Hamburger University, but on your phone

Today, Meta announced a new partnership with McDonald’s that will place its Workplace platform in the hands of restaurant employees across the globe. The communications tool will be used to connect workers across franchise locations to disseminate information, training and internal updates.

While the partnership is one of many Workplace for Meta has with companies, the sheer magnitude of the partnership with McDonald’s is enough to turn heads. The partnership will connect 1.9 million of the fast food chain’s front-line workers — a novel investment in deskless workers, who often experience a high amount of turnover.

Though attrition remains high in the hospitality and service industry, Meta sees its Workplace platform as being a major tool to help workers feel more connected so they might stick around longer. I spoke with Christine Trodella, head of Workplace from Meta, about how the partnership will roll out to McDonald’s restaurant crews and why (or why not) others might want to consider such a tool for deskless teams.

The partnership is more of a play for “belonging” than communication.

• “As we started working with them on the deployment, they really saw it as a tool to start to engage and foster more community amongst their front-line employees. And in particular, they really wanted to foster a sense of belonging with the crew members, they wanted a place to amplify their corporate values, which are very important to them, and then also to empower the front line,” said Trodella.
• “Typically front-line workers are disenfranchised, they don't feel connected … not only are you empowering them and giving them a tool that enables a two-way dialogue, but they're actually creating opportunities amongst themselves to create community and culture within their organizations,” she said.
• There are often major disparities between perceptions of communication and transparency between leaders and workers. Meta’s 2021 “Deskless Not Voiceless” report surveying front-line workers found that while 99% of C-suite execs think front-line workers trust them, only 25% of workers said they completely trust their organization to communicate transparently about company news and updates.
• In addition, the survey found 51% of front-line workers believe they are seen as less important than corporate counterparts, and only 55% feel connected to headquarters.

How it will work:

• Employees will need to use their own phones to download the Workplace app; the platform looks and operates a lot like Facebook. This low barrier to entry is Workplace’s biggest selling point.
• Employees don’t need a personal Facebook account to sign up for Workplace. They can log in with their work credentials or email addresses.
• The platform is home to corporate communication, training videos (imagine learning how to make a Big Mac on Facebook) and restaurant updates. Employees are able to post and connect with other workers as well, creating two-way communication with their employers. It will also be a place for employee recognition.

Though the partnership is officially rolling out to all McDonald's workers today, it has already launched in 11 markets, including Spain, Australia and Portugal. Thus far, it has been used to crowdsource and vote on new uniforms for team members in Spain, to check in on people during the pandemic and to informally compare and share notes about the sales of a new chicken sandwich launched in restaurants across the globe.

Though in the early days of its launch, the partnership can be viewed as a case study for why you might or might not consider deploying such a tool to your deskless team.

• McDonald's has seen a 34% reduction in the time it takes to get information to the front line, according to Trodella.
• Just like on Facebook, users can mark themselves as safe in the event of an emergency or a national disaster.
• Leaders will have to consider whether or not front-line workers want to set up a Workplace account on their personal device. There are some significant security risks to consider with BYOD (bring your own device) in the workplace, and the practice has been known to make it harder for troubleshooting IT issues. Workplace partners own and control their own data on the platform, while Workplace acts as the data processor using enterprise-grade security standards.
• As with any social platform that allows public discourse, moderation can be a headache. Meta says businesses and HR departments are responsible for implementing their own policies around conversations. They also must agree to adhere to a code of conduct around abuse.
• It’s also unclear at this point just how much time employees are spending on the platform, which could be a concern for leaders from a time management or productivity standpoint. Facebook currently tracks adoption of the platform on a weekly basis among McDonald’s front-line workers, but not usage time, said Trodella.

— Amber Burton, reporter (email | twitter)