Blog

First Annual People, Culture & Purpose Conference: Feeding People’s Potential & Celebrating Progress

July 21, 2023

Last month, leaders across our people, culture and purpose teams gathered in London to discuss one of the most important elements of our business – our people. During the three days together, they discussed important topics related to unlocking inclusive, heart-led, high-performance and transformational growth including learning and development, mentorship, people planning, and equity, inclusion and belonging. But the largest focus of the week was social purpose - feeding people’s potential around the world. 

KFC has long been a purpose-driven business. Today more than ever, our ambition is for purpose to be the the center of everything we do – the food we serve, the people we employ and the communities we’re a part of.

Feeding People’s Potential through food

To experience the impact of this work firsthand, the KFC UK&I team welcomed our global People, Culture and Purpose leaders into their kitchens and demonstrated how they work to deliver surplus food from KFC restaurants to people in need while preventing it from going to waste. The team then visited charity partners who help distribute our surplus food and learned more about the people it helps feed.

Feeding People’s Potential through skills and opportunities

The team also got to meet Liam, a KFC team member and graduate of KFC UK&I’s Hatch program. Hatch is a social purpose program designed to offer on-the-job training and life skills to help enable youth to increase their employability. Prior to Hatch, Liam described himself as lacking confidence and struggled to successfully engage in the first couple of workplaces he tried. Participating in Hatch changed Liam’s trajectory. Not only did he gain valuable skills and experience, but his confidence also grew exponentially and he’s ready to take on any challenge. 

Celebrating our Communities of Belonging

Earlier this year, we launched two global Communities of Belonging (CoB)– SHINE, designed to empowering women throughout our KFC family, and Kentucky Fried Pride, dedicated to supporting and celebrating the LQBTQIA+ community and its allies. At the CPO conference, we popped bottles of champagne and raised a toast to the impact these communities have had in such a short time, globally and locally.

Celebrating our achievements

The conference wrapped up with an evening of awards recognizing the amazing hard work our People, Culture and Purpose teams have accomplished through heart-led leadership, courageous coaching and a winning mindset.