Yum! Brands Inc., one of the world’s largest restaurant companies and parent of KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell, has been named one of the Top 20 learning and development organizations by Chief Learning Officer magazine’s 2015 LearningElite program. The company was recognized as a Gold LearningElite organization for 2015 for its unique and comprehensive programs offered through its worldwide learning and development platform, Yum! University. Yum! Brands is the only quick-service restaurant company on the 2015 LearningElite list.

Chief Learning Officer magazine’s LearningElite program honors organizations that have implemented effective learning and development best practices and programs for their workforces. Developed through a collaboration of chief learning officers, senior workforce development practitioners, and the Human Capital Media Research and Advisory Group, the LearningElite program ranks organizations based on the execution and impact of their learning and development initiatives. Yum! Brands ranked 17 from more than 200 applicants.

“Yum! Brands is honored to be recognized as a top company for learning and development,” says Mark Lagestee, Vice President of Global Talent and Organization Development, Yum! Brands. “Our global learning culture is focused on building the capability of our 1.5 million associates around the world. We’re passionate about offering innovative tools, programs and learning platforms in order to train and grow the next generation of leaders around the globe.”

In addition to LearningElite, Yum! Brands is recognized as one of Forbes’ America’s Best Employers in 2015 and as one of the 2014 Aon Hewitt Top Companies for Leaders in North America for its leadership development programs and practices. In addition, Chief People Officer Anne Byerlein was named one of Forbes’ Top 10 Chief Human Resources Officers this year. Over the years, Yum! has created a unique people-first culture that is centered around reward and recognition to drive results. Yum! Brands’ approach to developing talent is customized and highly interactive. The company creates programs and offers training and tools around the world—for restaurant team members to Restaurant Support Center employees—in order to unlock individual talent and foster business and personal growth.

Through Yum! University, the company offers a variety of classroom and online courses and workshops, which are designed to teach the skills and behaviors that build the capability of above-restaurant leaders. As a center of excellence for learning content and design, Yum! University partners with the company’s division training teams to offer programs and courses in markets around the world, such as Russia, India, the United Kingdom, and Singapore, among others. Some examples include:

·       Sales Overnight, Brand Over Time: Yum! Brands’ CEO, Greg Creed, teaches associates the Sales Overnight, Brand Over Time program. The training is designed to help associates build a successful marketing mindset. The interactive experience focuses on developing a better understanding of how each brand’s identity comes to life in everything they do. Attendees include franchise partners and marketers from Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and KFC.

·       Achieving Breakthrough Results (ABR): ABR is a high-impact leadership and action-planning training that Yum! has cascaded to its employees and franchisees around the globe to drive breakthrough thinking and innovation. ABR provides associates with tools and concepts aimed at high performance.

·       Learning Zone: Learning Zone is Yum! Brands’ online global learning content management system that reaches the Company’s associates around the world. More than 35 million courses have been completed through the Learning Zone over the past three years, with more than 1 million course completions on average each month.

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