The gloves are off for fast food company KFC, operated locally by Restaurants of Jamaica (ROJ), as it launches a new campaign for workers who are needed across its operations, offering sign-on bonuses to new recruits in a campaign style never before observed in Jamaica and in the industry.

The company, in an outreach to workers interested in various positions which the company is seeking to fill, is promising that it is offering the highest wages in the fast food industry, bar none.

KFC promised to provide the Jamaica Observer with an update on its recruitment strategy in a tight labour market, but the response has been delayed.

Economic revival

The plea for workers comes as the company has seen revived business under the reopened economy. Exactly two years ago, Mark Myers, head of ROJ, warned staff of impending lay-offs due to falling sales at his KFC and Pizza Hut locations after the advent of the novel coronvirus pandemic.

This was a change from the end of 2019, when Myers had disclosed a $1-billion plan for the build-out of up to 10 KFC and Pizza Hut restaurants across the island for 2020.

In the months prior, the chain had added five new restaurants, including a Pizza Hut in May Pen, Clarendon, and another KFC location there. That expansion brought ROJ’s stores to 51 as at year-end 2019.

New stores planned were for St Elizabeth, St Ann, and Kingston in 2020. However, the pandemic hit and paused those plans.

Now business has picked up, with the company even opening a new outlet in Drax Hall, St Ann.

KFC and Pizza Hut operations in Jamaica are licensed by international franchise holder Yum Brands which also licenses Taco Bell. The annual revenue of the franchise is estimated at US$23 billion globally.

Industry leading pay, performance incentives

On May 8, ROJ launched an advertising campaign, using taglines, “Be a part of something amazing” and “We need you.”

The company indicated that it currently needs to fill positions for customer service team members, restaurant managers, customer order takers, food service members, shift supervisors, and delivery riders.

The company advertised that it offered an industry-leading salary and benefits package, with “the highest salary in the fast food industry and a sign-on bonus for new team members”.

Similar to the business process outsourcing industry which the fast food industry is now competing for workers, KFC is also now offering performance incentives which were not specified in the advert.

KFC says it is also offering personal development and emergency grants, health and life insurance, and what it says is “more.”

The campaign comes as competing chain Island Grill is also on the hunt for 100 workers for existing stores and new stores planned for opening in 2022, and has outlined to the Business Observer its above-par treatment of workers in its stores.

CEO, founder and managing director of Island Grill Limited Thalia Lyn asserts that the company’s internal promotion policy attracts staff, and is a factor to be considered in an ongoing discussion of competition faced by the fast food sector from business process outsourcing for entry level workers.

Island Grill has 16 stores in Jamaica, and one at Grantley Adams Airport in Barbados. The 100 vacancies are mainly for team members and shift supervisors, Lyn informed the Business Observer.

The company needs workers both for existing stores and a new one planned for Spanish Town, St Catherine, which will open in December 2022. “We need approximately 40 new team members for this store,” Lyn told the Business Observer in the first quarter of 2022.

The expanding fast food stores are not the only ones competing for more workers. The BPO sector is also seeking new recruits, with one of the largest, Conduent, taking to massive signage on JUTC buses to send its message to those thinking of changing jobs.