Saturday May 11, 2013
By EVA CHRISTODOULOU
eva.christodoulou@leaderonomics.com
Richardson (seated) says the company’s vision is to be its people’s favourite way and place to work.
“You are only as good as the people you hire,” said Ray Kroc, the man who managed to transform McDonald’s from a neighbourhood burger joint into the most successful Quick-Service Restaurant chain in the world. Until today, the corporation with the golden arches lives by Kroc’s belief that “We are not a hamburger business serving people, but we are a people business serving hamburgers”.
McDonald’s is the world’s largest food service retailer with more than 33,500 restaurants worldwide. They serve 68 million customers a day in 119 countries.
It is also one of the most recognised brands in the world, and the organisation acknowledges that its people play an essential role in its success.
In Malaysia, it has 12,000 employees and 250 restaurants. Its headquarters is in Petaling Jaya, Selangor.
At every level, McDonald’s believes in engaging its people with the vision and values of the company, and being a great employer.
“Our founder Ray Kroc wisely said, ‘Take care of our people and the business will take care of itself,’” shares Legion Richardson, director of human resources at Golden Arches Restaurants Sdn Bhd.
“This is our guiding principle – by taking care of our employees and making them feel valued, they will in turn be inspired to take great care of our customers.”
This mantra sown has evidently borne much fruit. For the third year in a row, Golden Arches Restaurants Sdn Bhd has been identified by Aon Hewitt Best Employers 2013 in Malaysia Study as one of the eight best employers in Malaysia.
When asked what elements contributed to this achievement, Richardson explains that McDonald’s worldwide underpins its organisational culture with the following three employee propositions:
1. At McDonald’s, my boss treats me right.
2. McDonald’s is a good place to work.
3. McDonald’s makes my life better.
Recognising every employee
Adopting a people-centric approach, McDonald’s commits to providing an environment for employees where they are treated well and appreciated for their contributions on a daily basis.
Employee engagement is high on the priority list for McDonald’s, as the company understands that engaged employees make happier workers.
The crew commitment survey and the management commitment survey for instance, measure employee engagement annually within the organisation.
Participation by all employees is compulsory to ensure they get an accurate snapshot. The results of the recent survey in Malaysia were gratifying: 98% engagement by managers and 98% engagement by crew.
In Malaysia, McDonald’s is in the process of implementing a new initiative called People Care Day to ensure no employee concerns go amiss.
In this initiative, human resource personnel go into restaurants unannounced and randomly select five crew members to chat with.
The aim is to understand what work has been like for these individuals, and to see if there are any areas of opportunities.
A great place to work
Echoing the importance it places on creativity, McDonald’s also strives to provide a fun and enjoyable environment for its employees.
“McDonald’s has a vision of becoming our employees’ favourite way and place to work,” says Richardson.
For the organisation, this is an essential element for the continued success of McDonald’s as it believes that there are three steps to maintaining a successful business:
• Making sure you have the right talent.
• Creating the right work environment for your employees.
• Energising crews and managers through good rewards and recognitions.
To guide this commitment in creating a great working environment for its people, McDonald’s conducted a global survey with all its employees asking them what they loved most about working at McDonald’s.
After receiving the results, the feedback was used to develop McDonald’s three-pronged Employee Value Proposition:
• Family and Friends – which emphasises a people-centric culture where everyone feels part of the team. The environment is accepting and welcoming to its diverse employee base and their families, be it in the restaurant or office.
• Flexibility – flexibility of working times and job varieties given to crew and managers to enable people to fit McDonald’s into their busy lifestyles. Franchisees are also afforded the flexibility to be entrepreneurial and run their business with the right support.
• Future – career growth and development opportunities are given to employees so that they achieve their full potential.
Operationally, these three propositions have resulted in numerous employee-centric initiatives in the organisation.
In the restaurants, “crew rooms” have been built to provide a relaxing space for the workers. At the moment, about 70% of restaurants in Malaysia are equipped with an improved crew room design, and the corporation is pushing to increase this number to 100% by 2014 through renovation of older restaurants and ensuring that all new restaurants feature crew rooms with the new-look.
A McDonald's crew room, built to provide a relaxing space for restaurant staff
Unique opportunities are also given to employees. Among these are sending selected crew members from various countries in 2012 to work at the London Olympic site – an opportunity that allowed two Malaysians to meet and serve Usain Bolt among other famous athletes, and experience the spirit and energy of the Olympic Games.
Contests and awards are also in place. Voice of McDonald’s is a company-wide singing contest held every two years at national, regional, and then on a global level. All restaurant workers are eligible to compete, and the global winner walks away with US$25,000. “It’s our way of appreciating the staff,” says Richardson.
Awards are another way the organisation acknowledges and appreciates its people for their contributions.
The Ray Kroc Award is a recognition award presented to the top 1% of high performing restaurant managers in each country every year. It is judged on three main drivers: Driving Operational Excellence, Delivering the People Systems and Building the Business.
Recipients get a two-night stay with their spouses at a predetermined venue in the region to receive the award. Last year’s award ceremony was hosted in Tokyo, Japan.
The President’s Award is the most prestigious award in the organisation and is presented to the top 1% of high performing individuals at consultant to director’s level.
Those that receive the award get US$12,500 and are sent to Chicago with a partner of their choice to receive the award in a banquet dinner with the corporation’s CEO and executive leadership team.
Making lives better
Apart from providing acknowledgment, recognition and making the organisation a great place to work, McDonald’s also champions “building a future” for its people by identifying the development needs of its workforce.
This means training and development, and opportunities for career progression within the organisation.
“At our restaurants, our people learn what it takes to succeed. Our renowned training and development programmes help them obtain skills and attitude that last a lifetime,” says Richardson.
“It is common for well-established CEOs around the world to have held a job in McDonald’s at the beginning of their work life, possibly as a summer or part time job, and the skills they gathered back then have helped them immensely in their career journey.”
For the second year running, McDonald’s has also introduced a fast-track programme for graduates who can join as a management trainee and accelerate their development to become a restaurant manager in just 18 months.
This programme is also extended to SPM holders with two to three years of supervisory experience in the F&B industry.
“We have a world-class training, learning and development curriculum that is second to none to support the development of our people. In addition, we have introduced the part-time shift manager’s position for university and school-goers who can be part of our management team and learn important leadership skills while they are still at school,” adds Richardson.
“Our people are able to climb up the ranks based on the training and development programmes set out by McDonald’s.
“As such, even crew members with minimal SPM qualifications may one day run a multi-million ringgit restaurant business as the company equips them with the relevant training and development opportunities.
“At McDonald’s, we don’t just provide a job, but we offer a career. In fact, 60% of our senior management team in Malaysia started their careers at the restaurant level,” stresses Richardson.
Abundant opportunities
Given McDonald’s aim to expand to 500 restaurants by 2020 in Malaysia, opportunities are immense. Last year, it promoted more than 256 managers, 170 crew trainers as well as hired and trained 1,600 crew members to staff their new restaurants.
“Our people are the face of our brand and they differentiate us from the competition,” Richardson explains.
“Our continued success requires that we develop and retain a diverse, engaged and talented workforce.”
Founder Ray Kroc once said: “McDonald’s is a people business, and that smile on that counter girl’s face when she takes your order is a vital part of our image.”
Richardson adds: “We like to say that the people at McDonald’s have ‘ketchup in their veins’… They’re proud to go the extra mile to make our customers feel special and provide an exceptional McDonald’s dining experi ence, every time and every visit.”
Attitude, a drive to excel and a passion for people are essential. “Everything else can be taught,” beams Richardson.
Did you know?
• McDonald’s is one of the biggest employers in the world with over 1.7 million employees worldwide.
• They employ nearly 12,000 Malaysians.
• In Malaysia, McDonald’s serves over 13 million customers a month at 250 restaurants.
• 68% of McDonald’s total employees in Malaysia are between 16 and 25 years old. 25% are between 26 and 40 years old, 6% are between 41 and 55 years old and less than 1% is above 55 years old.
• 85% of managers at the restaurants in Malaysia started at the crew level.
• Three out of eight McDonald’s global CEOs started as crew.
• More than 50% of the senior management team at McDonald’s Malaysia are women and 50% of restaurant managers are women.
• On average, a restaurant manager spends about 2,000 training hours in the first four years of his/her life with McDonald’s, which is about the same time as a graduate student completing a degree in a university.
• 1,400 managers are graduating from the McDonald’s Restaurant Management curriculum in Malaysia this year.
• Two Hamburger University gold-standard Training Centres opened in Malaysia in January 2012 to cater to the increasing training and development needs of people here.
• To meet their growth plan of 500 restaurants by 2020 in Malaysia, McDonald’s will be creating 13,500 new jobs within eight years.
• This is the third time in a row that McDonald’s has won the Aon-Hewitt Best Employers award; a testament to their commitment in executing good people practices.
If you think you have what it takes and want to be a part of this iconic organisation, get in touch with McDonald’s at hr@my.mcd.com
