Case Study: How Global Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) Brands Use Adobe Learning Manager to Achieve Franchise Training Goals

The risks of neglecting standardized training for franchisees

If you are a Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) brand with a network of franchisee outlets across the country or the globe, your customers expect a consistent positive experience when they step into any of your outlet. To achieve a consistent positive customer experience, you need to be able to provide standardized training to all of your franchisees. However, when it comes to achieving consistency and efficiency in training efforts, there are certain challenges that are unique to the QSR franchise business model. Factors such as a geographically distributed network of stores, high employee turnover, an intricate reporting structure, multiple product lines, and multiple roles and levels complicate the process.

A Brandon Hall Group, Extended Enterprise Learning Study (2020) states—”Left to their own devices, franchisees may adopt their own training methods, resulting in an inconsistent customer experience across locations. Failure to build a successful franchisee training program could result in inconsistent quality, operational inefficiencies, and a loss of brand loyalty.” (Source)

Introduction

In this case study, we will examine how a global QSR brand uses Adobe Learning Manager as its core learning platform to achieve consistency and efficiency in training and resolve inherent challenges in franchisee training.

The QSR Brand articulated the following as their key requirements while evaluating franchisee training platform options.

A centralized platform to execute corporate-driven learning for a vast franchisee network in the country or across the globe.
The ability to fully customize the functionality and branding of the learning platform; integrate the platform into their existing franchisee portals.
Features that enable managers to approve training completion on the learning platform after observing employees perform their job in the actual work environment. Managers can be both hierarchical managers (for example—reporting managers) and non-hierarchical managers (for example—shift supervisors, store managers, compliance managers).
A platform that supports learning administration for an intricate reporting structure observed in the QSR franchise model. For example, one employee reporting to more than one store manager, or one manager managing more than one franchisee store.
Use reporting data from the learning platform for downstream use cases (for example—determine which employees are training compliant and eligible to work on the floor.)
A platform that has built-in gamification to keep learners engaged and motivated.

Let us dive a little deeper into how Learning Manager enabled the QSR brand to meet and exceed the requirements it had from a franchisee training platform.

A central platform to execute corporate-driven learning

Learning Manager Feature/Functionality Used: Blended Learning Administration, Skills-based Recommendations.

In a QSR Franchise model, there are benefits to running the franchisee training program centrally with certain supervisory control given to location managers. A centralized program helps the franchisor maintain training quality, consistency, and cadence.

The QSR brand in this case study uses Learning Manager to run its franchisee training program across its entire franchisee network in the US with more than 15,000 active learners. Learners comprise shop floor employees and managers. Various formats such as virtual classroom, self-paced, and blended mode—all administered through Learning Manager are used to provide training on multiple areas such as propriety culinary methods, hygiene and food safety, regulatory and compliance, marketing, and store management.

The QSR brand uses the “Skills” approach in Learning Manager to organize and display courses on their learning platform. The concept of Skills is one of the ways to manage and recommend content in the learning platform.

Here’s a quick way to understand the Skills approach—Admins create skills relevant to the organization (for example, propriety baking, menu knowledge, cash handling, customer service, hygiene, and food safety). Then, Authors create courses and tag courses with skills created by the admins. Finally, employees can search, and filter courses based on skills. Admins can also set up course recommendations on the learning platform based on skills.

Fully customize functionality and branding of the franchisee learning platform

Learning Manager Feature/Functionality Used: Learning Manager APIs, Learning Manager Components in AEM Sites

For a large QSR brand, consistent branding across all online and offline platforms is important. The headless version of Learning Manager provided the ability to integrate the learning platform into their existing franchise portals. This also ensured a seamless experience for the end-users when they landed on the learning platform from one of their internal franchisee portals. The headless version of Learning Manager enables QSR brands to ensure that the look and feel of the learning platform conform to their stringent branding guidelines and also develop custom functionality if needed.

The QSR industry in general experiences a high employee turnover. To reduce the turnaround time for new employees to be productive on the floor, one of the key requirements of the QSR brand was that new employees should be able to discover and consume training tailored for them in a self-service manner from ‘Day 1’. The QSR brand used Learning Manager APIs to build custom pages on their learning platform that enabled them to host training content tailored for new employees with greater visibility and ease of access.

The QSR brand was already using Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) Sites and built their franchisee learning platform by using the Learning Manager components available within AEM Sites + Learning Manager APIs. This is an efficient, low-code approach to building a franchisee learning platform and provides complete flexibility to customize the look, feel, and functionality of the learning platform.

Managers approve training completion after observing employees perform their jobs in the actual work environment

Learning Manager Feature/Functionality Used: Checklist module, File Submission module, Support for Hierarchical and Non-Hierarchical Managers as Checklist Reviewers

Training completion in a traditional sense generally involves an instructor marking completion for trainees based on an assessment held in the classroom or online. However, in many industries, the assessment of training completion and employee readiness is best done by a supervisor/manager after observing how an employee is performing their job in the field or in the store. To achieve this, the QSR brand uses a feature called “Checklist Module” in Learning Manager.

In simple terms, a Checklist Module contains questions for supervisors/managers that they need to answer on the learning platform after observing an employee perform their job in the actual work environment. Typically, a Checklist Module is the last module in a course and employees get training completion credit only after the checklist module is completed by the supervisor/manager. Managers get notified of checklists assigned to them for review in the Manager dashboard.

Admins can set up both hierarchical managers (for example—reporting managers) and non-hierarchical managers (for example—trainers, and shift supervisors) as checklist reviewers. Authors while creating courses can use the option to include all managers as checklist reviewers at once without the need to add each manager individually.

Similar to the concept of a Checklist Module, Learning Manager also provides the option of a “File Submission Module” which is used by another major QSR brand. In a “File Submission Module” an employee needs to upload, for example–a write-up, or a video to demonstrate they are performing the job as expected. The employees get training completion credit only after the file is reviewed and approved by the supervisor/manager.

Support for an intricate reporting structure observed in the QSR franchise industry

Learning Manager Feature/Functionality Used: Multiple-manager Setup

In the QSR franchise model, there can be a rather intricate reporting structure where:

One employee can be reporting to more than one store manager.
One manager can manage more than one franchisee store.

One employee can be reporting to more than one store manager—For example, the employee works certain shifts in one store and the remaining shifts in a different store, thus reporting to two (or more) store managers. In such a scenario, managers in both stores should be able to review and approve the employee’s learning activity on the platform. For example, checklist or submission modules.

In Learning Manager, an employee can be set up to report to multiple managers. Employee activity on the learning platform is accessible to all reporting managers and the relevant manager can review and approve the employee’s learning activity.

One manager can manage more than one franchisee store—For example, there may be three relatively smaller stores in an area, and they are managed by one store manager. In such a scenario, the manager managing multiple stores should be able to review and approve the learning activity of employees from all the stores he/she is managing without having to switch between multiple store manager accounts.

In Learning Manager, a manager managing multiple stores is provided with a drop-down menu of the stores managed in the Manager Dashboard. The manager can then select a store from the menu to perform tasks specific to the store.

Learning Manager’s support for a multiple-manager setup has found wide adoption by major global QSR brands. The setup can be done in an efficient manner either via CSV upload or via APIs as well.

Use reporting data from the learning platform for capacity planning

Learning Manager Feature/Functionality Used: Custom reports and dashboards, Custom admin roles

For a reputed QSR brand, it is imperative that only those employees who have undergone all the required training w.r.t culinary methods, customer service, hygiene and food safety regulations, and so on should be serving customers at the store. Store managers at the QSR brand utilize store-level reporting data from the learning platform to determine which employees are training-compliant and hence eligible to work on the floor. By using Learning Manager APIs, custom reports and dashboards have been created for store managers to keep track of training KPIs.

Custom admin roles can be created within Learning Manager to grant specific privileges (for example, access to reports) to store managers, area managers, supervisors, and so on. This helps the QSR brand run its franchisee training program centrally while at the same time giving decentralized access to certain functionalities at the store level.

A platform that has built-in gamification to keep learners engaged and motivated

Learning Manager Feature/Functionality Used: Built-in gamification engine, Learning Manager APIs

Combining the strengths of Learning Manager’s APIs and the built-in gamification engine, the QSR brand was able to implement a gamified approach to various learner interactions in their franchisee learning platform. For example, when a franchisee employee logs into the platform, the landing page has a leaderboard that displays the names of the top ten peers, levels attained, and scores achieved by completing various activities in the learning platform and the relative position of the employee in the leaderboard. This helps drive engagement and brings in an element of healthy competition. A visually appealing map designed in brand colors containing relatable elements from the brand displays the complete learning journey and the progress made by the employee so far. Employees can choose their avatar and customize it. Virtual badges have been designed that look like the actual badges employees wear in the stores. These badges can be achieved by completing activities in the platform and ‘worn’ by the employee’s avatar. There are various achievements and rewards a franchisee employee can win in the learning platform which makes them come back to the learning platform voluntarily.

Conclusion

With a comprehensive set of capabilities that have been battle-tested to meet the demands of complex franchise training use cases, Learning Manager is a platform of choice for large QSR brands across the globe. Delivering a high-quality training experience to your franchisees helps ensure operational readiness, a consistently positive customer experience, and strong brand loyalty.

Learn more about how Learning Manager can help you achieve your franchisee training goals.

Adobe Learning Manager/Franchise-Store-Training

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