Chapter 9: McDonald’s, the employer
Aims of the exercise
- To gain an overview of McDonald’s corporate website
- To discern the key elements of McDonald’s culture and practices as an employer as presented on its website
- To assess McDonald’s as an employer, including its attempts to deal with its critics
Getting started
Go to McDonald’s corporate website, at
www.mcdonalds.com/corp. Here you will find a number of major headings, including ‘our values’ and ‘careers’. These will be the focus of this assignment. Click on ‘Our values’, which features ‘Values in practice’. Under ‘about’, click on ‘employment experience’, then ‘making people a priority’. On this page, there is a commendation of McDonald’s as a great place to work. Click on ‘read more’. This piece is entitled, ‘At the front counter – engaged and committed employees.’ Read this piece. By this time, you will probably be forming an impression of McDonald’s as an employer.
Tasks
A. Questions
- In the piece entitled, ‘At the front counter – engaged and committed employees’, what is said about benefits to employees? Would they be attractive to you as an employee?
- How does McDonald’s dispel the McJobs image? Do you feel this is successful?
Now, go back to home page of McDonald’s Corporation. Under ‘Careers’, click on ‘Hamburger University’, and answer the following questions:
- Looking at the Hamburger University information, what does it tell you about the training offered? Is the training targeted specifically at employment in McDonald’s or for skills which are useful in a range of potential jobs?
- How internationalized is Hamburger University in its perspective and operations?
B. Reflection
There is a good deal of information about McDonald’s as a company on the website – information which does not receive the amount of media publicity as the items which focus on the company’s food. However, McDonald’s has been the subject of criticism for the McJobs image.
- Do you feel that McDonald’s has responded effectively to the critics?
- Would you consider a career with McDonald’s?
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