McDonald’s: A Valued McCulture

This past September, I partnered with Regina Verdico to host a retreat titled “OK, now what?” We welcomed several people to Lake Shangrila in Wisconsin for a weekend of pause and reflection through yoga, meditation, recreational activities and discussion. The goal was for our participants to leave with clearer objectives and values then when they arrived. Not only did they achieve these goals, but I myself emerged with fresh and new perspectives that surprised me in the most pleasant way.

One of the participants of the “OK, now what?” retreat was Meghan Connor, a Communications Brand Engagement & PR Specialist for McDonald’s at their corporate headquarters in Chicago. I will be the first to admit, I held an unconscious bias towards McDonald’s from the decades of news, documentaries and folklore that has targeted fast food. However the more we got to know Meghan, the more we learned about her passion for McDonald’s and the more I came to respect the organization for its culture. Hearing first hand from an insider about how they lived their stated values and what the organization stood for was impressive. Of particular importance to Meghan, due to experiences with prior employers, was the culture of respect, diversity and inclusion that she experienced. How could such a giant global corporation maintain a healthy and impactful culture for the hundreds of thousands of employees that represent them around the world? And what else are they doing to improve their culture and impact on a global level?

McMission & Values

As always, I began my deep dive with a little bit of research on the public-facing mission & values of the business. These were located on a beautifully designed page on the company website.

Mission: Our mission is to make delicious feel-good moments easy for everyone.

This is how we uniquely feed and foster communities. We serve delicious food people feel good about eating, with convenient locations and hours and affordable prices, and by working hard to offer the speed, choice and personalization our customers expect.  At our best, we don’t just serve food, we serve moments of feel-good, all with the lighthearted, unpretentious, welcoming, dependable personality consumers know and love.

So the mission of McDonald’s really goes much deeper than Big Macs and Happy Meals. It relates these meals with moments. Not just any moments, but feel-good moments that have been accessible to people for decades no matter their age, socioeconomic status or location. McDonald’s knows that many childhoods were shaped by their presence - whether it was a special trip after a visit to the doctor or a surprise sundae stop with Grandma. Amazing words on paper! But do they execute this from the inside?

Let’s move on to their CoreVals™: 

Values: The backbone of our Brand is, and always has been, a commitment to a set of core values that define who we are and how we run our business and restaurants.
When we live our values every day and use them to make decisions - big and small – we define McDonald’s as a brand our people, and the people we serve, can trust.

Serve: We put our customers and people first.

Inclusion: We open our doors to everyone.

Integrity: We do the right thing.

Community: We are good neighbors.

Family: We get better together.

Our values are the filter through which all business decisions are made because actions are bigger than words.

If you have been following Culture Czars® you know that I am a huge fan of representing CoreVals™ with imagery to bring them to life. In fact, if you read closely it looks like they are following many of the biggest themes of The Culture Fix®. From the very opening line where they commit to “live our values every day and use them to make decisions - big and small”, these values contain a lot of big (and promising) statements! THEN, they double down with their commitment in their closing line: “Our values are the filter through which all business decisions are made because actions are bigger than words”.

I had to learn for myself if McDonald’s was able to execute on these values from within, so I scheduled a time to chat with Meghan to learn more about this mega-company and how they have maintained such a strong corporate culture. 2020 exposed a lot of weaknesses within corporations through how they react in a time of crisis, so I was curious if their actions during this time accurately reflected these values as well.

Supersized Values

At an early stage in Meghan’s career, she worked for a small employee-owned company that at surface level was a great launching point, but ultimately was not a good fit because it didn’t fit her personal values or morals. When she joined McDonald’s, she was delightfully surprised not only by the overall dedication to culture, but also by all of the opportunities reaching far beyond the material benefits.   

According to Meghan, she quickly found wonderful opportunities from several employee business networks including the Pride Network and Young Professionals Network. Joining the Young Professionals Network, she was quickly given the opportunity as an administrative coordinator to lead a team of over 15 people across the US in her first year. “Talk about leveling up,” said Meghan.

In her first few years with the company, Meghan noticed their dedication towards a healthy corporate culture. For example, their annual surveys always contain a focus on culture and longevity with questions like “do you see yourself here in 2 years”, “do you think we are doing enough for our people” & “do you think we sincerely mean it when we say we care about our people”. What’s more, these answers don’t just disappear into an HR funnel. They go all the way back to the top for improvement if needed. 

Additionally, stakeholders are referred to as “people” versus employees. They also have a Chief People Officer, where newly appointed Heidi Capozzi oversees the company's human resources operations around the world. In this role she leads Corporate Employee Relations, Diversity and Inclusion, Total Rewards and Talent Management among other areas. Speaking of Diversity & Inclusion, McDonald’s has recognized that now more than ever culture is unifying or divisive. With that being said, they have chosen to focus on their overarching commitment to diversity. They recently established the new Global Diversity Equity and Inclusion Team to elevate their focus and commitment to those three pillars from the top down. 

A Global Brand Reacts to a Global Pandemic 

But how did such an expansive company react to the COVID-19 pandemic that rocked the restaurant industry? Did they double down and make huge adjustments to account for the loss in revenue? Nope. 

McDonald’s corporate headquarters completely shutdown their brand new headquarters in mid-March immediately upon learning of the spiking cases of the virus. Travel was cancelled & all employees were required to have VP-level approval to re-enter the office. But it wasn’t without support and communication from above. The teams received frequent communications from global leaders like the President & CEO Chris Kempczinski and Chief People Officer Heidi Capozzi. This direct line of communications coming from the top was hugely impactful to Meghan and her colleagues, and it didn’t stop there.

When many people were hearing things from their employer like “You can’t take time off right now, we need you more than ever”, Meghan’s team was told to “Do what you need to do because more than ever you need to take care of yourself and loved ones”. Her colleagues were encouraged to work in ways that worked for them, including heading home to quarantine with out of state family & not to schedule meetings outside of their 9:30-3:30 core hours. 

Putting people first, now that’s how you foster dedication & pride. Putting money where their mouth is, McDonald’s also recently announced that all of their US based employees would be receiving an extra 6 days of paid vacation around the holidays. That’s right, all of their offices, 13 in all, will be completely closed as recognition of their people and their hard work during 2020.

I’m lovin’ it

I will be the first to tell you that these revelations completely changed my view of both McDonald’s the corporation & McDonald’s the brand. 

For example, McDonald’s has taken huge strides to improve their sustainability through the products they use. Coffee is now 100% sustainably sourced which makes a HUGE impact when you sell 500 million cups each day! They also have implemented new antibiotic policies for chicken and beef, with chicken & fish already 100% sustainably sourced. They are currently taking steps to lessen emissions and to be kinder to animals and suppliers, (sustainable beef is on the way) so their footprint is kinder, brighter, greener and more breathable. And recently the company announced a new McPlant line of food menu items beginning with a plant based burger developed in combination with Beyond Meat. McChicken items will follow as the company adopts another trend that is both popular and more sustainable.

An interesting footnote to this blog post was the handling of the news story around the swift departure of Steve Easterbrook as CEO of McDonald’s in 2019. I was interviewed on the radio about this story and McDonalds handling of the matter from both a cultural and HR policy/ethics viewpoint. My research showed that the company acted in complete compliance with their stated values and policies. You can catch the radio interview here.

I look forward to seeing what else comes from McDonald’s and their amazing people in the future. Meghan knows she is lucky to be a part of such an amazing corporate experience. She finished our conversation with a sentiment that I wish everyone to feel at some point in their career. “Maya Angelou said ‘people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.’ It feels good to work for a company that is actively working to put more good in the world.”