The McDonald’s
Corporation is a chain of fast food restaurants operating in over a hundred
countries and serving millions of people every day. Although it is the biggest
corporation of its kind in the world, it has some of the best-managed and
highly motivated teams of employees in the world. McDonald’s motivates its
employees through what can be considered as social drivers, namely:
recognition, opportunities for advancement, and the fostering of the feeling of
belonging to a family. According to Burkinshaw (2010), the company puts a lot
of emphasis on awards and celebrations and, if one were to walk into any
McDonald’s restaurant in the world, one would be able to see a line of
“employee of the month” pictures. Furthermore, there is a vigorous awards
system for such things as putting customers first, years of service, or jobs
done particularly well. These awards may include money, trips, plaques, and
certificates and they are commemorated with much celebration and delight.
The managers at
McDonald’s always seem to be very relaxed, and are most of the time
indistinguishable from the other employees because they do not simply give
orders to those under them, but they also accept feedback from them and are
ready to get alternatives to their decisions. This, according to Kincheloe (2002),
helps to show that although they have managers, the employee teams at
McDonald’s are obviously in their later stages of development and are very
comfortable outside their predefined roles, displaying high levels of
motivation. The managers do not attempt to put any verbal barriers between
themselves and their employees and they, instead, show genuine concern in the
emotional and physical well being of their employees, something that is very
rare in this type of environment.
The McDonald’s
restaurants have a culture that is generally inviting to new employees and
these are motivated to work in these restaurants. This is because of the laid-back
environment found within them and the fact that the jobs are not very stressful
to the employees. Another reason why employees are motivated to continue
working at McDonald’s are the different shift schedules, which the management
formulates so that they can accommodate every employee. Since most of the jobs
found in these restaurants are low skilled, any other employee can take over
the other’s shift if they are not able to make it to work due to a need to
attend to other more pressing obligations. The numerous growth opportunities
available at McDonald’s, because of the training given to the employees at
various levels is an additional motivator. The longer one works for McDonald’s,
the more the likelihood that he or she will ascend the ranks to the level of
assistant manager or manager in just a few years.
It can be said that
people not only go to McDonald’s for the great food that it has to offer, but
also for the great service. The employees of this company, due to the high
levels of motivation that they have as a result of its policies towards them,
give the best kind of service to its customers, and this encourages these
customers to keep coming. This is one of the reasons why, the profit margins of
this company have kept on increasing over the years and it serves to show just
how very important it is to keep the employees motivated in their work because
they will give their best as a result. According to Ritzer and Atalay (2010)
the key to McDonald’s worldwide success is that people everywhere know what to
expect when they go to the restaurants it owns but this does not mean that the
corporation has resisted change and refused to adapt when local customs require
flexibility. For example, McDonald’s restaurants in India serve Vegetable
McNuggets and mutton based Maharaja Mac, innovations that are necessary for the
business to survive in a country where Hindus do not eat beef, Muslims do not
eat pork, and Jains do not eat meat of any type.
Carroll (2011),
states that organizations establish internal social networks to give employees
the opportunity to connect with the management and to support each other. In
2008, the McDonald’s Corporation established Station M, a social network
strictly for McDonald’s employees. Station M provides a space for the chain’s
restaurants to share ideas, best practices, as well as customer stories and
there is also a forum section that allows dialogue between McDonald’s corporate
members and its employees as well as discussions between employees from the
different restaurants within the chain. Station M has proved successful in
getting the employees more involved with both the corporate office and the
other crewmembers.
McDonald’s recently
adopted the strategy of abandoning old policy of forcing its employees to
retire at the age of sixty in Japan. That change was made to comply with
Japanese legislation that took effect in but the company stated that this was
not the reason why it was instituting this strategy. Japan law calls for
companies to allow people to work longer because the age at which retirees
become eligible for pension benefits has been raised. This legislation is
intended to add tax proceeds to save the country's pension system and, perhaps
more importantly, fill a labor shortage created by a very low growth rate in
the population (Smerd 2006).
The employment
policy of McDonald’s, which is based on hiring staff on outlook rather than
experience or credentials, has been renowned as having created opportunities
for people from marginalized communities. In addition, praise has been given
for the range of other staff benefits on offer, including eight-week paid
vacations and discount cards offering savings on, for example, driving lessons,
holidays and computers. In 2005, McDonald’s Corporation became the first large
employer to achieve Investor in People Profile status and was voted one of The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers for
the seventh consecutive year, something which makes the company unique in its
own right. Other recent initiatives, all having been influenced by feedback
from employees, included ensuring all company cars are hybrid, environmentally
friendly ones. In addition to this, McDonald's launched a Cycle to Work
initiative with Universal Bicycles, offering employees bikes at a sixty percent
discount, which is delivered to their door (Paton 2007).
McDonald's, in
the 1990s, created the Made For You, a new food-production system that was designed
to enable employees to make fresh sandwiches to customers' exact specifications
while still retaining the restaurant chain's accustomed speedy service. Several
equipment changes were made to accomplish the objectives set for the Made For
You system and this included the company’s revamping its point of service
software, toasters, holding units and prep tables. The new programming that was
designed for the Made For You system was to help employees to prepare for
upcoming customer orders with predictions. The new system not only prepared
employees for a rush, but it also automatically routed expected orders to the
staff member who was most likely to be able to handle it immediately. This new
system also helped restaurant management determine how quickly employees are
working (Doucette 1998 pp.31).
In 2001, the
McDonald’s restaurants in the United States started a process of eliminating as
many as seven hundred jobs from its home and field offices, primarily by
cutting regional divisions to from thirty seven to twenty one. Each division was
to be headed by a regional manager, who was to oversee a team which included a
vice president of quality, service and cleanliness, the last of which was a new
position. Teams also included operations consultants whose primary function was
to work with operators and restaurant managers to improve the dining experience
within the restaurants. Other initiatives to improve the level of service
included restaurant simplification and an improved restaurant evaluation system
(Hutchcraft 2001 pp.16).
In 2004, the
company was in the midst of revamping its public image after a wave of negative
press towards it that cost it a lot of business. Among the major causes of its
distorted image was the author Eric Schlosser, who in his best-selling Fast Food Nation, found fault with the fast
food industry in general and particularly with this company, mainly due to its
popularity, for outbreak of obesity in America. In addition, this view was fomented
by the popular 2003 film Super Size Me,
in which Morgan Spurlock consumed a diet which consisted of McDonald’s products
for one month, and this procedure turned out to have been detrimental to his
health. It was therefore necessary for the company to promote its image by
presenting itself as a hub of health and wellness (Davolt 2005 pp.1).
In 1996,
McDonald's was named a Corporation That Cares by Exceptional Parent, and this was because at that time, this company
was still offering the Mcjobs program, which provided training and job openings
to disabled people. By 2000, however, the Mcjobs program was no longer in place
in the United States, and this was due to the fact that it has evolved from a
special program to a mainstream practice within this company. The Mcjobs
program was originally began in 1981, and during its existence, provided
training for more than twelve thousand individuals with disabilities who then
went on to become successful restaurant employees. In the following years, as
the result of a loss of financial support, McDonald's ended the use of extraordinary
job trainers and instruction programs. In addition, it took the best practices
learned in the McJobs program and integrated them into the company’s training procedure.
As a result, the accessibility to employment was no longer a priority for the
company and instead, it became a means through which business was done. Beginning
in 1998, as part of a new system for interviewing employees, managers were
provided with information on how to interact with potential employees, and be practical
in catch the attention of potential employees. This has developed to an extent
of where McDonald's encourages its restaurant managers and their management
teams to hire employees with disabilities by working locally with different
organizations, schools, and school districts. If job coaches are involved, they
come from the community and not from the company as was previously done (Jurasek,
1999).
The success of
this company is based on its ability to have very god people working for it on
the ground. This means that the employees are well-trained, promotable, diverse
and committed. To achieve this, McDonald’s has had to create some extremely
good employee policies which have worked to gain their confidence. One of the
main reasons for its success has been its ability to bring potential employees
into its club, since statistics show that as much as one eighth of the American
work force has, at some point, worked in one or the other of the McDonald’s
restaurants. This fact shows just how powerful and influential the human
resource department of this company has become because it is not as if quick service
food chains make for easy recruiting. Despite this fact, many of the current
and former employees have several good reasons to name this company as their
employer of choice.
One of the
foremost reasons behind its human resource success is due to its intense
training efforts the company gives employees ample means for self advancement. These
efforts are so advanced that this company has been named one of the largest
training organizations in the world, superior even to the United States
military. When one is hired by the company, a lot of investment is put in the
individual in order to encourage them to stay on and develop a career within
McDonald’s. Statistics show that as many as sixty percent of the current
restaurant managers started out as par of the crews. One of the strongest human
resource strategies at McDonald’s is education and this company has developed a
system where it offers beginners orientation through its Crew Training Program.
Afterwards, a Management Development Program takes up where the Crew Training left
off, and this results in the development of a group of leaders for the future
of the company (Flynn 1996 pp.54).
According to the
article McDonald's: Junk food, junk jobs (2002) the managerial approach that
is used in all McDonald’s restaurants is quite well known. In keeping with how
the company operates in the United States, the company’s French branch will do
whatever it takes to prevent its employees from forming a union. The franchise
system has enabled McDonald's to go around the French legal obligation of all
employers to negotiate with unions. In addition, the French branch has also
adopted the idea of passing on to franchisees the direct costs involved in
managing their employees. McDonald's offers crew members the minimum wage, and
not much more to higher ranking personnel. It has also been found that overtime
is rarely paid for and that there is no such thing as a bonus for the senior
employees. The most common business practice in this company is that all the
jobs are part time; and the need to speed up and the pressure put on the
employees are so intense that they result in high turnover, which leads to the
health and safety requirements of such employees to be ignored.
McDonald’s is a
company that has continually strived to create a workforce that is full of
diversity. The company started its diversity campaign in the nineteen seventies,
when it began working with outsourced consultants to build the foundation of
what was to become the Affirmative Action Department. That department, which
was made official in 1980, has from that time developed into the Inclusion and
Diversity Department. The Inclusion and Diversity Department has the role of
integrating diversity initiatives which include workforce, education, external
partnership development and metrics for McDonald's global business. One mission
of this diversity initiative is to provide workplaces with diversity education
resources. This company also provides resources and training for the seminars
to be conducted in the regional offices. McDonald's diversity and inclusion
seminars are made possible by proficient employees with assistance from attached
professors. For this company to take action to promote cultural diversity in
the workforce, the end result is a working environment that is inclusive and one
which is progressive, unlike those which are not inclusive. In addition,
diversity often extends beyond the restaurant level since more than sixty
percent of the workforce at McDonald's headquarters and restaurants in the
United States are comprised of racial or ethnic minorities or women. In
addition, just about a quarter of the company's executives come from minority
groups (Gibbons 2007, S28).
In conclusion,
it can be said that people not only go to McDonald’s for the great food that it
has to offer but also for the great service. The employees of this company, due
to the high levels of motivation that they have as a result of its policies towards
them, give the best kind of service to its customers and this encourages these
customers to keep coming. This is one of the reasons why this company has not
had a lack of customers over the years and it serves to show just how very
important it is to keep the employees motivated in their work because as a
result, they give McDonald’s their best.
