Pizza Hut pledged Thursday to fill 11,000 job openings, including many as it gears up for its busiest sales day, on Feb. 5, Super Bowl Sunday.
The Plano, Texas-based division of Yum! Brands Inc. said the positions will be at corporate and franchised locations for everything from pizza makers and delivery drivers to store managers.
She said the 11,000 jobs were a combination of existing openings and planned positions, but prospective employees could apply for them all.
Pizza Hut has 120,000 employees across its 6,300 domestic locations, McCulloch said.
“The biggest component for preparing for something like this is to make sure our franchise partners out there are up to speed and prepared for what we hope will be an influx for the application process online, and even walking through the door,” McCulloch said.
More than 5,900 of Pizza Hut’s U.S. restaurants, or 94 percent, are operated by franchisees, she noted. The company has a centralized application website that candidates can use.
“They can apply at the central location and then that information is routed to the location that is nearest location to them,” McCulloch said. “Our metro areas tend to have the biggest hiring needs. Typically, that’s where most of our restaurants are located.”
Pizza Hut has participated in the 100,000 Opportunities Initiative, a coalition of employers spearheaded by Starbucks Corp. in 2015, but McCulloch said this is the first time that Pizza Hut has announced an initiative on its own.
“This initiative is unique to us,” McCulloch said. “As a brand, we have a high number we are going after.”
McCulloch said some of the hiring is aimed at growth for the brand ahead as well.
“There’s no real deadline for this,” she said.
Among incentives, McCulloch noted, is Pizza Hut’s “Life Unboxed EDU” program, which was launched in 2015. That program offers employees at company-owned restaurants and participating franchisees — and their families — 50 percent off tuition to attend career-boosting educational courses at the online Excelsior College.
“All of our team members as well as their families can participate in that program,” she said. “Offering it to the family members sets us apart.”
Pizza Hut has more than 15,600 restaurants in 97 countries.
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