Case Study: Taco Bell achieves company-wide Live Más culture with O.C. Tanner

Taco Bell - Customer Case Study

Taco Bell, a global restaurant brand with over 7,000 locations in 29 countries serving 40 million customers weekly, needed a better way to celebrate and connect employees to its values. The company found its traditional recognition program wasn’t generating excitement—both frontline crew and headquarters staff felt disconnected from awards that didn’t reflect Taco Bell’s culture or history.

Partnering with O.C. Tanner, Taco Bell redesigned recognition around iconic, branded symbols (like the Golden Bell) and personalized yearbooks filled with peer comments and photos, and built recognition into regular “Live Mas” meetings. The new service-award program created visible, meaningful tokens tied to the company’s story, producing a cohesive, company-wide celebratory culture that clarifies what success looks like, strengthens employee connection to the brand, and makes recognition more energizing and tangible.

Taco Bell

Frank Tucker

Chief People Officer