From the outbox of Meyer’s inbox:
In case you haven’t heard, McDonald’s is hiring to the tune of 50,000 new workers all in one day. Now, you may scoff by saying flipping burgers does not a career make. However, the big exec who just announced this plan on the ABC News started out working at McDonald’s 33 years ago as a single mom flipping burgers. Now she’s at the top of the fast-food food chain. Fact of the matter is that most of McDonald’s managers are hired from within. In other words it’s a straight line between the McFlurries and McManagement. (Couldn’t resist). Bottom line: 50,000 people going to work in one day is a great thing. Talk about fixing the unemployment numbers for April!
MCDONALD’S IS MCHIRING 50,000 EMPLOYEES IN ONE DAY by Amy Payne writing for Medill Reports of Chicago
How can one company attempt to hire 50,000 new employees in one day? Even for a company as large as McDonald’s Corp., it’s a challenging task. But that’s exactly what McDonald’s says it’s going to do April 19.
With 14,000 U.S. restaurants, the fast food empire is adding three to four new employees per location on average. Anyone is welcome to walk up to a McDonald’s location and apply. Interview times and locations may be found at individual restaurants.
Blanton Canady, owner and operator of three Chicago McDonald’s and member of the Black McDonald’s Operators Association, plans to have an area set aside with two to four managers conducting interviews. Canady will mainly be using www.mcstate.com as a prescreening online application process.
“It is going to be astronomical. This is the first time in my 30 years with the company that I have seen something like this,” Canady said. “We expect to see more qualified applicants who are interested in making a career change or looking for a second job.”
Canady is looking to fill 75 to 85 positions. His numbers are skewed higher because he owns the Navy Pier McDonald’s, which is coming up on the busy summer tourist season. Ron Lofton, owner and operator of five West Side McDonald’s locations, is looking to fill 30 to 40 positions out of the hundreds of candidates that are expected to show up. He is looking for at least 10 managers and between 10 and 20 crew members.
Lofton will be conducting interviews at only one of his five locations. He plans to use old-fashioned paper applications. Managers from each restaurant will staff the four to five interview stations. Before this, the most people Lofton had hired in one day is 30.
According to Darren Tristano, executive vice president of Technomic Inc., a Chicago-based food industry consultancy, McDonald’s is filling the pipeline for future and current management and will likely have hundreds of thousands of applicants across the nation.
“They have had continued growth and success, which allows them to reinvest in employment resources to maintain and enhance the customer experience,” Tristano said. How does McDonald’s plan to pay for the additional 50,000 new employees? The company and franchise owners will spend more than $518 million more in wages and salaries in the coming year, an average increase of more than $1.4 million a day across the nation.
Those employees will help McDonald’s keep up with increased sales, up 4.4 percent in 2010. Expanded menu offerings including McCafé and oatmeal, and double drive-throughs have contributed to the sales boost. McDonald’s is known for employee training programs, such as Hamburger University, which recently celebrated 50 years of operation at its Oak Brook home office. Along with earning college credits, employees also have a good chance to move up the restaurant and corporate ladder.
“The average McDonald’s location sells $2.4 million annually,” said Canady. “If you can run this business, you can do anything.”
Canady boasts that three of his senior managers started out flipping burgers and scooping fries. Of Lofton’s senior managers, 25 percent of them started off as crew.
McDonald’s is not alone in hiring. Recently, Home Depot Inc. announced that it will be hiring 60,000 employees for its spring promotional sales, including 1,000 seasonal positions. Lowe’s Co. Inc., the nation’s second largest home improvement chain, also announced it is planning to hire 50,000 temporary workers for the spring. With these three companies combined, 160,000 jobs will be added to the U.S. workforce.
You can read the rest of this McStory here.
