ICS TO THE MAX!

MAX BURGERS AND THE IMPLICIT CAREER SEARCH (ICS)

 “Max Burgers, Sweden’s oldest, most popular and most profitable restaurant chain, has over 3,000 employees in their 86 restaurants. They incorporated ICS into their management-training program in 2008. The restaurant industry typically has a high turnover rate and Max looked at ways of retaining their staff, especially the management team that they have invested time and resources with already. Max wanted to use ICS, not as part of the interview process, but working with potential managers to see if the management program was REALLY what they wanted to do as the next stage of their career. Max made it very clear that they would support the individual should they find that their true career path would take them in a different direction.

When we started using the ICS workshop within our high potentials program (Team 20) there were only about 50% of the trainees that became restaurant managers, and only about 20% that stayed on as managers. The rest went back to their local town and back to their old job as assistant manager. Max wants to expand not only in Sweden but also in the rest of the world, but to do that we have to have many good managers. That’s when we got in touch with the ICS program. We liked the program from the start because it promoted courage and self-awareness. That’s exactly what these young men and women needed. By answering the two questions of Personal Mission Statement and Work Purpose, people made their decision and then stuck with it. They made a clear plan of what they wanted to be in the future.

Today 85% of all Team 20 members become a restaurant manager and almost 70% stay at their first assignment. Because of the ICS workshop we have cut training time in half. But the most important change is the drive and ambition that people attending the program are showing us. They have, in a few days, come to realize that “I am the one and only person responsible for my development”, and that makes a world of difference. They have decided what they want and they are going for it.”

Jonas Aspenfjall

General Manager Operations

Max Burgers, Stockholm, Sweden