Yum! Brands Celebrates Culture of Diversity & Inclusion with Pride
by James Fripp, Senior Director of Diversity and Inclusion, Yum! Brands
As a global restaurant company, we understand that diversity and inclusion are critical to the long-term success of our business – it’s part of the fabric of who we are as a company. We believe that the more our workforce reflects the global marketplace in which we operate, the more we will be able to satisfy our customers. In fact, one of our core values as a company is Believe in ALL People. This means seeing the value in each unique individual and unlocking their full potential to be their best, authentic self regardless of ethnicity, race, religion, age, gender or sexual orientation.
I’m proud of the commitment and progress we’re making across our organization and it starts at the top. In 2015, we established a diversity and inclusion council called Leading Inclusion for Tomorrow (LIFT). LIFT is chaired by our CEO and includes internal and external ambassadors who are challenged with driving global inclusion and engagement efforts across our company. We also offer unconscious bias training to employees in order to increase multicultural competency and build stronger teams.
I’m particularly proud of our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) which play a key role driving our culture and providing networking, mentoring, educational and leadership development opportunities for our LGBTQ, multi-cultural, women and millennial corporate employee groups.
In support of Pride Month, one of our ERGs that I would like to recognize is the Yum! Pride Network (YPN) which connects and supports the LGBTQ community at our company. YPN offers employees opportunities for professional networking as well as personal development. YPN is both a champion for LGBTQ visibility within our company as well as an important resource for its members.
While we’ve made a lot of progress over the past few years through focused efforts such as LIFT and YPN, we also recognize that we’re on a journey and will continue working to get better and better when it comes to building a diverse and inclusive culture.
