McDonald's to Use Nintendo DS to Train Future Employees

You have to give a hand to McDonald's. They are a fast food company that has stated on more than on occasion that it is important to continue learning while you work for them. The company has helped make sure that this happens through developing highly ranked training programs to make their employees and managers better than the competition. This is why it is important to point out what McDonald's is planning to do next: use the Nintendo DS system to train their employees of the future.

McDonald's has perhaps one of the better understandings of how important technology is to the younger generation. This statement can be made because the company generally deals with younger workers as their employees. Perhaps this is why the company thought it was important to tap into technology to better train their employees. You can argue that they already do this on the computer, but being on a computer can take you away from the actual action on the sales flow. The Nintendo DS system will allow trainees to use the system and remain on the floor at the same time.

In order to make this concept a reality, McDonald's is investing $2.2 million into developing a one of a kind training "game". This game will be called eSmart that the company promises will cut training time down by a half and increase productivity at the same time. How this is possible was not really explained. However, it can only be assumed that the game will help initiate a more direct training program that will allow users to learn while working at the same time.

I find the whole idea to be kind of trend-setting. The Nintendo DS is a nice hand held gaming machine that can be easily carried around. Managers can hand the DS to new employees with directions on how to make a sandwich, cook fries, or even how to properly clean up your area. Instead of reading the instructions and forgetting them soon after, a user will be able to get their training instructions and do the task immediately. This is how training time can be cut in half because a user will not have to relearn something because they forgot it from the initial training. People basically learn better from a hands on approach.

The company is going to roll out the program in Japan first. They feel like Japan is the perfect market to test out the concept because the Japanese use technology even more than we do. If the game proves to be successful like the company believes, it will only be a short period of time before we see it come over to a Mcdonald's in the United States.