Sustainable Talent Management

McDonald’s CASE STUDY

Dawn Buxton

Dr. Daniel Frost

HRM532

January 20, 2019

Introduction

The success of any company is determined by the effort which is made by all the stakeholders to see its activities flourish. More importantly are the programs that are put in place by the management as they strive to be profitable and achieve their missions and attain their vision. The strategies which are put in place vary depending on the management, and they are often very successful. McDonald’s like other companies were founded with the goal of being successful and have an impact on the community surrounding it and society at large (McDonald’s, 2019). To reach their goal, the company put in several programs which were profit focused as well as community enhancement. It was seeking to improve customer trust in its products while still making profits. This paper will be focusing on discussing the program in detail looking at several aspects which it relates. Some areas of focus will be strengths of the program, how it led to success, areas which it may be improved and providing two other programs which may help the company to more profitability in future.

Talent Managing Program

The program was started by the early management which was in a bid to increase performance while maintaining quality. The early years were dedicated to improving the skills of the workers in other fields of their choice which would make them proficient. Once they achieved the required skill, they would transition to what they had chosen to do and quit their job at the company. In this strategy, the company was aiming to improve how people viewed the products it offered. The workers who worked at the different branches before moving on to other careers had knowledge and admiration for the products which assured that they would return as customers and bring colleagues from their new work environment. In a way, the program was a marketing strategy which would successfully market the company without putting in more investment to keep on advertising. The main feature and aim of the program are to equip more people with the necessary information on the products and taste of its products before they move on to their careers (McDonald’s, 2019).

Working at a place leads to developing a sense of belonging which is essential and keeps a person glued to products of the working environment. Another essential quality which the program sought to create was gratitude among the people is equipped with skills for their jobs and general career-path. When one is grateful for something you have done for him or her, they always give back by supporting your activities and ventures as a mean of repaying the goodness you have done them. The graduates of the program were spread among different localities, and that offered an avenue for growth and development of more branches of the company. Generally, the program was a success, but it went through more than meets the eye before it picked up and became profitable (McDonald’s, 2019).

How and why did the program start?

The company experienced losses and a period of no growth. What was peculiar about the losses was the fact that the top management was very competent and experienced in running the business. This raised questions on where they were going wrong, but the answer could not be found easily. As a result, the leaders held an all-encompassing stakeholders meeting which was tasked with coming up with ways to increase profits while maintaining quality as well as benefiting the community at large. The task was enormous, and several approaches had to be instituted. The company had to ensure a balance between the activities which were done globally and within the country. As such, a balance had to be found to ensure that the quality distributed across the world was the same, prices were not different and that they were affordable to most of the target population. Also, the company needed to train competent and efficient leadership to ensure that the activities could be carried out even better even though the current crop of leaders left due to unforeseeable reasons or retired. The talent management program necessitated the starting of different initiatives to boost its performance (Goldsmith & Carter, 2009).

The company had to develop a plan which would see the succession of all leaders to be smooth and affect the activities of the company less. Between 2001 and 2005, the company experienced a rough period because it was forced to change in management three times due to the death of Chief Executive Officer Jim Cantalupo, in 2004. Pre-existing talent and identifying the gaps which were present the errors in the program were identified, and measures were taken to counter them. The need for advanced talent development and identification was found. This necessitated the development of the Leadership at McDonald’s Program (LAMP). It ensured the strengthening of talent’s capabilities by giving extra training to the employees who performed highly to boost business and help them create a network within their peers (Goldsmith & Carter, 2009).

Moreover, a performance enhancement program which stressed the differentiation of employees based on how they performed their openness and tolerance to change as well as being able to account for the results they posted. A 4-metric scale for the grading was developed and the higher the rank one was in, the higher credits they would get and compensation due to their service. Also, education of leaders to lead the company was very important. It led to the creation and running of the McDonald’s Leadership Development Institute which was aimed at boosting leadership. Top level leaders were cultured in this institution which offered a place for networking. The company also sponsored the activities of Hamburger University where some of the employees and leaders were to be cultured and given more knowledge on how to best run the company.

Strengths

The program succeeded due to various reasons. To begin with, it was focused on boosting employee performance by rewarding good results and training them to utilize their capabilities better. Building a school to improve networking helped continue the services and quality delivered. The leadership program developed was not only focused on delivering leaders for the company but a global network for rolling out leaders for a variety of companies and focus on changing customer needs and specific commodity requirements across different regions (Stahl et al., 2012). Training employees and leaders ensured McDonald’s that they would never compromise on the quality offered. At no time did the push for success seen as an encouragement for offering lesser quality or quantity (Goldsmith & Carter, 2009).

Areas where improvement can be made

One of the significant features of the program is based on grading of employees based on performance. The measures are predefined by the management. However, that often discriminates against those who are considered as lesser performers and they may at times fail to work on bettering their output. Suppose measures to boost their input are put in place while still rewarding the best. Also, the leadership development program is concerned with top performers who are the small population in the company. The effect the program has can be increased by making sure more employees are assimilated into the platform. That guarantees more leaders and consequently better services and performance.

Methods to encounter talent managing challenges

The most important aspect about talents management is not only identification but the retention of what is identified as essential personnel and may be offering a prospective brighter future (Hancock et al., 2013). A proactive approach is the best way to retain most of the talent. The rewarding scheme for employees should be overhauled to reward the best while still encouraging the rest to do better in their performance. The practice of praising the best performers only could lead to loss of the others who may feel they are not well appreciated for their efforts to see the activities of the organization to prosper.

Recently a technique known as talent mapping has been introduced and implemented with a lot of success in the field. It involves the identification of current talent and matching it with assumed future company needs to ensure the progress of its business processes (Garavan et al., 2012). As of now, the company has only been investing in current needs while ignoring what it may require in the future. It limits the growth of the company because the employees are not future-oriented for they only focus on current profitability. Focusing on the future gives an edge over the competition because one is already prepared for what may happen and future trends of the business and the ever-changing needs of the consumers.

Conclusion

McDonald’s has experienced vibrant growth over the years to one of the best organisations which offers quality services and ever-changing efforts to achieve customer satisfaction. The programs offers a platform for growth and continued investment in sustainability.

References

McDonald’s. (2019). Talent management: a foundation of success. Retrieved from https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/mcd/sustainability-old/library/policies_programs/employee_exp/foundations_for_success.html

Garavan, T. N., Carbery, R., & Rock, A. (2012). Mapping talent development: definition, scope, and architecture. European Journal of Training and Development, 36(1), 5-24.

Goldsmith, M., & Carter, L. (2009). Best practices in talent management: how the world's leading corporations manage, develop, and retain top talent. John Wiley & Sons.

Hancock, J. I., Allen, D. G., & Pierce, C. A. (2013). A meta-analytic review of employee turnover as a predictor of firm performance. Journal of Management, 39(3), 573-603.

Stahl, G., Björkman, I., Farndale, E., Morris, S. S., Paauwe, J., Stiles, P., & Wright, P. (2012). Six principles of effective global talent management. Sloan Management Review, 53(2), 25-42.