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htm Employer Branding at McDonald's: Redefining McJobs Case Details Case Intro 1 Case Intro 2 Excerpts ++ Font | Font -Case Details: Price: Case Code : HROB121 For delivery in electronic format: Rs. 400; For delivery through courier (within India): Rs. 400 + Rs. 25 for Shipping & Handling ChargesThemesEmployer Branding / Attraction and Retention Case Length : 26 pages Period : 2001-2009 Pub Date : 2009 Teaching Note : Not Available Organization : McDonald's Corporation Industry : Fast food Countries : UK; Europe; USA Abstract:This case is about the employer branding strategies adopted by McDonald's Corporation, one of the largest fast food chains in the world. Since the 1980s, entrylevel jobs at McDonald's had come to be associated with low-paying dead end jobs. The term 'McJobs' had become synonymous with low-prestige, low-benefit, no-future jobs in the service or retail sector particularly at fast food restaurants and retail stores. Though the term was coined to describe jobs at McDonald's, it was later used to refer to any low-status job where little training was required and workers' activities were strictly regulated Because of its common usage, the term appeared in the online version of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) in March 2001 and the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary (Merriam-Webster Dictionary) in 2003. The case discusses how McDonald's systemically tried to redefine the term 'McJobs' and improve its employer brand since the early 2000s. According to McDonald's, this negative interpretation of McJobs was not only inaccurate but also demeaning to the thousands of people working in the service sector. As employer branding was a critical management tool for companies to attract the right talent, McDonald's decided to try and revise the image associated with McJobs. This it did by taking various initiatives that also included advertising campaigns aimed at showcasing the benefits of working at McDonald's and bridging the divide between people's perceptions of the McJob and the real employment experience of people actually working for the fastfood chain. Experts felt that these were some of the best examples of a company successfully planning and implementing an employee branding strategy. However, the case also highlights the challenges faced by McDonald's in attracting new talent as derogatory comments continued to be made about McJobs and this could discourage prospective employees from taking up such jobs.

Issues: Understand the importance of employer branding and its relationship with the ability of a company to attract talent. Understand the issues and challenges in planning and implementing an employer branding initiative. Understand the strategic role of Human Resource Department. Evaluate the initiatives taken by McDonald's to bridge the gap between people's perceptions of McJobs and the real employment experiences of people actually working at its restaurants. Explore strategies that McDonald's could adopt in the future to enhance its employer brand. Contents: Page No. Introduction 1 Background Note 3 Origin of the Term 'McJobs' 5 The 'McJob' Issue 7 Redefining McJobs 8 "My First Job" Campaign 9 Mcdonald's People Project 10 "Not Bad for a McJob" Campaign 12 "Change the Definition" Petition Campaign 13 'My McJob' Campaign 14 Campaigns in Other Countries 15 Results 16 The Other View 18 Looking Ahead 18 Exhibits 20 "What it did brilliantly was make an assessment of the large gap between external perceptions and the internal reality of work at McDonald's. They then worked hard to redefine the meaning of 'McJob' by putting forward irrefutable evidence about the quality of jobs they offer."1 - Andy Dolby, managing director of Barkers Resourcing2, in November 2008. "But bridging the divide between people's perceptions of the McJob and the positive employment experience of people actually working for the brand is not going to be easy. While our employees tell me that they find the comments made about 'people like them' upsetting and demeaning, if we argue our case too stridently, we risk the old Shakespearian dilemma of seeming to be "protesting too much". We intend, instead, to acknowledge the McJob and all it has come to represent, and respectfully offer objective evidence that might challenge people's preconceptions." 3 - David Fairhurst, senior vice president people (UK and Northern Europe), McDonald's Corporation, in March 2006.

IntroductionIn early 2009, when an outlet of the world's leading fast food chain, McDonald's Corporation (McDonald's), in western Ireland put up a "Now Hiring" banner on its site, it received more than 500 applications. These included applications from bankers, architects, and accountants.4 Analysts viewed this as a sign of the troubled times with a recessionary trend setting in. But experts also pointed out that it was an indication that the company had been largely successful in bridging the gap between external perceptions of work at McDonald's and the internal reality through effective employer branding initiatives. Since the 1980s, the word 'McJobs' had been used as slang to describe a low-prestige, low-benefit, no-future job in the service or retail sector, particularly in fast food restaurants and retail stores. Though the term had been coined to describe jobs at McDonald's, it later came to refer to any low-status job where little training was required and workers' activities were strictly regulated. Because of its common usage, the term appeared in the online version of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED)5 in March 2001 and the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary6 (Merriam-Webster Dictionary) in 2003. The OED described McJobs as "an unstimulating, low-paid job with few prospects, esp. one created by the expansion of the service sector."7...