KFC St. Lucia has its first ever team ready to compete in the international KFC Team Challenge in Panama later this year. Eight team members took part in the local stage of the “KFC Olympics” as it is internally known on Wednesday 28th August at the franchise’s Micoud Street outlet. By all accounts from staff and the public, it was a resounding success.
Winning the event was the team of Christelle Alphonse, Jeleana MacFarlane and Mellick Nelson, with Vanessa St. Brice selected as Team St. Lucia’s reserve. The competition is an integral part of KFC’s training program and focuses on customer service, food quality and presentation. As a team building exercise, the competition activities motivates the staff for excellence, and reemphasizes the importance of efficiency and quality service. The attractive opportunity to represent St. Lucia and participate in the finals in Panama may have played a motivational factor. They won an all expense paid trip to the competition, have fun filled activities with the other KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell teams, compete, and attend the awards dinner.
For many team members, this was their first chance to interact with team members from other outlets. Christelle reflects on the event: It’s been great working in this environment and I like the atmosphere. I want to thank my managers, supervisors, fellow competitors, my area coach, Iris Kehler, the HR manager
and Deborah Prospere, Kara Stanley and Cynthia Raynold, my training manager, for their support and encouragement. The team challenge was a great one and it was a great feeling and I knew I would have won something!
To facilitate the contest, random people were invited off the street to participate as contest customers, portraying a variety of challenging situations. All volunteers welcomed and enjoyed the idea of receiving a free meal and more importantly, experienced the exemplary service KFC has fostered among its staff as well as the career possibilities and opportunities available to employees.
Accountant of KFC St. Lucia, Ottis Effs stated, “We were very excited to have our first Team Challenge. We look forward to making the event a bigger one with even more competitors next time around. We are very proud of all our All Stars, extend our congratulations to the three winners and encourage all our team members to continue their certification programs and improve their chances of promotion within the company and for exciting opportunities like this one.”
The management of KFC continues to implement and support employee initiatives that encourage team members to excel in the areas of customer service, cleanliness and food safety, as they strive to serve customers better.
