McDonald’s USA has more to celebrate than launching its new Arch cards in time for the holiday. The popular restaurant chain’s training curriculum for managers and mid-management employees was recently awarded 46 college credit recommendations by the American Council on Education (ACE). McDonald’s is the only restaurant organization ever to be awarded college credit recommendations from ACE. The learning is transferable to traditional colleges and universities and can be applied to a two- or four-year degree.
“This is validation and recognition of the tremendous opportunity that exists at McDonald’s for our employees,” said Diana Thomas, vice president of U.S. training, learning and development, and the dean of Hamburger University, McDonald’s USA. “I’m a great example of someone who started out as a crew person, went back to school, got my four-year degree, my master’s degree and my MBA all while working at McDonald’s, and they paid for 90 percent of it. Not only does McDonald’s have this wonderful tuition reimbursement, you can actually get 46 credits that you don’t have to take at a university because we have them here. I think that’s a huge advantage.”
The restaurant-level management training has three programs. First, there’s shift management, which is a combination of self-study and classroom learning that helps participants transition into their management roles via basic supervision, communication skills, profitability and a strong emphasis on ensuring that the customer has a consistent experience every time. Next is systems management, and there are 12 different systems a manager can be in charge of. Learning includes scheduling, employee training, ordering, maintenance, leadership and people practices such as conflict management. The final tier is the restaurant management program, which takes place at Hamburger University. Content focuses on concepts to help managers build the business such as customers, team building to produce the highest-performing team, troubleshooting and restaurant application via service labs.
The learning history at McDonald’s dates back to the early 1960s when the first Hamburger University was founded in the basement of an Elk Grove Village, Ill., McDonald’s. Things have evolved since then, but Thomas said that course content has remained focused on the organization’s foundation for success: quality, service and cleanliness.
Despite an impressive track record, in 2002 the company decided to make large-scale changes. “Early on McDonald’s realized that our competitive advantage came through our people, and we’ve continued to invest in our people so that they can deliver to the customers,” Thomas said. “We’ve moved from doing lecture/presentation-style training classes to smaller training classes that are truly facilitated, more learner-centered. There’s a lot of goal-based scenarios, small group work they need to do as well as pulling people together from time to time in a larger format where you get intense energy and motivation. We’re always updating curriculum to make sure that it’s robust to drive our business results. Three years ago we really made significant changes, and that’s what we’re so proud of with this additional accreditation recommendation. At that point we were not doing as well in the U.S., and I think we had become a little complacent. Though training was important, we had decentralized it a little bit. Instead of having to come to Hamburger University, we had classes taught locally. We weren’t able to pull them in to the quality of this building and focus with the consistent high-quality staff that we have here today. …We have very high standards. You can’t replicate that when you’re trying to do it in 21 regions across the U.S.”
Results have been as significant as the changes. McDonald’s uses Kirkpatrick’s four levels of evaluation and the fourth has elicited a decrease in customer complaints, an increase in customer compliments, an improvement in customer measures from mystery shoppers that evaluate the overall customer experience on a monthly basis, and an increase in profits.
