30 Jun 2016 Pizza Hut’s Kathryn Austin Wins HR Director of the Year
Rutland is pleased to announce that Kaythryn Austin, chief people and marketing officer for Pizza Hut Restaurants, has won the HR Director of the Year award at the HR Excellence Awards 2016 held at the Park Lane Hilton Hotel in London. The winner was chosen following a poll of HR magazine readers.
Kathryn said she was ‘amazed and very pleased’ to win the award. She continued: “I would like to thank my team, as this was all about teamwork. We are a consumer business, so we are looking into some potentially difficult economic times. We’ve got to focus on providing a great guest experience and getting people to come back to us time and time again.”
As part of the leadership team Kathryn has been involved in the private equity buyout of Pizza Hut Restaurants, during which it separated from its delivery business. Her achievements impressed many of her HR Director peers: “It’s great to see an HR person responsible for another area of the business and make a demonstrable contribution to business success” was one comment. Another described her as “an exemplar for HR”, adding “practical business focused and incredibly innovative at the same time.” Another wrote: “The way that the employee engagement and external marketing/customer service narratives have been woven together is exceptional.”
Kathryn often takes on shifts in the restaurants herself: “It’s really good fun [in the restaurants] and there’s a real family atmosphere. My team has worked really hard, they love the brand,t hey love the business, they get out there and HR really makes a difference!”