The Millennial employee:

Often cares more about workplace satisfaction than monetary compensation

Is likely to use social media to broadcast concerns

Is sophisticated with technology having grown up with graphical user interfaces (GUI)

Demands instant gratification

A 19 year student recently explained to me with red and yellow exuberance on how the McDonald’s employee website is “fun” and “fulfilling” highlighting how a satisfied Millennial is often an employee advocate for the organisation they work for, providing honest, free and convincing public relations to their sizeable social networks. This particular McDonald’s employee tweets daily to her 9,000 followers.

McDonald’s Australia provides an online service to crew members allowing them to check their rosters, acquire benefits and participate in online training sessions (e.g. OH&S). With the use of light Gamification ‘Accomplishment’ mechanics, Mcdonald’s attempts to implement points, badges, fixed action rewards, leaderboards and progress bars to engage and incentivise Millennial employees using the ‘metiME’ application.

The below extract of ‘metiME’ shows how a flash game empowers the employee as a “Foodies Quality Controller” responsible for reading through training material and answering questions correctly. With the use of a points score [accomplishment], badges [accomplishment] and an employee leaderboard [social prod] McDonald’s Australia attempts to position the experience to keep the user engaged for longer periods during the training. This approach does not require the points/badges to be converted into rewards because the focus is on intrinsic motivation.

The RPG (Role Playing Game) is a genre of gaming that encourages a comforting sense of progression by making it evident when the player controlled character gains skills such as strength, intelligence and agility.

With the introduction of the new ‘Create Your Taste’ menu, Mcdonald’s Australia gamified it’s online training by tracking the crew member skills ‘Team Work, Hospitality and Customer Experience’ as questions are correctly answered. When an employee would demonstrate cooperative behaviour, the ‘Team Work’ progress bar would grow a few percentage points to indicate that the employee was slowly leveling up their skill. Appealing to completionist personalities, this instant feedback mechanic of empowerment may drive an employee to complete the training and reinforce the idea that they have increased their ‘Team Work, Hospitality and Customer Experience’ skills.

McDonald’s is the worlds most successful restaurant chain because of its obsession with operation optimisation; the company leaves nothing up to chance and has made use of basic Gamification mechanics with precision to encourage Millennial employee engagement. This level of gamified engagement is becoming the standard among the young workforce; it should be considered that this expectation may carry on to the Millennial’s next employment.

-Estefan