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For most large organisations, the human resources function plays a crucial role in the overall performance of the business. The human resources department acts as a 'business partner' to other areas of the organisation and for this reason must be aligned with the business strategies of the organisation. Some of the key contributions the human resources function makes to the success of the organisation are:
- Attracting, recruiting and selecting the best possible employees for theorganisation
- Training and developing employees to reach their maximum career potential. This also enables the company to benefit from its employees' improved skills and knowledge
- Providing a strong performance-based reward system, e.g. compensation, bonuses and promotions, to ensure that employees are performing at their optimum and that they are adequately recognised for their efforts
- Ensuring the organisation complies with industrial relations laws.
The KFC Human Resources Department plays a key role in driving people capability and is responsible for ensuring that this formula is followed throughout the organisation. Its aim is to maximise KFC's success by providing KFC Managers and Franchise Partners with the necessary systems and tools to ensure the right number of correctly trained employees are delivering the customer experience. It also develops and implements Team Member and Management training programmes; ensuring that they are easy to run, well structured and achieve the desired outcomes.
For companies that have franchise operations as part of their business model, it is important to have consistent human resources practices in both company operated and franchise restaurants. One of the key elements of their business success is using the same system to train employees in how to prepare products and serve customers, thus ensuring customers receive the same experience regardless of the restaurant ownership.
For this reason, human resources practices between KFC and its franchise partners are determined using organisational standards and consultation. In the consultation process franchise owners are encouraged to provide feedback on human resources and training practices to the Yum! Chief People Officer. In larger KFC franchise groups the Human Resources Manager will report to the Managing Director of the franchise but will also have a dotted line reporting relationship to the Chief People Officer of Yum! Restaurants.
Employee retention is an important issue for the quick-service restaurant industry where the average Team Member turnover is approximately 80 percent annually. KFC recognises that high Team Member turnover can lead to low employee morale, the loss of cumulative experience and difficultly attracting the right employees. This downward spiral would affect its profitability. Therefore KFC makes managing Team Member turnover a high priority for its Restaurant Managers and as a result currently operates at impressively low industry Team Member turnover levels of 55-60 percent annually.
Another of the KFC Human Resources Department's key responsibilities is to ensure that Yum!'s How We Work Together principles are firmly entrenched within the KFC culture. These eight values underpin the way the organisation operates, measures itself and structures how its employees work together and are therefore extremely important for driving people capability.
Another important part of the Human Resources Department's role is to provide Restaurant Managers and franchise partners with tools to measure their people capability. At KFC the restaurant operations are measured using a Balanced Scorecard which details Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in conjunction with the Operations Department in the areas of People, Customers, Sales and Profit. The Human Resources Department determines the specific People KPIs used on the Balanced Scorecard to ensure they are aligned with the people capability goals of the organisation. For example the current People KPIs on the KFC Balanced Scorecard include:
- Team Member and Management Turnover
- Actual number of Team Members and Managers versus required number of Team Members and Managers
- The percentage of employees who have completed the appropriate levels of training for their job role within the required timeframes.
The Balanced Scorecard highlights how Restaurant Managers are progressing against their people targets and allows them to easily identify areas for improvement.
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Yum! Case Studies