Grow your programs
Alvarez isn’t just a fan of McDonald’s diversity programs, he’s a
glowing example. He was born in Havana, Cuba, and came to the
U.S. at the age of 5. He joined McDonald’s in 1994 and realized that
there was more room at the company for his ascent than anywhere he’d been before.
Still, he cautions that there’s one very un-McDonald’s portion to
continuing to build diversity: There’s no drive-up window. You
have to be willing to lay a foundation through educational and
inclusion plans.
“The results are long term, you don’t see them overnight,” he
says. “It’s developing talent, recruiting outside talent, and bringing
them into an organization and helping them through the growth
curve. These are long-term commitments, you won’t see an impact
this quarter or next quarter, you’re going to see an impact three to
four years from now and being able to do that, that is always the
biggest challenge.”
Thinking for the future, McDonald’s has put programs into place
that not only enhance the power of minorities already in the company but that will also entice others to join. Employee networks
were created for blacks, Hispanics, Asians, women, and gays and lesbians so that there is a comfort zone for development. There are
also educational seminars provided regularly for anyone on a number of minority career development topics. Other simple steps like
converting the course materials at the company’s famous training
program, Hamburger University, into 28 languages have also been
made.
Coupled with other programs, these ideas help recruit diverse
employees and owners for McDonald’s — 41 percent of all its U.S.
owners/operators are women or minorities — and improve company culture. Each network is given its own voice within the company to celebrate its diversity and educate others. One example is
McDonald’s had a Martin Luther King Jr. celebration this year with
a presentation on the leader’s influence on the world as a whole,
which was then followed by a speech at McDonald’s headquarters
from a few executives on what King meant to them.
“I guarantee you that if you work here, you know a lot about
African-American history because of the programs we do,” Alvarez
says. “It’s about pieces that make you a much more well-rounded
person, and that reflects strongly in our culture.”
The programs McDonald’s uses may not be exactly right for
every company, but the point that Alvarez wants people to see is
that the effort is there. When a company creates outlets for minorities — ways they can network, talk, be educated and feel at home
in an organization — those employees gain a sense of empowerment and are more willing to add ideas and effort that contribute
to your bottom line.
“Gathering our black owner-operators organization, our Hispanic
owner-operators organization, our employee networks that we
have, people see we want that to happen; that makes us stronger,”
he says. “Maybe they come in with one voice that’s more powerful
than the individual voices to get a seat at the table.”
The results of those educational forums also help knock down
walls that often exist between one group and another.
“I’ve learned so much from my fellow workers about what they
may have gone through growing up or the challenges of being a
woman in a male-led organization,” Alvarez says. “We actually sit
down, and we talk about that in an open forum that’s much less
threatening than it would normally be.
“It’s very important because you are changing society. Part of
what we know we have in the U.S. is companies that have had success in doing this have actively gone after making a difference
through their training programs, through their recruiting efforts,
through the organizations that they support, through counseling
and through support organizations, so you’ve got to have it be part
of the business plans.”
Alvarez notes that if a company wants to truly expand beyond its
home markets — particularly into overseas markets — there has to
be a good sense of how important diversity is to helping figure out a
new region.
“It starts from the top,” he says. “You have to have the commitment from the leadership of the company that has to stress why
this is important to the organization and why it’s part of the company’s values — so it needs to be part of the company’s values —
and why it’s good for business or good for the organization. That’s
critical. This is a long-term mission, and it fits within how our
country has come to be. And if you are an international company,
it absolutely fits in with having success with different cultures
because first you have to be diverse yourself.”
