Yum! Restaurants awarded to employ person with disability

Yum! Restaurants India, the parent company of KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell is awarded with the prestigious National Award for the Empowerment of Persons with Dissabilities-2014 by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Department of Disability Affairs, Government of India.

The award recognises KFC’s outstanding contribution as an employer of people with disabilities providing them the opportunity to harness their professional aspirations and potential.

The ceremony was held on 3rd December 2014 at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi with the Hon’ble President of India- Shri Pranab Mukherjee felicitating KFC with the award.

Yum! India has established over 20 special KFC restaurants across India to employee these specially-abled employees. Through this initiative Yum! Restaurants have helped to unleash the true potential of specially-abled people and build on their self-esteem.

To take this effort to the next level, Yum! Academy was established in 2012. The Yum! Academy provides a fully sponsored 11 weeks program in which the specially-abled youth are taught English and critical skills for employment in the retail and hospitality sector.

“We are honored to be conferred with this award which is testimony of our mission of ‘Growth with a big heart’. Started in 2008, this programme aims at creating an equal opportunity workplace for our deaf employees. The Yum! Academy was introduced to train these individuals and make them independent in their respective line of work. At present there are 20 Special KFC stores in India which are run primarily by our deaf employees who man all stations; handling everything from kitchen operations to consumer interactions,” said, Niren Chaudhary, President, Yum! Restaurants India.

KFC has partnered with organizations in different cities that help with recruitment and training in the initial phases including training the managers on sign language. The stores have some special equipment which creates a more enabling environment.

KFC currently has 20 specially-abled stores where hearing and speech-impaired employees account for about more than 50 per cent of the total staff. Operational in cities like Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Ghaziabad, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata and New Delhi, the brand currently employs over 350 such staff members.