McDonald’s Recruiting, Selecting and Training for Success

01_Introduction

The reputation of any business ultimately depends on the quality of its products. High quality products need high quality people to create, design, produce and deliver them. So if a business is to maintain its reputation it needs to do well at recruiting high quality employees. For any business offering a large element of personal service, an ability to recruit, train and retain high quality staff is particularly vital.

This Case Study looks at how McDonald's, the world's largest and fastest growing global restaurant chain; uses recruitment and training policies with practices that are designed to attract, identify, develop and retain the high calibre of staff its line of business requires.

McDonald's opened its first UK restaurant October 1974. In December 2004, there were over 1330 McDonald's restaurants operating in the UK. Around 60% of these are owned and operated by the company. The remainder are operated by franchisees.

McDonald's is a large scale employer. In September 2004 in the UK the company-owned restaurants employed 43,491 people: 40,699 hourly-paid restaurant employees, 2,292 restaurant management, and 500 office staff. McDonald's franchisees employed a further 25,000 people.

A typical McDonald's restaurant employs about 60 people. Most employees are paid by the hour and are referred to as 'crew members'. Their primary responsibility is to prepare the food, serve customers and carry out tasks for the efficient running of the restaurants.

Other hourly-paid employees who work alongside them include Training Squad Members, Dining Area Host/esses, Party Entertainers, Administrative Assistants, Security Co-ordinators, Maintenance Staff, Night Closers, Floor Managers and Shift Running Floor Managers. These employees carry out more specific job functions. Their overall role, however, is to ensure the restaurant runs efficiently.

The remaining restaurant-based employees are salaried managers. It is their responsibility to manage the restaurant's operations, crew and business performance.

Each McDonald's restaurant is structured as an independent business, with restaurant management responsible for accounting, operations, inventory control, community relations, training and human resources.

The remaining company employees are salaried office staff, working in either the Corporate or Regional Departments.

02_The importance of recruitment

For McDonald's, people are its most important asset. This is because customer satisfaction begins with the attitudes and abilities of employees and committed, effective workers are the best route to success. For these reasons, McDonald's strives to attract and hire the best, and to provide the best place to work.

All businesses experience staff turnover for various reasons e.g. career change, leaving the area, returning to education, a new opportunity elsewhere. Recruiting and training staff is very expensive and businesses will look to keep staff turnover to a minimum. One way of doing this is to 'choose wisely, and treat well'.

McDonald's needs people who want to excel in delivering outstanding service. To ensure the company recruits the right people, it has identified essential skills and behaviours that applicants should be able to demonstrate. For each position there is a job description outlining typical duties and responsibilities and a person specification defining personal skills and competences.

03_Recruiting suitable applicants

Under McDonald's recruitment policy, each individual restaurant is responsible for filling hourly-paid positions. The Management Recruitment department in East Finchley co-ordinates the recruitment of managers.

For recruiting hourly-paid employees McDonald's use several avenues. Positions are generally advertised in the restaurant. The company's recruitment history shows this is the best method of hiring quality staff e.g. people living locally and/or friends of existing employees. McDonald's also uses local job centres, career fairs and other local facilities. It is vital to use effective hiring material with a clear message targeted at the right audience.

A recruitment exercise often generates more applications than there are positions available. The manager will select the applicants to be interviewed and will conduct the interviews.

Over 60% of restaurant crew are aged 20 or under and; for the majority of applicants, a job with McDonald's would be their first