Understanding The Power of Recognition

Our third Daily Action of National Inclusion Week, The Power of Recognition, focuses on empowering others.

McDonald’s, our National Inclusion Week 2022 sponsor, explores the power of recognition and how they recognise employees in their organisation in this blog.

Why is recognition so important?

Regardless of the sector, fostering an engaged and motivated workforce is paramount to success in business. For McDonald’s, recognition – whether that’s top-down, or peer-to-peer – plays an important role in the employee experience.

Embedding recognition in our day-to-day operations ensures employees feel valued and creates a positive culture where people want to work.

How McDonald’s encourages recognition

McDonald’s has various routes to recognise and celebrate its people across its restaurant and corporate teams.

Values heroes

One popular example is its ‘Values Heroes’ programme.

Values Heroes is designed to create a culture of thanking each other. It’s all about encouraging everyone to notice the efforts and achievements – from tiny to terrific – that make a difference.

It wants their people to shine a light on their teammates – to say ‘thank you’ for putting in extra effort and going that bit further.

Employees are encouraged to use #heroes on social media platforms and digital assets to celebrate and encourage people to say thank you to each other and recognise the small actions of those who have made a difference. Everyone and anyone can nominate their colleagues and this can be combined with a physical award as well as combine with other recognition programmes.

Service awards

As well as peer-to-peer recognition, McDonald’s also has various awards initiatives to recognise its people more formally. Services Awards, which recognise people reaching major anniversaries with the business are one such initiative.

For office staff, senior leadership use monthly all-employee meetings to thank employees for reaching milestones, and all employees reaching significant milestones receive vouchers as a way of recognising their achievement.

Celebrating and acknowledging in a public forum, as well as rewarding with monetary vouchers is a great way of thanking people for their commitment and service over a long period of time.

McDonald’s ensures to celebrate exceptional employees regularly by rewarding employees across the business who demonstrate and live McDonald’s values in their day-to-day roles. There are a number of monthly, quarterly and annual awards. Their employee of the year award is open to nominations from any of the restaurants across the business.

The finalists are then invited to their offices in London for a day of fun and meeting the CEO and CPO in the business.  Normally one winner there was actually three last year as the finalists were all amazing!

Twice a year within their corporate teams, individuals can be nominated for the holiday award.  This award is for individuals that have gone above and beyond and also brought the company values to life day-to-day.  Six individuals from across their business are awarded an extra weeks leave and £2500 in holiday vouchers!

Ray Kroc award

At a global level, McDonald’s most prestigious award is the biennial Ray Kroc award which recognises its most high performing employees, rewarding the winners with a trip to McDonald’s worldwide convention in Orlando, and a cash bonus worth one month’s salary.

The winning managers will have been recognised for achieving exceptional operational & financial results in several areas and doing an outstanding job at running great restaurants.