Clare Deans
Brand and Marketing Manager
- Loves: Travel, Summer, Psychology
- Hates: Laziness, McDonalds, Queues
- Inspired by:
- Unknown potential
- What makes people tick
- www.lonelyplanet.com
- My links:
McDonalds - an employer of choice. I know, I was surprised too!
Anyone in the office will tell you that I am not McDonalds biggest fan, I even boycotted Pret when I found out that McDonalds had a 33% share of their business - how could Pret be associated with McDonalds and still hang on to their healthy, environmentally friendly image? Anyway, since Pret sold that share to Bridgepoint earlier this year I am relieved...I can go back in and enjoy their lemon drizzle cake once more. Don't worry this is not going to be a rant about the long list of reasons why you should not to buy McDonalds but actually in recognition of some great initiatives that help position them as an employer brand of choice in their market.
Most recently I was reading that McDonalds have embraced web 2.0 with their employee audience. Employee engagement is a hot topic right now and innovative two way internal communications are a key method to achieving it. Channel M is an internal blog system for US and Canadian McDonalds employees. It allows staff in their 15,000 locations to stay in touch allowing conversations and topics to be discussed between stores and HQ.
HQ can gather valuable input from those dealing with their consumers on a day to day basis, which in turn they can use to develop their future communications. From the employee point of view, the enablement of sharing, being listened to, feeling that your input counts and the openness of communication between management and staff breaks down the hierarchy and is key to a motivated and happy workforce.
Other things McDonalds have initiated recently are the launch of the designer uniform. It was termed a ‘mark of respect’ to the staff. Bruce Oldfield was commissioned to design the uniforms, he created them with the employee in mind, aiming to make staff ‘feel good’ in their role and also improve the image of working in a fast food chain.
Another string to their bow came from them becoming one of the first companies in the UK to be given Awarding Body status by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA). This enabled them to award accredited qualifications, equal to GCSE's, A levels and degrees, to employees for the first time. The qualification aims to give official credit to training which otherwise would not be recognised outside of McDonald's and demonstrate how the workplace can be part of employees' continuous learning.
So a big well done McDonalds, they are definitely ticking a lot of the right boxes. They are listening to their workforce, investing in making their roles something they can be proud of and translating their practical experience into something of value not only to the individual but also something that is industry recognised.
I am sure employee satisfaction scores will be well on the way up... but I still wont be popping in to buy a burger any time soon!
Posted by Clare on 02 Jun 08, at 8:49 pm
1 comment on this post
I think that Mcdonalds initiatives to improve employee engagement, through awards, uniforms and better working environments etc are simply a reaction to the incredibly high staff turnover the company has. With falling profits in the early ‘naughties’ and then issues such as child obesity and the release of ‘Supersize Me’ the brand was in trouble and a new strategy was needed. As part of their major re-brand to ‘recover’ staff retention seems be have been high on there agenda and rightly so.
Staff turnover at fast food chains has always been bad and it seems Mcdonalds have finally woken up. When I was at school one of my mates was there a few months part time and was made a supervisor, while the outlet manager was 18. We were often warned by teachers at school ‘ If you don’t do well in your exams you will end up in Mcdonalds for the rest of your life’. Mcdonalds are obviously desperately trying to change these perceptions to recruit and retain a higher skilled and motivated workforce in order to increase efficiency and drive profits forward.
At least Mcdonalds are making positive steps forward, and from a business point of view they have done very well re-branding themselves and turning what seemed like a doomed brand into a profitable success. However as long as profits are on the rise and their shareholders are happy then do they really care about employee engagement? or just the benefits it can have in relation to their balance sheet?
Have you boycotted innocent smoothies too then Clare? :)