Recognize! Recognize! Recognize!
Recognition is an integral part of our culture — we celebrate things big and small. In fact, “We love celebrating the achievement of others and have lots of fun doing it!” is one of our How We Win Together principles and the reason our culture is brimming with positive energy, teamwork, and fun.
Chairman and CEO David Novak personally models a recognition culture in a light-hearted way with his own “Yum! Award” — a set of chomping dentures with legs given to all those who “walk the talk” of leadership. All leaders in the company have their own personal recognition awards, which has resulted in such highly prestigious honors as the “Big Cheese” hat recognition at Pizza Hut, the “Warp Speed” award at KFC, “Sauce Packet” at Taco Bell, and the “Big Leap Award” at Yum! Restaurants International.
Below are a few examples of different Yum! Recognition awards and their recipients. (Click on a photo to enlarge.)
Did You Know?
Recognition has become such an essential part of our culture that associates receive training and a Guide to Recognition as part of their orientation. Feedback on giving recognition is also included as part of our 360-degree peer review process.
Customer Mania
Our people-first, recognition-driven culture has been benchmarked by other organizations and widely praised by business leaders, authors and lecturers. Numerous companies have worked with our Culture Team to share best practices surrounding recognizing and rewarding great performance and great associates. In addition, Ken Blanchard, the largest selling business author in the world (“One Minute Manager”, “Raving Fans”,etc.) wrote a book about our journey to build a distinctive culture entitled, “Customer Mania: It’s Never Too Late To Build A Customer-Focused Company.”