Kineo and McDonalds case study Helping teams to run more proi table restaurants through awardwinning e-learning

and saving over 1 million on the way Kineo 2010 - Rapid e-learning partnership: Kineo and McDonalds 01 Kineo and McDonalds case study This case study shows how McDonalds UK and Kineo have partnered to develop e-learning solutions that: Are award-winning examples of using the Articulate authoring tool Provide a l exible way to partner and give McDonalds control Have generated over 1 million ($1.75 million) in cost savings in their i rst year Have directly contributed to proi tability increases in line with their initial objectives You can see a sample module in action at: http://www.kineo.com/demos/mcd_artic_demo/mcd_demo/player.html The challenge:: Ca n you ru n a McDonalds resta ura nt profita bly? Ca n e-learning help? Using Articulate to develop qu ality rapidly It is a complex task balancing staf and material costs, sales, quality and customer service all whilst ensuring youre making a proi t. You need a deep understanding of the various components and how they interact to deliver quality and proi tability. This is something McDonalds have excelled at for many years and developing these skills in their restaurant managers is a crucial task. McDonalds in the UK have traditionally delivered a series of one-day courses; on restaurant business controls and i nancial management, to over 1,000 staf each year, across 1,250 restaurants. This is an expensive way to train, and McDonalds wanted to create an alternative approach using e-learning, that would enable managers to: receive training when they needed it; use learning for performance support; provide update training; and to reduce the costs of

delivery. The objectives for the new approach were to: Meet the criteria of McDonalds overarching L&D strategy (modern, engaging, just in time, meeting specii c business needs, relevant to learners, delivering time and cost benei ts, and enabling competitive advantage) Increase the speed of learning transfer into the workplace Provide refresher training opportunities in a way that face-to-face cant do alone Save time and costs, especially relating to travel and opportunity costs Kineo collaborated with McDonalds to design and develop engaging e-learning that delivered on these objectives. The business controls training comprised three modules: Financial Skills Inventory Management Crew and Management Scheduling The e-learning needed to be delivered in an attractive and engaging design that fully supported McDonalds brand and standards for quality and style. McDonalds worked with Kineo to develop a prototype of the e-learning, using the Articulate rapid e-learning authoring tool as a test case to see if it would meet McDonalds requirements. Kineo has worked extensively with Articulate for clients, including O2, BP, Cable&Wireless and M&S, and has brought experience of the tools considerable capabilities and tricks to the prototype phase. Kineo 2010 - Rapid e-learning partnership: Kineo and McDonalds 02 Kineo and McDonalds case study The prototype included a range of standard items such as a menu that could slide up for the learner to navigate directly to specii c sections, help or resources, and a simple page progress indicator. Below is an image with the menu displayed.

The key requirements of the prototype were to: Include complex interactions showing the relationship between the various elements and the impact of i xed and variable costs, as a launch point for follow-up discussions in each restaurant Develop an approach that meets the specii c brand requirements for the business control course Deliver a wide range of rich interactions to keep the learners cognitively engaged with the learning Prove that a complex topic like this can be delivered via e-learning and using Articulate The prototype used an Articulate skin developed by Kineo to allow McDonalds full control over the branding and positioning of elements such as the logo. The skin design is below. Kineo 2010 - Rapid elearning partnership: Kineo and McDonalds 03 Kineo and McDonalds case study Tea mwork getting the best from everyone An engaging e-learning approach that reflected McDonalds design valu es The project was very much a collaborative venture. Kineo developed the initial prototype based on content and scripts developed by the McDonalds team. As the project moved into full production, members of the McDonalds team worked side by side with the Kineo team, getting trained up on the Articulate skin and templates and feeding back on the content. The key to a rapid development project is l exibility. In this case some modules were started by McDonalds and i nished by Kineo, others worked in reverse. The usual client/vendor lines were blurred as we worked together as a development team to deliver to deadlines and requirements. We prefer to work in this way because you get the best from everyone. As with all projects an e-learning developer brings learning design skills, creative art direction ideas and good technical skills

but the internal team is key to providing: Context on how the learning will be used In-depth content knowledge Understanding of the target audience The result in this case was great collaboration and an excellent i nal product that we and McDonalds consider a showcase piece in the use of Articulate to develop engaging, branded e-learning thats easy to maintain and update. The key to providing a consistent experience throughout the e-learning was to develop an Articulate skin and templates. Regardless of whether the screen was built using Articulate Quizmaker, Engage, PowerPoint or a custom animation, the skin and templates provided a uniform look and feel. The prototype was developed in a matter of days. The result convinced McDonalds that Articulate fully met their requirements for an easy-to-use tool that would allow us to develop content quickly, while also delivering engaging e-learning and meeting strict branding requirements. Because its easy to use, many staf can develop skills quickly to be able to create and maintain content. As a result, McDonalds now uses Articulate extensively. Below we outline in more detail how the various requirements were met. 1 T h e s ki n The skin we developed is a Flash i le that sits in front of the published Articulate output. It has a transparent central panel and calls functions such as menu, next and resources tabs. Kineo 2010 Rapid e-learning partnership: Kineo and McDonalds 04 Kineo and McDonalds case study 2 Powe rPoi nt t e mp l at e The i rst stage was to create a PowerPoint template using the same background and with the sepia styled text boxes, which is a consistent theme throughout the e-learning. Below is an example of the

PowerPoint template used in conjunction with the skin. Kineo 2010 - Rapid e-learning partnership: Kineo and McDonalds 05 Kineo and McDonalds case study Below is one of the Quizmaker templates with the Articulate skin. Again, the design followed the theme of sepia style text backgrounds. Below is the Engage template. We used the editable Engage schemes to create a background that merges with the skin design. The Engage header is hidden behind the Articulate skin header. 3 Qu i z m a k e r t e mp l at e 4 En g a g e t e mp l at e Kineo 2010 - Rapid e-learning partnership: Kineo and McDonalds 06 Kineo and McDonalds case study Its key that learners know where they are and whats expected of them as they progress through the module. As part of the overall design we created a series of heading icons to provide clear signposting to the learner throughout the modules. Articulate, combined with Quizmaker and Engage, enabled us to create a wide range of rich interactions to explain concepts to the learners and keep them engaged. We used Quizmaker extensively throughout the module to ask formative questions and to check the learners understanding as they progressed. The nature of the e-learning required us to create a few custom Flash pieces, for example; to calculate returns based on dif erent levels of sales we created a custom animation. This was inserted into a PowerPoint slide and integrated with the rest of the module. Some examples are shown below. Clear signposting Complex fina ncial interactions Kineo 2010 - Rapid e-learning partnership: Kineo and McDonalds Kineo and McDonalds case study 07

Workbook activities working with the blend Links to tools helping learners take it further The learning was a blended approach. In this case, the blend meant that there were follow-up activities in restaurants to ensure transfer to the workplace. We sought to reuse existing workbooks, thus throughout through the modules there are activities where the learner is referred to the workbook to complete an activity. The nature of the content also meant that learners needed to understand and be able to use certain tools and templates on the job to improve business control. Within Articulate we were able to link directly to these tools. Kineo 2010 - Rapid e-learning partnership: Kineo and McDonalds Kineo and McDonalds case study 08 The quality of the i nal design and learning was exceptional given the fast development timetable, and fully supported the McDonalds brand values. The results have been exceptional, and weve summarized them here. Over 1,000 people have completed the e-learning and the feedback has been very positive. Internal McDonalds surveys have shown the following feedback: McDonalds estimates that this single project has saved more than 280,000 ($440,000) year to date relating to just travel time. Overall the savings estimates provided by McDonalds for all of our e-learning work to date (approx 12 months) is in excess of 1m ($1.75m), which rel ects a huge return on investment. The purpose of the e-learning was to lead to business results. While there were other contributing factors, in 2009 the business has seen the following results: 10% sales growth

 6% transaction growth Food proi tability key performance indicators improved by between 0.05% and 1% in the pilot restaurants (very signii cant in a low-margin business, and directly related to the aims of the learning) The pilot managers moved their restaurants higher up the national balanced scorecard Signii cant cost savings as documented above Learner engagement is great, of course. But for e-learning to be considered a success, it needs to deliver tangible results for the business. Were happy to report that it certainly did that. The payoff: results Learner engagement Cost savings Bu si n e ss be n e f it s Statement This training is relevant to my job I can put into practice what I have learnt There are materials to support my training I am scheduled to spend time on training and development I have received the training and information I need to do a good job 2009 % agree 94% 91% 94% 72% 92% Kineo 2010 - Rapid e-learning partnership: Kineo and McDonalds Kineo and McDonalds case study

09 Through the implementation of the skin and innovative use of Engage and Quizmaker, weve jointly developed what we believe is an exemplary piece of Articulate e-learning. It features a strong visual presence and high level of engagement and at a fraction of the cost and time compared to other development methods. Its led to McDonalds UK adopting Articulate as their tool of choice for elearning. The modules are straightforward for McDonalds to maintain and update, which is a key success criteria given that the solution may need to be adapted to rel ect changes in the business climate. The e-learning can be accessed from any computer, which means learners can brush up on the i nancial skills whenever they need to, saving on the need for expensive face-to-face refresher training, which cant be delivered on demand. McDonalds view of the project is summarized in this quote: This e-learning and blended approach to development has genuinely improved the learning outcome for our participants. Our internal staf satisfaction survey has shown increases in all the training categories proving employee engagement and an increased ability of participants to transfer learning into the workplace. The programme has brought about signii cant cost saving in the delivery of training and the improved learning outcomes also led to an improvement in the key i nancial metrics of the restaurants. ~ Carole Williams, Head of Corporate Training, McDonalds Restaurants Ltd Effective use of Articulate to create rapid e-learning Ease of maintena nce Just-in-ti me delivery