Employer Branding at McDonald’s: Redefining McJobs

INDIVIDUAL CASE ANALYSIS
EMPLOYER BRANDING AT MCDONALD’S: REDEFINING MCJOBS

QUESTIONS:

1. Employer brand initiatives adopted by McDonald’s UK since 2004 and its success

        McDonald’s UK, with David Fairhurst entrusted with responsibility of redefining the word McJob, took a lot of actions in this regard. In general, I think all of their campaigns were based too much on outside-in approach and overestimated the importance of promoting McJobs as stepping stones to future career and at the same time underestimated the value of displaying actual situation inside the company.

        “My first job” campaign, launched in September 2005 featured successful people that started their career in McDonald’s. I believe the inside-out branding is more influential, because hearing about changes from employees themselves is more convincing than seeing it on the poster. Therefore, I think the advantage of this campaign is that it displayed once employed people talking about their experience. However, the opportunity of better future career does not change the fact that employees are not satisfied with work environment and have low flexibility in their schedule.

        “Not bad for a McJob” campaign in April 2006 highlighted other facts about being employed at McDonald’s (see Exhibit 1 for poster information). They emphasised individual development, trainings, benefits offered and skills learned in McJob. The aim of this campaign is to change the reputation, which in my opinion is more effective approach. However, this campaign did not have personal touch. The plain words on paper are less credible than the ones said by workers.

        The best campaign in my opinion was the “My McJob” campaign launched in August 2008, because it has both, in my opinion important, features - personal touch of actual employees as well as focus on benefits and good working environment.

        Campaigns supported with petitions to change the dictionary definition were also launched. I think this approach is too direct and may be risky in terms of Shakespearian dilemma of “protesting too much”. Asking people to sign for redefining of the term does not show their actual effort to make work environment satisfactory.

        Nonetheless, I think the whole attempt of improving employer brand was successful since they people felt more confident and satisfied working there and also external perception about McJob was more valuable. Exhibit 2 shows brand value of the 10 most valuable fast food brands worldwide in 2017 (in million U.S. dollars). It is obvious that McDonald’s has a lead, proving its success in employer branding initiatives.

2. Improving phases of employer branding process and using it in order to attract talent

        Firstly, the concept phase of employer branding could be done more precisely before taking actions. They did realise the need of change after appearance of McJob word in dictionary, but before implementing their initiatives they should make a deep research about their position in relation to its competitors, perception of internal and external audiences, and gather information about member crew as well as managers in order to make better decisions about their strategies. McDonald’s people project is the only one that carried out an in-depth research before developing “Hierarchy of needs”.

        Integration is the most important phase and was carried out with attempt of bridging the real and ideal external perception. They tried different communication techniques, however they could improve it by using more social media tools.

        In order to make the meaning of McJob even more valuable, I think the company should focus more on the inside-out approach which lets the employees do the employer branding themselves The investments in training and development programs, health insurance benefits, McPassport initiative, making schedule more and more flexible, and other benefits received by employees definitely boosted their confidence, satisfaction and motivation, but I think McDonald’s should in that point work harder to show these changes to the external audience. They could also encourage employees to help them change the general opinion about their job. One way of enabling employers to show their pleasant as well as professional working environment is to organise events like barbecues or holiday celebrations where employees could invite their family and friends and the word about the enjoyable McJob would spread very quickly. By that, they would increase the social value of the company which may attract new talent.

        Also, I think they should start working on employer branding through social media. You can do a lot of creative and innovative advertisement campaigns with lower costs. In addition you reach more people in less time. You can make different kind of posts for different target group by understanding their interests and needs. To increase the interest value of the company, they could make some activities where employers would be able to contribute to decision making with innovative ideas.

3. Sourcing channels used by McDonald’s

        The employer branding initiatives of McDonald’s are strongly connected to delivering good customer experience which consequently influences reputation. They try to do it by selling food with good quality at low price. The recruitment is based more on attitude and  behaviour than on qualifications and previous experiences. They try to brand their jobs as great, flexible entry-level jobs that help you build on skills, enabling future progression.

        Job applications are made online, where recruitment tools help people rule themselves out already by asking some typical situational questions. Bringing messages alive through welcome games, videos and other forms of interactive tools signalises the importance of soft skills and engagement.

        McDonald’s Singapore has website only for career and recruitment purposes, which is very clear and easy to use. It promotes the friendly environment, career experiences and opportunities for progress. You can apply for a job on that website. The company invites especially young job-seekers to take advantage of working in their community through posters, online advertisements and campaigns. Their social media profiles are really follow-worthy and through them they can reach big group of people attract more talents and skilled people suitable for them.