Strategic HRM Report: Employee Engagement at McDonald's

This report delves into the critical aspects of Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM), focusing on employee engagement (EE) within McDonald's. It explores the concept of EE, its significance, and its impact on organizational success, examining how engaged employees contribute to commitment and productivity. The report analyzes McDonald's current EE practices, identifying challenges and issues related to training, communication, and employee development. It outlines a process for engaging employees, including research, leadership engagement, and implementation of changes. Furthermore, it explores the key outcomes of EE, such as improved retention and motivation, while also suggesting ways to enhance engagement, including clear vision, incentives, and effective communication. The report concludes with recommendations for future strategies, aiming to foster a more engaged and productive workforce at McDonald's. This report is a comprehensive analysis of employee engagement in the context of a real-world business setting.

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HRM
HRM: McDonalds
(Student Details: )
2/8/2020

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Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Employee Engagement at McDonalds.......................................................................................2
The concept: Employee Engagament.....................................................................................2
Employee Engagement at McD.............................................................................................3
The process of engaging employees at organizations............................................................4
Step I Research and evaluation..........................................................................................4
Step II Engage leaders, coach and develop........................................................................4
Step III Make immediate changes......................................................................................5
Step IV Engaging teams.....................................................................................................5
Step V Implement the process to embed required change for EE......................................5
Step VI Review progress....................................................................................................5
The key outcomes from EE....................................................................................................5
Different ways of achieving EE.............................................................................................6
McD is present approach for employee engagement.............................................................6
Challenges and issues identified for EE.................................................................................7
Ways to improve EE at McD.................................................................................................9
Future recommendations......................................................................................................10
Conclusion................................................................................................................................11
References................................................................................................................................12

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Introduction
The report is mainly focused on important issues of Strategic Human Resource
Management (SHRM) while narrating a single topic in HRM. The topic chosen is Employee
Engagement (EE) as it is all about commitment and engagement among employees and
organizational people. In this context, this paper will focus on understanding, measuring as
well as enhancing engagement in a particular organization. In doing so, the McDonald
Corporation will be taken as the organization for talking about employee engagement.
Generally, EE is a human resource management concept for understanding as well as
describing the nature of the relations between an organization and employees (Bal & De
Lange, 2015). While talking about EE, the discussion will identify some key issues and
challenges related to employee development in modern organizations like McDonald's (McD)
(Alfes, Truss, Soane, Rees, & Gatenby, 2013). In addition, EE refers to how employees feel
dedicated and attracted towards their work as well as jobs while being committed to the
organizations. Employee engagement is a completely different concept from that of employee
satisfaction. In this way, after discussing the concept and identifying the issues related to
employee engagement practices, possible solutions will be provided with future
recommendations in the context of the chosen organization as McD. The key EE practices at
McD will be explored, discussed and examined thoroughly (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014).
Employee Engagement at McDonald's
The concept: EE
In general, EE is an emotional commitment of the employees with their company
when they feel towards their workplace. Thus, engaged employees take actions while
ensuring organizational success. In addition, it has been observed that engaged employees
often show dedication, care, enthusiasm, focus as well as accountability to achieve desired
outcomes. In other words, whenever employees care about their workplace and
organizational success, then they are engaged and hence they demonstrate discretionary effort
(Berman, Bowman, West, & Van War, 2019). It has been seen that engaged employees often
stay behind to get jobs done as they feel accountable due to high commitment. Apart from
this, such employees stand up for their organization as they are proud to be a part of it. As per
the definition, EE allows employees to invent solutions to key issues and hence give ideas for

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further improving in the near future. In other words, employee engagement is the relation
among employee and employer which makes people emotionally engaged with the
organization they are working with to show that they care. In this context, it matters how a
firm deals with their employees as it has a direct impact on their employees’ commitment as
well as engagement with their organization. In the context of engaged employees, it is true
that they work with passion and hence feel a strong emotional connection towards their
current organization. Employee engagement is the concept in human resource management
which drives innovations as well as moves the whole firm forward with the help of employee
support. In such a case, engaged employees are typically characterized as being committed,
loyal, and productive and hence deliver desired outcomes (Briscoe , Tarique, & Schuler,
2012).
On the contrary, the employees who are not engaged with the organizational values
come to work and then do what is asked to do. They often show less energy or passion for
work while working at the workplace. In this way, not engaged employees often feel no
meaningful attachment or affection towards their job role as well as the company. This is the
reason these types of employees may easily be tempted by other job vacancies elsewhere in
the world. There is one more category in employee engagement into SHRM which is actively
disengaged employees (Buller & McEvoy, 2012). In this context, actively-disengaged-
employees are unsatisfied at work and hence they actively show their gloom into their daily
work. The way disengaged employees work clearly shows the negative attitude of them
towards work and organization. In addition to that, when employees are actively disengaged
than they majorly demonstrate uncooperative, negative as well as hostile behaviours at the
workplace. Besides, these people always undermine their teams as well as business (Noe,
Hollenbeck, Gerhart, & Wright, P.M., 2017).
Employee Engagement at McD
At McD, employee engagement is the key to realize competitive advantage.
Moreover, McD is using the workplace approach while creating the right conditions of the
organizational people so that they can give their best every day (Briscoe , Tarique, & Schuler,
2012). It has been observed by the researchers that McD’s employees are highly committed
towards their organization’s objectives, values and goals. People working at this organization
typically contribute to the firm success with the help of improved sense of their self-well-
being (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart, & Wright, P.M., 2017).

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In the context of employee engagement at McD, the organizational people are
experiencing integrity, trust, positive communication, and two-way commitment while
working at the organization. In this way, effective employee engagement at McD is used to
increase the probability of business success while contributing to the individual as well as
organizational development and performance, well-being and productivity (Wilson & John,
2014).
Source: (Buller & McEvoy, 2012)
The process of engaging employees at organizations
The recent surveys and research found that McD is continuously using procedural
steps in order to engage employees effectively (Bal & De Lange, 2015). At McD or any other
organization, EE starts with a belief and understanding which is able to involve
organizational staff or employees for the success of the organization. Besides, the successful
implementation of EE at the chosen organization takes commitment and an inspired leader
(DuBrin & Geerinck, 2015). Thus, the process of engaging employees at organizations like
McD can be explained as below:
Step I Research and evaluation
This stage needs the employer to find out what is working well and what exactly is
not working well. This is very important to know for an employer that their employees are
emotionally connected to the organization or not ( Wainwright, 2018).

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Step II Engage leaders, coach and develop
Here, the company needs to recognize the gaps into understanding, believes or skills
into the leadership teams and then agree with resolutions to address these gaps. In this way,
by identifying the gaps, issues and challenges within skills as well as understanding, any
employer will be able to engage their employees with the help of good leaders effectively
( Vance, 2020).
Step III Make immediate changes
The third step is about making immediate changes as per the identified issues and
gaps in step II of the EE process. In this context, the employer will start making changes
immediately so that they can show organizational staff they have been listened to and the
required action has been taken ( Vance, 2020).
Step IV Engaging teams
At this stage of employee engagement, organizational people should know about the
actions taken by the employer in stage 3 so that they can evolve engagement within the
workplace teams. Thus, it helps an organization to create engaged teams at workplaces.
Step V Implement the process to embed required change for EE
At this stage, firms usually demonstrate a way of embedding novel behaviours. In this
context, the organization creates behavioural standards as well as suggests a system to enable
and thereby deliver desired change.
Step VI Review progress
Lastly, to implement and establish employee engagement in any workplace, this step
is really important. In doing so, the company should usually review, measure progress, and
then follow up ( Thomas & Smith, 2013). In addition to that, it is really vital to celebrate
successes, positive changes and improvements along the way as well as keep reviewing how
employees are doing for the sake of effective employee engagement.
The key outcomes from EE
While studying EE at McD, it is found that there are so many positive outcomes from
employee engagement in an organizational setting. In this context, there are always positive
results when employees in an organization show commitment and hence experience
engagement while working for the organization (Service Futures, 2020). Here, some of the
major outcomes of employee engagement at organizations like McD are as follows:

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 Better stress and conflicts management
 Less cynicism related to organizational goals
 Increased willingness to experiment and learn
 Enhanced willingness to stay in the organization
 Better retention ratio ( ROCCA, 2018).
 Enhanced sense of self-confidence for making positive change happen in a company
 Improved organization identity
 Motivation and encouragement
 Great team-working skills
 Innovative ideas and creative solutions for continuous improvement (Kruse, 2012).
Different ways of achieving EE
In this context, it has been found by many researchers that big firms, like Accenture,
Gallup, Hewitt, Concours, Mercer, Watson Wyatt, Towers Perrin, and many more, have
successfully conducted employee engagement surveys (McDonalds, 2020). In this way, the
following are the ways in which EE can be achieved effectively:
■ By having a clear vision
■ By creating career and personal development opportunities
■ By offering attractive and reasonable incentives
■ By leaving positive impacts on people
■ By working for communities
■ By having effective communication among organizational people
■ Through effective experimentation
McD is a present approach for employee engagement
1) The organization understands the power of employee knowledge. In this context,
McD staff is having a deep and direct understanding of their brand, products and
customer tastes. In this way, while executing a province-wide competition McD
collectively recognize, engage, and celebrate their employees along with showcasing
the skills and talents (Douglas, 2018).
2) At McD, employee engagement is enabled with the help of transparency

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3) The chosen brand let their internal initiatives be social. In this context, the
organization is encouraging their employees to discuss about the jobs online so that
they can reveal opportunities for sharing positive brand messaging and thereby have
incredible ROI at present and future as well ( Wainwright, 2018).
4) Moreover, the chosen firm is empowering its employees by offering them a level of
sense of ownership as well as a level of self- confidence.
5) It has been found that McD always listens to the voice of the employees so as to
employee engagement can be established.
6) At McD, the employees are typically dispersed and hence shifted among different
McD restaurant chains on a regular basis.
7) McD’s policies are employee centric and flexible (Crawford, 2015).
8) In the context of employee engagement, McD is considering employee performance
as critically important for motivating employees effectively
9) Reward-based strategies are getting utilised by the chosen organization so as to
engage employees in an effective manner
10) The philosophy of the chosen organization is that employees are considered as the
backbone of the business growth similar to the food products’ quality
11) In addition, McD is currently striving to improve employee retention and employee
loyalty as well (Douglas, 2018).
12) McD is continuously encouraging friendly competition and feelings at the workplace
(Briscoe , Tarique, & Schuler, 2012).
Challenges and issues identified for EE
There are some key factors that contribute to low engagement as each work as well as
the business environment is completely different from various perspectives. In this context,
these are the issues or challenges in relation to employee engagement as follows:
1. Employee training: as we all know that employee training and skills development is
totally the company’s responsibility thus this is one of the main challenges while
implementing employee engagement in an organization. In this context, different
employees are having different skills, capabilities and IQ level which poses
challenges to provide required employee training in a professional setting. In addition
to that, employees’ training also takes a lot of effort from both the employer and
employee side for the sake of better outcomes. On the other hand, training and

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development is the area of contention. In addition to that, the firm is bringing in
experts as well as mentors for assisting people while making them efficient and hence
the company profitable (Insights, 2020).
2. Communication: in the context of EE, it is again one of the biggest challenges which
cause low employee engagement in modern organizations. It is because
communication is the key to have positive engagement within organizational people
or employees. In addition, inefficient communication usually causes low employee
engagement and hence poses a huge challenge for modern firms. Thus,
communication in a bad way can be a critical challenge for the whole employees as
well as the employer. Moreover, better communication can provide better employee
engagement. It is because when communication is inefficient then conflicts occur on a
large scale which ultimately causes low engagement among employees and employers
( Gold & Bratton, 2017).
3. Change management: In this context, change management is tough in some specific
situations where a big-scale strategy adjustment is made. The reason behind this is it
can definitely cause negative feelings of unease amid employees in a certain way. In
this way, effective change management is essential and hence requires the special
attention of the employers. In the presence of poor leadership as well as inactive HR
team members, change management becomes a huge challenge for the entire
organization as well as employees.
4. Translating feedback in actionable insights: when it comes to translating feedbacks
into actionable insights then it is a great challenge in front of modern employers.
5. Creating an effective mix of data-based strategies: apart from this, the task of creating
an effective mix of new strategies in an organization is a big challenge in the context
of employee engagement (Ryan , 2017).
6. Less motivation among employees or organizational people: when there is less
motivation then engagement gets low automatically in modern settings. In addition to
that less motivation also causes poor communication and hence dedication towards
work hampers a lot.
7. Gearing-up the on-boarding procedure with EE and people analytics: in this context,
in case of employee engagement, the powering of on boarding processes is important
so that organizational goals along with personal development can be established
(Newman, Nielsen, & Miao, 2015).

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8. Unbalanced personal and professional life: it has been found that an unbalanced
personal and professional life often causes ill employee engagement which is a great
challenge for the employees. It is because unbalanced personal and professional life
causes increased stress and this stress restricts people to work actively and with
enthusiasm. Thus, people’s personal life issue is able to hinder employee engagement
in professional settings (Karami, 2017).
On the other hand, there are so many major reasons behind the bad condition and
implementation of EE such as shifts in technology and globalization (Jiang, Lepak, Hu, &
Baer, 2012). Therefore, some challenges are explained as below:
 Modern companies are more dispersed across locations (Dirani, Ardichvili, Cseh, &
Zavyalo, 2015),
 The employees and staff have become more mobile as well as work-from-home more
often (Hummels, 2018).
Ways to improve EE at McD
Although the chosen organization is doing excellence in terms of motivating as well
as engaging employees at an organizational level yet there are so many ways to improve
present condition. As per the recent surveys and research, it can be said that employee
engagement is very important for so many reasons. The observations are suggesting that
engaged employees at McD always show great productivity, loyalty and customer-focused
spirit. In this way, companies such as McD should foster high levels of employee engagement
so that they can be more profitable in the future. In this way, some effective ways to improve
employee engagement at McD and at other organizations as follows:
 Bonus schemes: it is true that by offering festivals and other bonuses, an organization
can always attract and win the trust of its current and future employees.
 Team working and team harmony: here, this is one of the effective ways of improving
employee engagement at organizations like McD and many more (DuBois & Dubois,
2012).
 Rewards and recognition: it has been observed several times that recognition strategy
is an effective way to bound employees’ feelings towards their workplaces or working
organizations (Engage for Success, 2020).

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 Engagement through focus groups: in addition to that, focusing on groups and team
working, organizations can always improve overall productivity and growth at the
workplace.
 Organizational approach: there can be a number of organizational management
approaches while improving EE at any organization.
 Engagement boards: in this context, recently the concept of engagement boards is the
best way to foster employee engagement in this competitive edge.
 Engagement through awareness training: with the help of McD, it is being observed
that engagement with awareness training is also an effective way to improve EE at
workplaces.
 Workers’ involvement programs: it has been found that workers’ involvement
programs at different firms are also a way to improve EE nowadays (Glendon, 2015).
 Through sustaining a welcoming culture EE can be established among modern
employees ( Gold & Bratton, 2017).
 The researchers suggest that leaders must rrecognize good work by saying “thank
you” is the simplest and most powerful way to show people that you appreciate their
work. Doing it in public is even better. Find meaningful ways to recognize those who
have made a difference, and do it often.
 By reviewing communication tactics
 Through developing clarity, it is possible to develop employee engagement in modern
settings (HR Magazine, 2011).
Future recommendations
The management experts have found that some future suggestions and
recommendations can make business growth and development sustainable for the chosen
organization as McD. Thus, an employee engagement strategy will address 5 fundamental
needs so that it can improve the overall organizational environment in the best possible way:
 The organization can provide a clear purpose and objective to its employees
 By having a positive work culture and easy well-being for the employees.
 By delivering clarity to the employees and staff
 By recognizing the contributions and efforts of the employees for the betterment of
the firm
 By having and showing trust into employees’ efforts and opinions

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 Better conflicts management skills
 Having better facilities, infrastructure, and other software as well as hardware
resources in order to improve work efficiency.
 Addressing employee issues, challenges, and miseries for strengthening the
connection between employee and employer
Conclusion
In whole, the discussion has successfully covered every possible aspect related to
employee engagement while using the chosen organization as McD. It has been found that
increased attention has been paid to engage employees during the past few years. In this way,
for good reason, so many low engagement levels have also been reported. Thus, for those low
engagement levels and examples, this paper has included ways to improve EE in every
setting. However, this research is clearly indicating that employee engagement has not really
improved in many organizations for several decades. Moreover, it is suggested that firms
must ensure that employees are engaged as well as motivated into their current roles so that
company growth and employee productivity can be enhanced. It is because without employee
engagement, all organizational functions can suffer ranging from job satisfaction to
productivity. Therefore, this study with the help of McD’s employee engagement strategies
has found that employees who are not engaged always contribute to the failure of the vision
as well as the mission of the organization. For these reasons, it is important that human
resource management teams and decision-makers should continually evaluate whole
employee engagement, so as to recognize and thereby address key issues that might come up
in the near future.