Church's Chicken's® Chief People Officer Positions Brand for Category Leadership

ATLANTA, Dec. 10, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Since 2018, Church'sChicken® has been re-establishing its presence as a dominant player in the QSR space, especially within the chicken category. The brand has yielded substantial positive results, with year-over-year growth in sales and profitability continually increasing over the past four years. Now, in the fifth year of its turnaround, Church's raised the bar again with a people-centric approach that extends throughout all aspects of the organization and its global network – beginning first and foremost with employees.

"Essentially, we want people to choose Church's for all the reasons that make our brand special," explains Senior Vice President and Global Chief People Officer Karen Viera, who is the primary champion of the Our Texas Way initiative. "Certainly, our food and category-leading value propositions are part of that, but our people, our team spirit, and our authentic Texas-sized hospitality is what guests find only at Church's. So, we're making sure to nurture that aspect of our brand culture and empower team members so they can deliver great brand experiences to our guests." 

Our Texas Way is an innovative program designed to increase employee engagement and build the kind of team-member pride that is the basis of memorable brands. It unifies HR, Ops, and Marketing under a shared goal set to create experiential touchpoints that not only retain restaurant talent but also foster meaningful connections and loyalty among guests. It's been a long time in development, based on focus groups, top-to-bottom overhaul of training and onboarding materials, and ongoing employee-first take on everything from uniforms to greater flexibility with payment options and scheduling.

In early December, Viera spoke at the Evanta Atlanta Chief Human Resources Officer Executive Summit and the Atlanta Evanta Chief Data Officer Executive Summit about the importance of making the hiring and staffing journey an extension of the brand. During the conferences, Viera highlighted the improvements that the Our Texas Way effort had on the brand earlier this year. In a year when the industry was facing crippling labor shortages, Church's rebounded quickly and now consistently finds staffing levels to remain close to optimal. Throughout the past year, Church's turnover decreased by nearly 15%.

This year, Church's was recognized as a Top Workplace by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and Viera was also awarded a bronze Stevie for Human Resources Executive of the Year by The American Business Awards.

At the center of Our Texas Way is a framework of four core behaviors that help bring the Church's brand spirit to life.

• We Invite People In
• We Build Each Other Up
• We Do Good & Keep Gettin' Better
• We Give Back

Behind each core behavior, the Our Texas Way approach gives employees, franchisees, and other team members real-world examples and easily executable actions and gestures that reinforce the experience. The concept is that, when applied to virtually any task within the Church's organization, the core behaviors create more positive outcomes and better results for all involved. This includes employee recruitment and onboarding, manager coaching, career development, corporate social responsibility, company communications (both internal and consumer-facing), franchisee relationships, and beyond.

"We have great pride in what we do here," Viera shares, "from the way we prepare food in small batches by hand, to the way we support and give back to our local communities, to the way we treat each other and the people we serve like family. Our Texas Way is a reminder that the relationship between Church's and people goes far deeper than any simple restaurant transaction."

First planned in 2019, then launched at the end of 2020, Our Texas Way is now a key priority for all departments in 2021. Since its inception, the approach has already generated substantial results, even in the face of the pandemic.

• Turnover for the company as a whole improved by 14.47% from 2019 to 2020.
• Turnover for Church's largest employee group (Team Members) also improved by double digits between 2019 and 2020.
• Customer service scores have also increased since the beginning of 2021.

To ensure that Our Texas Way becomes a deeply ingrained element of the Church's brand for years to come, the company has created multiple task forces which will collaborate in executing the initiative at the restaurant level. Viera oversees the development of brand messaging, employee programs, and other resources. While leading the People Excellence Committee made up of franchisees and corporate employees under the Excellence Advisory Council , she will collaborate and coordinate the advancement of the People Brand messaging with the Franchisees.

"The growing popularity for making meaningful brand connections isn't new," Viera finishes. "What Church's is doing differently is realizing and respecting that exceptional guest experiences must originate from the inside. It has to be something real, not scripted, not faked, and it has to start with the people who make up your brand every day. Our Texas Way is, first and foremost, the promise we make to each other as teammates, which makes it effortless to extend to our guests."

About Church's Chicken® / Texas Chicken
Founded in San Antonio, Texas, in 1952 by George W. Church, Church's Chicken® is one of the largest quick-service restaurant chicken chains in the world. Church's® specializes in Original and Spicy Chicken freshly prepared throughout the day in small batches that are hand-battered and double-breaded, Chicken Sandwich, Texas Tenders, Honey-Butter Biscuits™ made from scratch and freshly baked, and classic, homestyle sides all for a great value. Church's® (along with its sister brands Church's Texas Chicken in the Americas and Texas Chicken® outside the Americas) has more than 1,500 locations in 25 countries and international territories. During two national media windows, the brand drove sales performance that outpaced the broader QSR category. For more information about Church's Chicken, visit www.churchs.com or follow their Facebook and Instagram pages.

SOURCE Church's Chicken

Related Links

https://www.churchs.com