Taco Bell’s solution to retain workers amid staffing shortage: Create 260,000 T-shirts

High turnover and a stubborn talent shortage have forced the restaurant industry to get creative in recruiting and retaining staff, especially in fast food. Taco Bell—the California-based Yum Brand subsidiary and go-to late-night eatery for college students everywhere—has employed quirky strategies to engage restaurant and corporate employees alike. Most recently, it partnered with an artist to design a trendy T-shirt for its store uniforms, which Taco Bell says was a hit among its 260,000 restaurant workforce, many of whom skew younger and belong to the TikTok generation. 

“It might sound silly or like it’s just a T-shirt, but it’s not. Team members have to wear that thing and represent the brand, and it has to be something they’re proud to wear,” says Taco Bell’s chief people and transformation officer, Kelly McCulloch.

She spoke with Coins2Day about why she’s teamed up with the company’s chief branding officer to increase workforce engagement and how she’s battling high industry turnover through creative employee marketing.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Coins2Day: How are you engaging employees across restaurants?

Kelly McCulloch:  Our tactics change depending on our audience because we have a wide range of people we’re trying to engage with from a talent perspective. The one thing that will remain constant no matter which stakeholder group or employee group we’re trying to work with is that they want to be seen and heard, and we need to listen. That doesn’t mean that we do everything they ask us to do, but historically, employees were treated as if they just needed to do what we told them to do. That’s not how we operate, especially in these last three years.

Another constant is how we develop people and create programs, experiences, and relationships so that people can grow their careers, whether in our corporate office, restaurants, or as a franchisee.

What makes Taco Bell unique, and how are you thinking about that in your employee value proposition?

We tend to hire young people globally who are driven and passionate about people, service, and inclusion. The Taco Bell lens, on top of all of that, is the innovative kind of spirit that we look for and creativity.

What levers are you pulling to address the industry’s high turnover?

We expect our people leaders to be able to grow their talent. So it comes down to an employee’s experience in their restaurant with their particular restaurant general manager. That’s why we put so much into developing and growing our restaurant general managers to be high-performing leaders; the same goes for our corporate office.

Are you still feeling the strain of the tight talent market? 

Our application flow is up pretty significantly in our restaurants, and I think that’s an indicator of what’s happening in the environment and some of the efforts we’ve put behind our employment marketing. Of course, it doesn’t mean anything if you can’t retain those folks.

Amber Burton
[email protected]
@amberbburton

CHRO Daily will be back on Tuesday, June 20, following the Juneteenth holiday.

Reporter's Notebook

The most compelling data, quotes, and insights from the field.

BlackRock’s CEO Larry Fink is blaming “sticky inflation” on a global slowdown in productivity. But he thinks A.I. Will solve that.

“A.I. Has the huge potential to increase productivity and transform margins across sectors,” he said at the company’s investor day event. “Because people were job-hopping so regularly, there wasn’t really a chance to bring them up to the speed or productivity that a former worker would’ve had."

Around the Table

A round-up of the most important HR headlines, studies, podcasts, and long-reads.

- UPS’s union of 340,000 delivery drivers plans to authorize a strike Friday. Washington Post

- Employees who feel lonely working from home are still wary of rigid return-to-office policies. Bloomberg  

- U.S. Employees are subject to an estimated $50 billion in wage theft every year, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Guardian

- Starbucks employees in Massachusetts say they were allowed to put up Pride decorations for just one day and only with approval from a manager. Boston Globe 

- The Great Resignation is over, marking a new era for the labor market. CNN

Watercooler

Everything you need to know from Coins2Day.

Stealth layoffs. AT&T employees are regarding the CEO’s return-to-office mandate as an excuse to cut headcount. “It’s a layoff wolf in return-to-office sheep’s clothing.” —Jane Thier

The source of stress. After examining high-stress jobs like doctors, soldiers, and first responders, a group of researchers found organizational culture is the primary source of workplace stress, not the job itself. —Emily Roasado-Solomon, Jaclyn Koopmann

Cashing in on quiet quitting. Depending on how you look at it, quiet quitting is either a $9 trillion drain on the global economy or an opportunity, according to a report from research firm Gallup. “Quiet quitting employees are your organization’s low-hanging fruit for productivity gains.” —Prarthana Prakash

RTO evidence. Growing evidence supports management's push to return to the office. Coins2Day’s Jane Thier lists four reasons why the data is becoming “undeniable.” —Jane Thier

CEO degrees. In a valuable reminder that quality talent comes from all backgrounds, only one CEO from the top 20 companies in the U.S. Graduated from an Ivy League. —Rachel Shin