Since entering China 38 years ago, Yum China has believed deeply in the power of corporate culture to guide organizational growth. We have continued to evolve our culture in response to changing trends and strategic priorities. In 2025, we rolled out our revitalized corporate culture centered on the core value of "Founder's Mentality with Truth-seeking Pragmatism." This culture emphasizes four key principles: "Restaurant General Managers (RGM) No.1", "Respect and Care", "Integrity and Innovation", and "Customer Mania." By nurturing our organization with this strong cultural foundation, we enhance resilience, align our teams around a shared growth vision, and build the capabilities needed to thrive, steadily advancing toward our vision of becoming "the World's Most Innovative Pioneer in the Restaurant Industry". To bring this refreshed corporate culture to life, we have launched a comprehensive series of communication and implementation initiatives. Through three core approaches—fostering open communication, nurturing an innovation-driven culture, and recognizing contributions—we are embedding our culture at the front lines, inspiring every employee to become a true ambassador and role model for our values.
• Open Communication：We foster genuine understanding and shared alignment, transforming the "Founder's Mentality with Truth-seeking Pragmatism" from a high-level principle into everyday behaviors that people can feel and practice. In 2025, we hosted cultural dialogue sessions across multiple cities, using interactive formats such as deep dives into our core values, "Culture Living Room" conversations, and real-life case studies from outstanding frontline employees. These sessions not only clarified the essence of our culture conceptually, but also connected it to practical, day-to-day scenarios—demonstrating how culture serves as a tangible driver of stronger organizational performance.
• Innovation Endorsement：Building on "Integrity and Innovation" and "Customer Mania", we run programs like the Hackathon Competition (to spark technology breakthroughs) and the Sprout Program (to fuel business-level incubation). These initiatives encourage employees to tackle real challenges, spotlight frontline innovators and turn restaurant insights into tangible improvements, and ultimately fuel long-term, sustainable business growth.
• Reward & Recognition：We actively reinforce our principles "Respect and Care" and "RGM No.1" by providing timely, meaningful recognition and rewards that build stronger team bonds and cultural commitment. Each of our brands has developed tailored frontline recognition systems based on the guiding principle of "more contribution, more reward," boosting employees' self-motivation. In 2025, KFC launched the "K-Bean" program, a points program celebrating employees who consistently live our values in their daily work. Pizza Hut rolled out the "Hero" restaurant performance incentive plan, which spans multiple roles with clear, transparent
metrics to reinforce both cultural adoption and operational excellence.
Yum China firmly believes that respecting and protecting human rights form the foundation for a sustainable business. We comply with relevant laws, regulations and standards. We endorse the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and relevant international human rights conventions, including but not limited to the International Labor Organization (ILO) Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. We strive to create a workplace and a community that respect and protect human rights. We proactively identify, prevent and mitigate human rights risks in the Company and throughout the value chain. We also take an active role in understanding stakeholders' concerns and expectations on human rights issues.
In 2022, we introduced the Yum China Human Rights Policy, pledging to work with communities and stakeholders to create workplaces and communities that respect and protect human rights.
In 2023, we released our Yum China Zero Tolerance: Anti-Discrimination and Anti-Harassment Policy to further emphasize the Company's firm commitment to workplace diversity, equality, and mutual respect.
Employees who fail to comply with the 'Yum China Code of Conduct' may face disciplinary actions, including but not limited to dismissal. Violations of the Code will be considered a breach of the individual labor contract between the employee and Yum China. In addition, violations of the Code are included in the individual performance evaluations and can negatively impact the remuneration of the relevant employees.
Yum China Code of Conduct
Yum China Zero Tolerance: Anti-Discrimination and Anti-Harassment
Policy
At Yum China, we believe that employees with diverse backgrounds stimulate organizational vitality and offer new perspectives to innovative thinking. In our workplace, differences are understood, appreciated, and encouraged. We are committed to fostering a diverse, inclusive, and non-discriminatory working environment and providing every employee with equal opportunities to achieve their personal best regardless of their race, religion, color, age, gender or gender identity, disability, sexual orientation, citizenship, or nationality.
Learn More About Diversity and Inclusion at Yum China
Yum China regards our employees as the fundamental driving force behind the Company's growth. We are committed to a systematic, forward-looking talent development approach that provides ongoing support at every stage of an employee's career.
We launched the Yum China Full-Career-Cycle Development System, a comprehensive framework that outlines clear career progression pathways from onboarding to senior leadership. The system includes tailored capability-building programs across all levels, empowering employees to continually strengthen their professional skills and long-term career competitiveness. The Full-Career-Cycle Development System is built around the core competencies required at each stage of career progression, offering differentiated and customized learning paths across three key dimensions: "Successful Transition," "Know-How Building," and "Breakthrough Innovation" for employees at different levels. Building on this framework, our online learning platform "YUMC Mobile Learning" focuses on five core competency modules and provides a comprehensive resource library featuring
14
course modules and over
40
courses. Through a hybrid approach that combines online learning with in-person workshops,
we ensure that training content is closely aligned with practical job requirements.
In 2025, we introduced several innovative courses, including targeted management training for mid- and seniorlevel leaders. These courses emphasize a "learning by doing" approach that combines practical tools with real-world application, earning highly positive feedback from participants. We also refreshed and upgraded our existing courses to further improve the relevance and effectiveness for employees across the organization. As of the end of 2025, related online and offline training programs have reached
112,000+ with a ~99%
satisfaction rate for in-person courses.
Moreover, through the YUMC College program, the Company provides employees with opportunities for further education,
supporting them in attaining higher academic qualifications and awarding scholarships to eligible employees,
helping them achieve their aspirations. As of the end of 2025, the YUMC College program has expanded to
~20 markets nationwide with 3,300+
employees having received continuing education grants and higher education diplomas and
4,000+ employees having obtained professional certifications.
Building on our robust talent development system, we have established a rigorous and scientific performance management framework to continuously build a highly competitive workforce.
When senior positions are available, we prioritize internal promotions—
100%
of our RGMs, District Managers, Area Managers, and Market General Managers are promoted internally.
We
provide clear career paths for our employees. Employees at different functions and levels have access to clear promotion paths through tiered training programs. For example, we have developed the "Bench Planning" talent development program for our operations team and developed tailored two-to-three-year accelerated management trainee programs for marketing, supply chain
and other teams. These initiatives have successfully developed numerous outstanding leaders, creating a strong talent pipeline to support sustainable business growth.
At Yum China, we have built a comprehensive employee support system through robust benefits programs, competitive compensation, meaningful health protection, and an inclusive, equitable work environment—continuously enhancing employees' well-being and the sense of belonging. We remain deeply committed to enhancing the employee benefits experience. Guided by four key dimensions—physical, mental, financial, and social well-being — we continue to upgrade our "YUMC Care" welfare program, striving to provide comprehensive support for the health and well-being of our employees and their families. Yum China is fully aware that ensuring the occupational health and safety of our employees is the fundamental responsibility of the Company. We place the highest priority on safeguarding our employees' health and safety, and on creating a healthy and secure work environment for them.
We uphold the philosophy of "paying for performance and business impact," striving to provide our employees
with competitive compensation and benefits to fairly recognize and reward their hard work and outstanding
achievements. Our Restaurant General Managers (RGMs) and office staff are eligible for variable performance-based pay.
As of the end of 2025, 15,300+ RGMs were granted company shares - Restricted Stock Units (RSUs).
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We remain steadfast in adhering to our core principle of "RGM No.1," proactively engaging with frontline team members to truly understand their needs and challenges. These insights drive our management improvements—responding to concerns, addressing pain points and easing burdens while boosting efficiency for both employees and restaurants. This approach creates better work experience for our people and superior service for our customers. We are committed to building a comprehensive, two-way employee communication system that flows top-down and bottom-up. Through diverse channels, we actively listen and respond to employees' concerns in a timely manner, fostering an open communication culture centered on problem-solving. In terms of established mechanisms, the Company conducts a biennial employee engagement survey, supplemented by channels such as the Employee Representative Conference and Yum China's Employee Union, to gather feedback and drive closed-loop improvements. To drive innovation in communication formats, we launched and continue to enhance platforms like "Journey with Joey" and RGM Voice. These initiatives expand and deepen direct dialogue with frontline employees, helping to ensure that concerns at all levels are fully heard and addressed promptly. In 2025, the Company's employee engagement survey scored 90%+. As of the end of 2025, more than 90% of employees have voluntarily joined the union.
Learn More About Employee Engagement