnardo’s provides a source of young people who are
(by definition) deprived. A scheme that induces self assurance in the participants
has benefits for all involved.
Points of note:
• The buddying system
• The emphasis on employability skills
• The positive local effects of the scheme
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