Franchise
As the general dialogue of this document unfolds, it is reaching across these subcategories. A chief differentiator between retail and franchise is that in the former every little business expression island is still wholly owned by the larger corporate entity. Imagine creating an even larger built-in disconnect by spinning off independent "plug and play" locations. One imagines the common experience of settling down with your sack lunch only to realize that the drive-through person got it wrong. As these errors occur regularly at the hands of minimum wage earners, this author's self conciliatory mantra to himself has become, “remember, that's why they're working here, and their consequence is both their experience and compensation package” (the consolation is not an elevated feeling so much as a backing off perspective).
Such ineptitude has even spawned the term "McJob” (…now in the Oxford Dictionary, by the way) McDonalds countered as recently as yesterday (April 19, 2011 with a National Hiring Day; and to its credit is among the few who give felons, among the most challenged populations, a second chance). One franchise owner of several stores in Philadelphia reported a need to hire approximately 100, and at one location received over 400 applications in the first four hours alone. Corporations, such as McDonald's, who have come a long way in recent decades to express social responsibility, continue to miss the point in such instances as this recent national, what amounted to a "cattle call" (McDonald’s, 2011).
Elsewhere
There was a passage of time in this author's life when employment was in call centers. Fortunately, there was an ability to rise out of those trenches and become part of management. In many cases, these institutions were multinational brands.
A number of things are notably different here. The interaction with the customer is not face-to-face and we are speaking of a highly scripted, highly controlled environment.
This is not to say that nonsense does not occur here as well, however, having been on both sides of the managerial/employee construct, the highly controlled environment and the scripting certainly helped. What is also true (and I know this as a trainer in those settings), is that when a company chose to honor the humanity of its employees by empowering them through training, coupled with real leadership, transcendent things happened.
Conclusion
People are not disposable. That axiom has to become first and foremost.
There is very little that we manufacture in the United States today, and if we cannot learn to serve each other better, we likely have a very dim future (not everyone will get to participate in the new knowledge economy). The companies that highlight their growing talent efforts at the base of operations, rewarding lower management, embracing and honoring its base employees, they will be rewarded with more loyalty, candor and better customer relations.
As one looks back over this document, only something as blatant as shrinkage falls in the domain of the employee, the rest is management’s responsibility. Now, in an age when business is actively studying and engaging the technology of leadership itself, hardly is there an excuse. Like any mentor/mentee relationship, the mentor cannot keep changing mentees; they need to step up their own game.
References
McDonald’s. (2011). Working Here (Corporate hiring site). Retrieved from McDonald’s: http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/careers/working_here.html
NPR. (Producer). (2011, April 19). Caitlin Kelly: “Malled” [Audio podcast]. Retrieved from http://thedianerehmshow.org/audio-player?nid=14089
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