McDonald's HR Practices: Strategies for Employee Management and Success Case Study

Human Resource Management McDonalds 

Introduction: Human Resource Management McDonalds 

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This research examines the Human Resource management practises of McDonald's in order to determine the specific theories and methods used by the company. McDonald', UKs has been studied for its working environment, motivational elements, and teamwork. As a result of evaluating the effectiveness of several HR processes, induction, development, business planning, and appraisal of staff performance have been studied. Human Resource Management concepts and some of McDonald's corporate principles are elucidated via an examination of the company's published works and online presence. Results from the analysis and research show that McDonald's has a systematic approach to hiring new staff and orienting new hires to their roles.

McDonald’s

Fast food giant McDonald's dominates the global market. Sales for the whole year totaled $23 billion in 1993. In addition to being one of the largest industries in the country, the service sector employs over 500,000 people throughout the United States. The chain operates from over 10,000 locations worldwide, including both traditional restaurants with drive-through windows, as well as some satellite locations. McDonald's continued domination of the fast food market is unlikely. In 2021, McDonald's earned $7.54 billion over the world. Around 200,000 people are working at McDonald's offices throughout the globe. Across the globe, McDonald's franchisees employ over 2 million people (McDonald’s, 2022). In most McDonald's locations, about 93% are owned by franchisees.

The goal of the human resources (HR) department is to assist the firm gain a competitive edge via its workforce by effectively managing the processes of hiring, training, assessing, and compensating its personnel. The human resource department of any corporation plays a vital role to link the aims and goals of the organization with the competence of the workforce (Stahl et al., 2020).  McDonald’s human resources department is among the finest in the business, and it's their responsibility to ensure that the firm has the right people, doing the right tasks, at the right times, at the right prices, and using the workers with the right talents in the right roles. For McDonald's ever-expanding business, human resources must also assess workers' productivity, security, perks, morale, and education.

Recruitment And Selection in McDonald’s

McDonald's places an emphasis on hiring qualified individuals as it competes in expanding domestic and global markets (Tien et al., 2020). Fast food restaurant McDonald's does not use recruitment survey samples. Hiring real professionals may have a significant impact on the company's success and development. People who play the games McDonald's hosts online or baby boomers, who browse the website for the company's employment center will be exposed to information on the perks accessible to them, such as conducting interviews through video chat and verifying certain details in person before being extended a job offer.

McDonald's uses its website as well as other job-seeking platforms to publicize their open vacancies (Ajunwa and Greene, 2019). To accomplish its recruiting and selection goals, such as locating the most qualified applicants for open positions, they set up a specialized division to find and hire top talent, making sure the abilities and traits they require for the positions are met, and designing the procedure for the identifying them in the candidate; keeping the expense of the screening low, determining whether or not the individual has the stamina and commitment to succeed in the position being offered while ensuring that the recruiting and selection processes be as efficient as feasible.

McDonald's does its hiring all year, much like other companies. Instead of looking outside the company for managers & assistants, McDonald's prefers to promote from within. This reduces administrative burdens and saves time and money on training since the new hire is already familiar with the company and its culture.

Human resources at McDonald's write out detailed job descriptions for each open position, including the role's title, division, purpose,  location, and tasks so that new hires may get up to speed quickly.

At McDonald's, the internal promotion rate for paid managers is fifty percent. McDonald's employs an application form with questions designed to gauge an applicant's background, education, and work experience as part of the hiring process. McDonald's prospective employees were narrowed down following an interview, which is the most significant aspect of the hiring process. Interviews for McDonald's commence with a conversation with the local Area Manager or Restaurant Manager. Face-to-face interviews are highly valued by McDonald's since they allow interviewers to get a better sense of an applicant's personality, demeanor, and skills (Melão and Reis, 2020). As a result, the openings are occupied with the desired quality in the appropriate numbers via this selection & rejection procedure. Also, McDonald's provides a worthwhile orientation for its new employees. However, the onboarding process starts long before the employee is officially hired.

Training And Development of McDonald’s

The first step in developing a company's workforce is to provide the chosen personnel with the opportunity to hone their talents (Sánchez-Hernández et al., 2019). In this, the individual obtains a fundamental understanding of the work position for subsequent growth. Employees are more productive and knowledgeable as a result of the continual training sessions. Training in this manner ensures that an employee is always up-to-date on his or her duties and can contribute to the needs of the company. Therefore, to attain complete client pleasure, it is crucial to learn about McDonald's training and advancement programs.

The HR team of McDonalds conducts the training and development process comprises for boosting job satisfaction amongst team members might help cut down on staff absenteeism and turnover, decreasing job discontent via preserving the exceptional performance of the workers within the workplace. In order to deal with workforce shortages, McDonalds HR managers concentrate on the improvement of the competencies of current personnel McDonald's is known for its dedication to the utilization of advanced machinery and technology.

McDonald's Success in Educating and Developing its Staff

Once the applicant is chosen, McDonalds commences training programs with a detailed orientation. Video equipment and other technology tools are accessible at each McDonald's location to aid in the training of new staff. This means that everyone should participate in McDonald’s continual training. Thus, all workers have an orientation period, after which they enter a structured development program tailored to their specific job responsibilities. Once initial training is complete, all personnel must complete an Observation Checklist (OCL) in order to be considered proficient in the area. McDonald's has a mandatory 21-day probationary period during which all new hires are monitored and evaluated for their performance.

McDonald’s Human Resource Planning

McDonald's, like any other company, needs its employees' help running its day-to-day operations. McDonald's insists that all employees play an integral part in daily operations.

Therefore, McDonald's HRM strategy planning also makes sure that its strategy fits the demand of choosing possible workers, not the ones that contradict the roles and postings. This improves the workers' appropriateness and protects the business from a variety of issues, including high levels of low productivity, employee job discontent, high amounts of absenteeism, customer complaints, employee turnover, and unpleasant feelings among staff members (Stone, Cox and Gavin, 2020).

McDonald's the production and service efficiency is ensured by a culture that values education and training. The company's ability to successfully implement its corporate culture in order to attain the targeted levels of human resource skills is reflected, at least in part, by the organization's ongoing development. This issue illustrates how crucial a company's culture is to McDonald's worldwide success. McDonald's has a culture that encourages cutting waste and working smarter, which has helped the company increase its output. The corporate culture at McDonald's has a positive influence on service quality.

McDonald’s Leadership

The management approach followed by leaders at McDonald's strives to develop locations that are exciting work environments. This is termed "team-building". McDonald's senior leadership encourages a culture of accountability and accepts and embraces social responsibility. In reality, team leaders exemplify every criterion used to describe effective leaders. These include the capability to impact human behavior to fulfil a mission; the capacity to articulate a vision, encapsulate values, and create an environment in which things are possible; entities that undertake one or more actions of leading; the capability to mould human behavior to fulfil a mission; and the employment of an administrative position.

Due to its authoritarian management style, staff employees at McDonald's have no say in any operational decisions. It is also true that crew members' proposals are often ignored since they are new to the organization. Teenagers working in fast food during their school breaks are not likely to provide any useful feedback to the manager. Crew members are youthful and hence driven when they are paid a salary on time and provided additional perks like transportation and lunch. Because of this, the team is able to get their task done despite the authoritarian management. The autocratic leadership style does not meet the self-esteem standards indicated in Maslow’s hierarchy. On the other hand, employees at McDonald's learn to appreciate themselves and one another. McDonald’s will not embrace another leadership style since the management thinks that a  democratic or persuasive approach would not deliver results, viz., providing excellent meals on schedule to its consumers.

Adair's Model, often known as action-centered leadership, is the foundation of McDonald's success. It's a positive paradigm within which the leader motivates their team by setting an example of passion and dedication. To work together on a single goal, team leaders created effective units.

The organizational structure of McDonald’s

McDonald's Corporation has a centralized structure, although each of its restaurants has its unique structure. The personnel at McDonald's restaurants function as a unit to meet the needs of customers quickly and efficiently. Everyone else except the management is a waiter or waitress who takes orders and brings them out as soon as possible. Work is delegated inside the organization, and members coordinate their efforts to achieve the group's mission (Tien, 2019).

At McDonald's the range of the manager's control is small. The term "span of control" is used to describe the extent to which one supervisor is responsible for the work of their subordinates. Therefore if five employees are operating under the manager or supervisor, the control span is five. There are benefits if the range of control is limited. There is more coordination because of the manager's ability to keep a close eye on subordinates and day-to-day activities. Managers are not overworked and have enough time to strategize and solve issues. Managers may get more done with less help when their sphere of influence is small.

A flat organization, on the other hand, has a broad scope of authority (Fettig et al., 2018). Theorists are of the view that towering organizational structures are inefficient, notwithstanding the benefit of a limited control span. At McDonald's, one may take a course in leadership that teaches one how to cultivate high-functioning groups and people. Team leaders understood the value of teamwork and made effective use of a variety of tactics and resources to maximize their teams' performance.

Crew Members at McDonald's are entrusted with serving customers, preparing meals, and maintaining a clean and sanitary work environment. Every member of the crew, regardless of their particular interests, would be expected to contribute to one of these roles. 

Crew members on the Food Preparation team are tasked with putting together and cooking the food for McDonald's customers. All crew members work together with a strong sense of teamwork and autonomy. Mutual regard exists. Nevertheless, it is fair to assume that most crew members are unaware of the organization's strategy because they have not been given access to it. Employees are able to work together in good spirits because of the relaxed nature of the staff's communication.

McDonald's has a dedicated staff because the team leaders care about their needs. The management has assembled a top-notch, fully invested staff that responds well to incentives. With the right attitude and drive, any group may achieve its goals. The research found that the most productive groups shared commonalities including a shared vision for success, a focus on results, high-quality members, a supportive environment, and an ethical leader.

Culture at McDonald’s

At all times, McDonald's will strive to ensure that everyone feels welcome and that differences are celebrated as strengths. Throughout the McDonald's System, there is a pervasive cultural atmosphere like this. It draws on the progress they have already made in the world, points out areas where they can make more progress, and makes use of every chance to stress that welcoming everyone is fundamental to their identity (Syrek et al., 2022).

Every person at McDonald's, no matter how junior or senior, have a part to play in making the restaurant welcoming to everyone. Putting the principles of McDonald's into action means showing those to the world every day. Gaining the confidence of the millions of customers who frequent their restaurants every day and the thousands of employees who work in both our restaurants and our corporate headquarters requires demonstrating concern for the issues that matter most to them. 

Following the findings of a pay gap investigation conducted in 2021, they were able to eliminate any remaining minor pay discrepancies. According to the analysis done in 2021, there was no gender pay gap favoring poorly represented groups in the United States and they had already substantially achieved equal pay for women worldwide in Company-owned and operated markets, where women have been compensated an average of $0.9985 for every $1 paid to men for similar jobs ((Tien, 2019).

Teamwork at McDonald's

A culture built on cooperation encourages people to attempt new things and think big. Essentially, McDonald's needs an environment that encourages the development of rising leaders fostered by a strong sense of team. McDonald's has maintained its prosperity through the efforts of its dedicated employees. McDonald's makes use of its employees' collaborative skills by providing them with orientation and guidance from more experienced employees. McDonald's effectively implements traineeships by sending a mentor or coach to each trainee once a week to guide them through the many programs they are required to complete. Additionally, McDonald's is an inclusive workplace. Discrimination on the basis of race, gender, age, or religion is not tolerated and is actively discouraged. All personnel, whether they are at the cash register or the drive-through, pitch in to assist one another when necessary so that they can meet the requirements and preferences of every client (Leroy et al., 2022).

Conclusion

McDonald's, one of the most popular fast food chains in the world uses effective HR policies to hire, train and develop their employees to ensure the great performance of their employees towards achieving the corporate goals. Human resource management at McDonald’s entails the same tasks as the personnel department, such as strategic planning, task analysis, recruiting and selection, employee engagement, performance evaluation, employee assessments, pay management, education, and training, etc. The company values inclusion and diversity and attaches importance to employees from different cultural backgrounds as this aid in their thinking global and acting local model of operations. Each member of the restaurant staff plays an essential role in ensuring that the clients get the highest standard of food and service, thus it is crucial that everyone works together and follows the established procedures. Teamwork is heavily emphasized in both corporate training programs and employee evaluations, and it plays a role in both the hiring process and promotion decisions. Employees have the option of joining one of many specialized groups while working in McDonald's restaurants, including the Front of the House, Kitchen, Dining Room, Drive-Thru, or Management. With these different policies for HR, and approaches for teamwork, leadership, and culture, the company is successful in operating across multiple nations and has been able to gain the loyalty of customers of different age groups.

References

About Us: McDonald’s facts and story | McDonald's (no date). Available at: https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/about-us.html (Accessed: December 10, 2022). 

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Fettig, K., Ga?i?, T., Köskal, A., Kühn, A. and Stuber, F., 2018, June. Impact of industry 4.0 on organizational structures. In 2018 IEEE international conference on engineering, technology and innovation (ICE/ITMC) (pp. 1-8). IEEE.

Leroy, H., Buengeler, C., Veestraeten, M., Shemla, M. and Hoever, I.J., 2022. Fostering team creativity through team-focused inclusion: The role of leader harvesting the benefits of diversity and cultivating value-in-diversity beliefs. Group & Organization Management, 47(4), pp.798-839.

Melão, N. and Reis, J., 2020, June. Using social networks in personnel selection: a survey of human resource professionals. In 2020 15th Iberian Conference on Information Systems and Technologies (CISTI) (pp. 1-6). IEEE.

Sánchez-Hernández, M.I., González-López, Ó.R., Buenadicha-Mateos, M. and Tato-Jiménez, J.L., 2019. Work-life balance in great companies and pending issues for engaging new generations at work. International journal of environmental research and public health, 16(24), p.5122.

Stahl, G.K., Brewster, C.J., Collings, D.G. and Hajro, A., 2020. Enhancing the role of human resource management in corporate sustainability and social responsibility: A multi-stakeholder, multidimensional approach to HRM. Human Resource Management Review, 30(3), p.100708.

Stone, R.J., Cox, A. and Gavin, M., 2020. Human resource management. John Wiley & Sons.

Syrek, C., Kühnel, J., Vahle?Hinz, T. and de Bloom, J., 2022. Being an accountant, cook, entertainer and teacher—all at the same time: Changes in employees' work and work?related well?being during the coronavirus (COVID?19) pandemic. International Journal of Psychology, 57(1), pp.20-32.

Tien, N.H., 2019. Customization and Standardization of the Business Strategy of Foreign Enterprises in Vietnam–the McDonald’s Case and the Fast Food Sector.“. International journal of research in marketing management and sales, 1(2), pp.44-50.

Tien, N.H., 2019. Customization and Standardization of the Business Strategy of Foreign Enterprises in Vietnam–the McDonald’s Case and the Fast Food Sector.“. International journal of research in marketing management and sales, 1(2), pp.44-50.

Tien, N.H., Dana, L.P., Jose, R.J.S., Van Dat, N. and Duc, P.M., 2020. Analysis of McDonalds’ entry strategy into Vietnam market. International journal of advanced research and development, 5(3), pp.23-29.