Getting McSmart: A Day in the Life at Hamburger University
May 01, 2008
Its golden arches are as recognizable as some members of your family, its menu represents core comfort food to many, and its Hamburger University is one of the best-known corporate universities in the U.S. Here’s an exclusive, first-hand look at the training McDonald's orders up to serve your Big Mac and fries.
By Margery Weinstein
There are few stories I'd claim special qualification to cover. With limited life experience, I try to stay humble. But I immediately knew this one was mine. As much as I loathe bragging, it wouldn't be right if I didn't disclose my predisposition toward McDonald's Hamburger University: For two months in fall 1998 in Gainesville, FL, I lived off the Egg McMuffins, cinnamon rolls, six-piece chicken McNuggets, and small fries it trains its workers to prepare and deftly serve through the drive-thru window. I had just started graduate school, and saw no reason an hourly-wage worker (probably a collegiate peer of mine) shouldn't cook for me, especially if it wouldn't cost more than a few dollars a meal. But the allure of the cheap wasn't what drew me in like a vortex for my 11 a.m. brunch and cocktail hour dinner. There were other low-cost dining options, many of which served larger portions for the same price I paid at McDonald's. The real draw was affordable, crave-worthy, quality food served efficiently. That takes training. So in the middle of March, I packed my garment bag for an overnight trip to Oak Brook, IL, home to Hamburger University.
University Housing
I checked in the night before my big day at about 8 p.m. at the Hyatt Lodge, a small hotel (a scaled-down version of the Hyatts you're used to seeing) owned by McDonald's Corporation, and located next door to the campus. The hotel, which Hyatt manages for the university, is where McDonald's students stay during their time—most often about five work days—at the school. There are a few suites for visiting executives, but most rooms have two beds, and are arranged to accommodate two at a time. I will learn during my day at the university that this is for more than logistical reasons. The hope is the roommates, who usually haven’t met before, will exchange stories of management from their respective restaurants.
As befits a hotel housing up-and-coming McDonald's managers, the halls of its three floors are lined with artwork depicting the restaurant through the five decades since its inception. Most of the drawings or paintings don't look much like the McDonald's of today, or even the last 15 years. Most looked to me like the restaurant in the days of yore—the '50s and '60s to us Gen Xers—with a modern, streamlined, hip style I wonder why they ever did away with. The art provided educational entertainment, or edu-tainment as its known to some in the training world, during my vending machine journeys (not all floors had the same vending options, plus I got lost a couple times). I went to bed with visions of fries and McFlurries (a personal favorite) dancing in my head.
 I don't know if you can tell, but I'm not a "roughing it" kind of person. I worried, from that perspective, whether I'd be able to handle covering people who make it their business to be as efficient as possible. Luckily that wasn’t a problem. My Hamburger University hostesses, Dean and Senior Director of Delivery Sue Emich, and Vice President of U.S. Training Diana Thomas, let me greet them at the relatively humane hour of 9 a.m. Since I had no car, it also was handy that my trek to the campus involved no streets, as it's connected to the Hyatt via a brick path and bridge. On top of that, I lucked out on the weather—mid-50s, and so sunny by the afternoon I was squinting outside—unseasonably warm for the middle of March in the Chicago area. The pond under the bridge was half frozen, with geese taking a dip here and there. You won't get bitten by any wild animals strolling to the campus, but Hamburger University is surrounded by enough nature that the school’s planners needed to consult closely with the city of Oak Brook during its construction, Emich tells me. A two-story, brick building with atrium-style interior design (the roof in the reception area has the effect of an enormous skylight), I was greeted at the security desk by Emich, Thomas, Silvia Vergani from McDonald's U.S. Training, Learning and Development team, an external McDonald's public relations representative, and a photographer. With flags overhead paying homage to the countries of origin of the students and staff at the university that week—ranging from Argentina to Australia—I felt like a visiting dignitary.
What Kroc Cooked Up
In addition to the proliferation of natural light, the first thing you notice about Hamburger University is the proliferation of Ray Kroc, the milkshake mixer salesman who bought McDonald's from the restaurant's founders, Richard and Maurice (Mac) McDonald, in 1955, transforming it into the ubiquitous refuge for the time-pressed and hungry it is today. Kroc, who died in 1984, lives on in the form of a variety of portraits (lifelike to pop art-style), sculptures, and a replica of his office in the reception area. An amalgamation of what his four offices across the country looked like during his hey day, it features a model of the milkshake mixer that provided his entrée to the world of the McDonald brothers (he met them making a sales pitch), along with a miniature version of the now-defunct Big Mac Bus, used to transport regional McDonald's employees from franchise to franchise. Emich—who, like Thomas, Vergani, and everyone else I met that day, started behind the counter at McDonald's as a teenager—says Kroc still provides a model for the company's leaders. "Ray was involved in all parts of the business. There was no doubt who ran the company," she explains. But she's careful to add that he was a master collaborator, who most notably teamed with Fred L. Turner beginning in the ’60s. Turner, who started as a restaurant grill operator, advanced all the way to company chairman in 1977, and continues to serve as honorary chairman. He makes his presence known (though not nearly as strongly as Kroc) through at least a few portraits, and is the namesake of Hamburger University, with his name on the front of the building.
 The management and training legacy of Kroc and Turner, says Emich, is in the engagement of McDonald's workforce, noting Kroc led with a "passionate" rather than strong hand, and in his mantra about the importance of reliable customer service. A marker of success for him, says Emich, was that customers have a consistently good experience no matter which McDonald's they ended up at. Successful adaptation to change also was big theme for Kroc. A bronze, circular wall sculpture with a representation of a restaurant roof at the top, Kroc's milkshake mixer in the middle, and grass at the bottom, highlights this ethic. "If you're green you're growing," Thomas says Kroc used to like to remind employees. "It was his way of saying we all need to be learning and growing and supporting this changing company."
And change Hamburger University has. In 2000, the university shifted teaching styles, transitioning from largely lecture format to a few large group sessions in one of its three auditoriums (the largest of which seats 300) and more interactive learning in classes of 24 to 34, with students divided into smaller work groups for discussion and exercises. Thomas says learning in a more intimate setting is ideal for the latest generation of students, its Generation Y employees. "They're [drawn to] experiential and action learning," she notes. Clearly, the effort is paying off, as McDonald's USA ranked No. 37 on the 2008 Training Top 125 list, up from No. 41 the year before.
But even as the company accommodates an evolving workforce and market, it faces the training challenge of continuing to inculcate the core values—quality, service, cleanliness, and value—Kroc established all those years ago. As we wind our way around the second floor, large picture windows at our side and glass cases filled with more artwork (Hamburger University has its own curator) such as a three-dimensional model of the first McDonald's with period cars in the lot and a 15 cents sign over the roof, Thomas tells me the company sends the restaurant version of mystery shoppers to franchises and company restaurants to ensure its standards are maintained. Along with these surprise visitors, regional McDonald's managers, or business consultants, schedule visits to give advice on how to improve operations.
Learning in Action
 But it all starts here, I'm reminded, heading to our destination, one of McDonald's auditoriums. Thomas and Emich are eager to show me not only the lecture hall and its up-to-date technology, including LCD projector, but its translation booths. Since students come from around the world, translators are on hand to provide instruction in learners' native tongues—while the class is in session. Those in need of assistance wear headphones that connect them to the translators sitting in the booths. Such help is critical given that learners are expected to pass an assessment at the end of the week to ensure the instruction has sunk in. Those who succeed are presented with diplomas hailing their "Bachelor's of Hamburgerology" in a formal ceremony with "Pomp and Circumstance" playing in the background. The students with the highest scores on the assessment are given the special Fred Turner Award, and a special gold hat award is given to the student voted by classmates as having contributed the most to everyone’s learning experience that week.
Tests, diplomas, and awards aside, the learning at Hamburger University is only as successful as it can be applied, so students head to a simulated kitchen and drive-thru "window" to see how they do. Learners at the university are all current behind-the-counter staffers in preparation for an ascent to manager, or current managers with previous behind-the-counter experience, but all take part in the exercise. They've all spent ample time behind the counter, but now is a chance for feedback on their performance. The "kitchen" is designed to be almost an exact replica of what students experience at their restaurants, says Marla King, training manager, Hamburger University. Though the output of this kitchen is not served to anyone, real food is made, and the computers hanging down from the ceiling display orders, just as they would in the students' restaurants. Learners take turns working behind the counter, in the kitchen cooking, and placing orders as "customers." Large windows line one wall of the florescent-lit kitchen, so classmates can observe enough to offer feedback during the discussion phase of the exercise. A timer on the wall alerts students to the amount of time left before the 30-minute simulation is over.
Just as in their own restaurants, students have performance goals to meet, such as decreasing the time it takes to fill orders. They might, for instance, be expected to fill orders in 35 seconds or less. When these goals are met, the learners hoot and holler so loudly, and with such enthusiasm, it startles me. It's more reminiscent of a baseball game than a class. Impressed by the students' engagement with their work, I asked King whether the rambunctious cheering will be heard when the learners return to their restaurants. King says that depends. "You as leader set the tone of your restaurant," she explains.
The service and equipment labs allow managers to learn how to apply the business concepts they have been learning throughout the week to the environment they work in everyday. "It's about learning how to use the tools we provide to improve the overall business with an emphasis on customer satisfaction," King says. "We teach people a lot more than just their functional jobs; we train them to be leaders by introducing them to valuable business and leadership concepts, and then giving them the opportunity to practice in a safe yet almost real environment."
Meanwhile outside the kitchen, in another simulated exercise, students practice working the "drive-thru." The pretend window is indoors, but the orders are real, a sample of orders placed at a McDonald's outside of Chicago, not far from the university. Students stand in line, waiting their turn to give it a shot. And, in yet another simulated environment we peep in at, students practice operating and cleaning kitchen machinery, learning to take apart the insides of a milkshake machine for cleaning—important since an unclean machine may affect the amount of flavored syrup that makes it into the shake, resulting in an unsatisfactory product for customers.
The objective of all these exercises, says King, is to give learners a lesson that not only illustrates what they've discussed in the classroom, but serves as a boost to their restaurants. "This experience is one of the biggest ah-ha moments for managers," says King. "It gives them something they can use in their restaurants [that helps them facilitate] long-term improvements rather than short-term fixes."
Jessica Baseler, a manager of a McDonald's in Omaha, NE, has gained insights from the exercises and her fellow students. "I've met many people from throughout the world," she says of her week at the university. "It's interesting to see what they do [at their own restaurants]. There are quite a few ideas I'll bring back with me to make improvements." Baseler, who worked through college at McDonald's, was encouraged to stay with the company after she graduated because of the growth opportunities it offers her. She was impressed by how fast the company moved her up the ranks. Like the speed of her career progression, Baseler says Hamburger University is a pleasant surprise. She expected lectures similar to what she experienced at college, but says the instructors do their best to deliver the curriculum in a lively way.
After my conversation with Baseler, King takes me to one of the university's 24- to 30-person classrooms to listen in on the kitchen simulation feedback. We're seated in a translation booth. Like the booths I saw in the large lecture hall earlier, the windows are tinted so we can easily watch and listen to the action without causing a distraction. "How do you feel you did during the shift?" the instructor asks the students, seated at multiple tables in groups of five to seven. As learners engage in their discussion, King tells me this contemplative style of teaching works well for the university. "We just ask the questions, and students come up with the answers," she says. "We find that format very powerful." What's also helpful is acknowledging the need of Generation Y and X students to multitask. To keep them engaged, instructors give students graphics that illustrate the concepts under discussion. They use these pictures to write notes on, or further design, during the classroom discussion. A woman seated at the table directly in front of us is feverishly coloring hers in. In addition to giving them something to do as they listen, the graphics, such as charts illustrating leadership approaches, can be taken back to their restaurants to serve as job aids.
Lunch and Learn
 Turns out it won't be a McNuggets-lined trip down memory lane. Instead of reverting to my old regimen, Emich and Thomas walked with me back over the bridge and brick path to the Hyatt Lodge for a fancier lunch than I expected. At a restaurant on the ground floor of the hotel, I chose ravioli with meatballs as accompaniment to my conversation with Emich, Thomas, and Kathy May, national training director, Hamburger University. The first thing I'm curious about is e-learning. With so many physical exercises and classroom material, I wonder whether there is any place at the university for distance learning. I noticed at least one "e-learning station" during my tour of the school, but that didn't answer the question of whether e-learning is part of the training routine at the restaurants.
"For our employees we have 19 modules—rather a significant suite—that helps them learn the basics of our operation. That's all done in our restaurants with the target that we satisfy the customers, and serve you hot food fast in a clean place," says May of the e-learning behind-the-counter employees complete on a computer at their restaurant. For managers, e-learning is preparation for classroom instruction, and a tool to enhance knowledge retention when back on the job. "For example, there is a module around respectful workplace, and then we build on that in the classroom and basic shift management [instruction]." E-learning also is used to train regional staff, who act as business consultants both to McDonald's franchise-owned and company-owned restaurants. Modules aimed at these mid-level employees address leadership development and functional skills specific to their job roles "to teach basic consulting skills and to provide knowledge on operations." In a word, it's wide-ranging, May emphasizes. "It runs the gamut," she laughs, "from the day a person wants to learn French fries until [the time] that person is working with 10 of our franchisees."
Giving these restaurants the learning they need to satisfy customers, and successfully compete in their market, is made easier by the training department's inclusion in business strategy sessions, says Thomas. "We look at the trends of the marketplace, and what customers want, and I can tell you it's easy to align training because it's definitely at the table at the strategic level," she says. Thomas is a part of the Strategic Planning Group, an executive-level group that listens to feedback from restaurants and customers to determine the business strategy for the next three years. "Because we're at the table we're able to align where we need to go with training."
Dishing Demographics
Along with strategic inclusion, training at McDonald's stays relevant by keeping up with who its employees are. After lunch I head to one of the university's conference rooms for a briefing by Allyson Carter, design director, U.S. training, learning, and development, on McDonald's latest employee demographic research. "We conducted extensive research on who our future learners will be. Specifically we're looking at who we're going to be training three to five years from now," she says. "Our business strategy being the U.S. Plan to Win, the first element is people, so we’re continually looking for ways we can focus on the people in our restaurants."
Of those people working behind the counter and managing its restaurants, the company found that 70 percent are Generation Y; 15 percent are Generation X; and 13 percent are Baby Boomers. The research team traces this particular convergence of generations in its workforce to 2005. "One thing we know is we have to address Gen Y, but we still have in our manager ranks, for our leadership training, a big percentage of Gen X and some Baby Boomers," says Carter, "so we know while in the future we're going to have to continue using e-learning and technology, we're not necessarily going to go away from shoulder-to-shoulder, face-to-face [learning]."
Diversity also is a big theme for the company, which found its workforce is more diverse than the overall U.S. workforce. Fifty-seven percent of McDonald's workforce is composed of ethnic minorities, a percentage expected to increase even more in 2012, says Carter. Of its Hispanic frontline employees, 70 percent say Spanish is their preferred language. McDonald's also learned it's a decidedly feminine company. Approximately 58 percent of its workforce is female, and that number is expected to increase to 61 percent in 2012. One finding—the typical education level of frontline service workers—already is affecting curriculum design plans. The findings have resulted in the development of more easily understandable coursework.
Bottom line: The McDonald's workforce is in a growth mode, Carter emphasizes. "The growth of the overall workforce in the U.S. is flattening," she says, "but the number of jobs in the service sector, where McDonald's is, is growing, so the impetus of all this work we're doing is making sure our jobs are attractive, and that we provide the benefits, hiring, orientation, and training that will retain people."
Back to School
A great way to retain workers, and develop them for future roles with the company, is McDonald's college accreditation program, says Jennifer Bulla, registration coach, U.S. training, learning, and development. Bulla, who joins us in the conference room, says the company has formed alliances with colleges and the American Council on Education to accept up to 46 credits for coursework completed at Hamburger University. Aware that going back to school after years away from the classroom can be overwhelming to employees, Bulla says the company seeks out colleges that offer realistic graduation plans to adult learners. "We look for schools that offer classroom, as well as online courses, and are able to give our employees a dedicated program with an advisor they can go to with their questions," she explains. What's more, the company provides these employees with a specialized Web portal detailing Hamburger University accreditation opportunities. The site, located at http://www.mcdonalds.com/mcd_apps/college/index.html, provides a calculator for participants to figure out how many more college and Hamburger University classes they need to earn their college diploma.
Human Resources Manager Shelly Hicks, a McDonald's employee since 1986 and a company shareholder, is well aware of the benefits of the accreditation program. Hicks, named American Council on Education's 2005 Adult Learner of the Year, used the university's relationship with the University of Phoenix to begin earning her college degree in 2002. She did this while working full time and adopting her then-9-year-old foster son, Joseph. Hicks earned her Bachelor of Science in Business Management in May 2004. She's slated to earn her Master's of Education in Adult Education from Penn State this year. Hicks says the accreditation program is a great motivator for employees. "We want to develop leaders," she stresses, "and this is a way to help us do that."
Developing leaders is something Hamburger University excels at, adds Wanda Hunter, a regional business consultant to franchise-owned McDonald's restaurants, who joins our conversation. Hunter, who served as a Hamburger University professor from 2004 to 2005, says her time at the university gave her insights that enable her to better help restaurants achieve operational targets such as speeding up delivery of food at the drive-thru window (she tells me a slow McDonald's drive-thru will process about 120 cars an hour, while a more impressive drive-thru can serve about 180 cars in an hour), and better serving customers. "You leave here with a development plan," she says of up-and-coming McDonald's employees asked to serve as professors, "and with so much credibility having worked at Hamburger University."
With that, I'm on my way. Frontline food service excellence to leadership development that takes some motivated McDonald's employees to graduate school, work at the regional level, and the executive suite. I'd say my day is pretty complete—even without the chicken McNuggets.
Sidebar: Fast Facts
• Approximately 5,000 students attend regular scheduled classes in Hamburger University; overall attendance is more than 10,000 per year
• More than 20 pounds of beef are used each week for practice in the simulated kitchen.
• More than 30 classes—self-study, e-learning, and classroom classes—are offered at HU and regional training centers.
• 1 in 12 Americans have worked at McDonald's at some point in their lives.
• 40 percent of McDonald's executives started on the frontlines, behind the counter.
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