At the Front Counter – Engaged and Committed Employees

High turnover rates are a challenge for any company in the food service industry, including McDonald’s. We understand how important it is to attract and retain the very best employees for our restaurants. Our Restaurant People Strategy is designed to offer a compelling employment value proposition by providing unique benefits, training and opportunities that meet the needs of today’s workers.

This will help us drive higher levels of employee commitment in the countries where we operate, which in turn, will continuously improve employee retention rates. We believe progress on these fronts has, and will continue to, improve customer satisfaction and positively impact our business results.

Leveraging a compelling Employee Value Proposition

An Employee Value Proposition (EVP) reflects the value of what a company offers to crew and managers that they receive in exchange for their commitment and performance on the job. In essence, it is the promise that we make to current and potential restaurant employees, just as our Brand Promise clarifies what we deliver to our customers and reflects and reinforces our core McDonald’s Values and commitment to our employees worldwide.

To identify McDonald’s EVP, we conducted an unprecedented effort to gather input from crew and managers. We received responses from nearly 10,000 restaurant employees from 55 countries about what they love most and least about working at McDonald’s.

From these comments, we identified key themes that our employees value most about working at the restaurants. The identified key themes are as follows: “People and Culture,” “Flexibility and Variety,” and “Development and Opportunity." Although the value of the themes may vary in different cultures, the basic elements of our EVP must be consistent across all countries and reinforced over time to leave their mark.

These themes were simplified into three pillars: “Family & Friends,” “Flexibility,” and “Future.” Each pillar has its own employee-based definition:

• Family & Friends – “I work in an enjoyable, energizing atmosphere where everyone feels part of the team.”
  


• Flexibility – “I have a challenging, varied job that has the flexibility to fit into my lifestyle.”
  


• Future – “I have an opportunity to grow and progress by learning personal and work skills that will last me a lifetime, whatever I choose to do.”

Since launching in 2009, we continue to activate the three basic elements of our EVP. Our market-level business units continue to:

• Align their People Plans with the EVP framework.
  


• Ensure that their plans deliver on the three core elements that our crew and managers told us were important: Family & Friends, Flexibility and Future.
  


• Share best practices with other markets within the McDonald’s System on how they are bringing the EVP to life in their markets.
  


• Know and understand how strong people practices support our EVP and have a positive impact on business results.
  


• Use the People Practice (QSC) Playbook and local operations and training manuals as resource guides.
  


• Seek the engagement of employees when developing a commitment survey action plan that builds on the strengths and addresses key areas of opportunities within their restaurants.