Organizational Development

“Max Burgers wants to expand not only in Sweden but also the rest of the world. To do that we have to have many good managers. That’s why we got in touch with the ICS program. We liked the program from the start because it promotes courage and self-awareness, exactly what our young men and women need. By answering the two questions of Personal Mission Statement and Work Purpose, people made career decisions and stuck with them. They developed a clear plan of who they want to be for their futures.” – Jonas Aspenfjall, General Manager Operations Max Burgers, Stockholm Sweden

 

Although most of Imex organizational development work, team-builidng, collaboration, divsersity training, etc. is done through The Human Element®, The Implicit Career Search has proven to be a remarkably effective program for assisting companies to:

 

• Reduce training time and costs
• Increase staff retention
• Provide internal motivation for employees
• Define employee’s roles within the company
• Play a mentorship role in the development of young people’s careers

 

 

With 120 restaurants worldwide and approximately 5400 employees, Max Burgers is the most profitable restaurant in Sweden, outperforming both McDonald’s and Burger King. The Implicit Career Search has become an integral piece of their staff training program, providing the following results:

 

Max Restaurant	Pre-ICS	Post-ICS
% of trainers becoming managers	50	85
% of managers remaining with Max	20	70
Average training time to become a manager	2 years	1 year

 

The ICS/Max approach to staff training and development is unique in that entry-level employees indicating they would like to become managers are first asked to develop an ICS career plan based on the contribution they would like to make through their life’s work. They are not influenced to base this work on a career with Max Restaurant’s. If the work purpose they decide upon during the ICS workshop can be achieved by working at Max they are then enlisted in the training program. Should there work purpose not be achievable at Max they are encouraged to follow their implicit careers. As is clear from the results above, this approach not only provides Max with internally motivated employees but life-long advocates from the those who develop careers outside of Max Restaurants.