IBM Case Studies McDonald’s: Using assessments to improve the customer experience and drive better business results

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	McDonald’s: Using assessments to improve the customer experience and drive better business results IBM

McDonald’s: Using assessments to improve the customer experience and drive better business results

IBM

Technology Category	Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration
Applicable Industries	Food & Beverage
Applicable Functions	Human Resources
Use Cases	Personnel Tracking & Monitoring Predictive Quality Analytics
Services	Data Science Services
Challenge	McDonald’s UK was experiencing growth in its business and workforce. To sustain this growth, changes needed to be made in restaurant operations, supported by more “customer confident” employees and managers who would deliver a great customer experience. The company needed to enhance its existing selection process for new employees with a rigorous and customer centric recruitment strategy with the goal of hiring candidates who were capable of meeting the rapidly evolving needs of the business. The recruitment team had to find an innovative way to reduce the time recruiters and managers spent on screening and assessing unsuitable candidates. At the same time, the team had to provide a positive candidate experience to each applicant, whether they were successful or not. Read More
About Customer	McDonald’s is one of the world’s leading family restaurant brands in the quick service sector. The company operates more than 1,200 restaurants across the United Kingdom, employing more than 97,000 people. McDonald’s UK has seen growth in its business and in its workforce during the past few years. In order to sustain this growth, changes needed to be made in restaurant operations, supported by more “customer confident” employees and managers who would deliver a great customer experience. To make these changes, McDonald’s needed to enhance its existing selection process for new employees with a rigorous and customer centic recruitment strategy with the goal of hiring candidates who were capable of meeting the rapidly evolving needs of the business. Read More
Solution	McDonald’s recruitment team selected IBM to come up with a way to solve this challenge. Together, they held 20 focus groups throughout 2013 with more than 150 top performing employees from around the UK. Feedback from the focus group revealed that many candidates did not have a comprehensive knowledge of the roles they were applying for and did not consider the impact of undertaking shift work, working in a customer-facing environment or the requirement to be able to follow procedures and work as part of a large team. As a result of what was discovered from the focus groups, consultants from IBM and McDonald’s recruitment team created the Realistic Job Preview (RJP) and Situational Judgment (SJT) & Dependability Test, and embedded them into McDonald’s Online Recruitment System. These assessments were designed to provide the candidate with a clear understanding of the expectations, culture, values and attitudes required from people in the positions of crew/customer care. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration

Applicable Industries

Food & Beverage

Applicable Functions

Human Resources

Use Cases

Personnel Tracking & Monitoring

Predictive Quality Analytics

Services

Data Science Services

Challenge

McDonald’s UK was experiencing growth in its business and workforce. To sustain this growth, changes needed to be made in restaurant operations, supported by more “customer confident” employees and managers who would deliver a great customer experience. The company needed to enhance its existing selection process for new employees with a rigorous and customer centric recruitment strategy with the goal of hiring candidates who were capable of meeting the rapidly evolving needs of the business. The recruitment team had to find an innovative way to reduce the time recruiters and managers spent on screening and assessing unsuitable candidates. At the same time, the team had to provide a positive candidate experience to each applicant, whether they were successful or not.

About Customer

McDonald’s is one of the world’s leading family restaurant brands in the quick service sector. The company operates more than 1,200 restaurants across the United Kingdom, employing more than 97,000 people. McDonald’s UK has seen growth in its business and in its workforce during the past few years. In order to sustain this growth, changes needed to be made in restaurant operations, supported by more “customer confident” employees and managers who would deliver a great customer experience. To make these changes, McDonald’s needed to enhance its existing selection process for new employees with a rigorous and customer centic recruitment strategy with the goal of hiring candidates who were capable of meeting the rapidly evolving needs of the business.

Solution

McDonald’s recruitment team selected IBM to come up with a way to solve this challenge. Together, they held 20 focus groups throughout 2013 with more than 150 top performing employees from around the UK. Feedback from the focus group revealed that many candidates did not have a comprehensive knowledge of the roles they were applying for and did not consider the impact of undertaking shift work, working in a customer-facing environment or the requirement to be able to follow procedures and work as part of a large team. As a result of what was discovered from the focus groups, consultants from IBM and McDonald’s recruitment team created the Realistic Job Preview (RJP) and Situational Judgment (SJT) & Dependability Test, and embedded them into McDonald’s Online Recruitment System. These assessments were designed to provide the candidate with a clear understanding of the expectations, culture, values and attitudes required from people in the positions of crew/customer care.

Impact #1	The new assessment centers cut time to hire for management positions by 25 percent, and slashed the applicants to hire ratio by nearly 66 percent.
Impact #2	The savings allowed McDonald’s to establish and support a centralized assessment schedule for management positions across the UK, leading to greater consistency of hiring practices.

Impact #1

The new assessment centers cut time to hire for management positions by 25 percent, and slashed the applicants to hire ratio by nearly 66 percent.

Impact #2

The savings allowed McDonald’s to establish and support a centralized assessment schedule for management positions across the UK, leading to greater consistency of hiring practices.

Benefit #1	Four months after the launch, the number of applicants for crew positions dropped 35 percent, while the number of managerial applicants dropped 50 percent.
Benefit #2	The assessment centers cut time to hire for management positions by more than 25 percent, and cut the application to hire ratio by nearly 66 percent.

Benefit #1

Four months after the launch, the number of applicants for crew positions dropped 35 percent, while the number of managerial applicants dropped 50 percent.

Benefit #2

The assessment centers cut time to hire for management positions by more than 25 percent, and cut the application to hire ratio by nearly 66 percent.

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Overview

McDonald’s: Using assessments to improve the customer experience and drive better business results

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit