1.7 Million Employees Hired! And counting…

McDonalds recently held a recruitment campaign where recruiters were tasked to hire 50,000 new hires nationwide all in one day! That is a lot of resumes and candidate information to collect.

This news may not be that out of the ordinary for McDonald’s usual hiring sprees; however it means a lot more than some give credit. “The new 50,000 jobs represent an upswing in employment opportunities after turnover slowed in recent years.”

Danitra Barnett, Vice President of Human Resources for McDonald's USA commented that, "This is not a promotion McDonald's is running, we are doing this because we are in an environment, in an economy, where there are people that need jobs and want jobs, and we have open positions to fill.” While this may not be a written recruitment branding initiative, it sure may have the effects of one. This campaign will offer positive press on McDonald’s recruitment, hopefully filling the talent pipeline with a plethora of quality candidates for recruiters to choose from.

This isn't the only instance of recent press on recruitment initiatives. Just this past January, Google announced an expected hiring spree of 6,000 jobs in 2011. As we see more and more companies hiring heavily, can we safely say these are no longer one time occurrences and rather the beginnings of positive trends? Maybe, just maybe companies worldwide will soon be mirroring McDonald’s and Google’s hiring efforts and what will happen with candidate management when this does happen?

Some companies have already turned to candidate management solutions such as ATS or social media tools to manage and communicate with their talent pool. These tools often lower long-term costs associated with sourcing and recruiting, leaving these companies with more financial flexibility to increase company growth at a faster rate. Other companies are remaining conservative in their recruitment efforts. But as we look to the next couple of months, maybe we will see some big changes. With large corporations, like McDonalds, to lead the way, maybe our unemployment rate will start to decrease!

What are your thoughts on the McDonald's recruitment campaign? Purely recruitment brand initiative, marketing promotion, one-time occurrence or sure sign of what is about to come in the recruitment space?

Comment by Susan Hand on April 26, 2011 at 2:06pm: Karen, Thank you for your blog/article. You are a talented writer. I'd love to know if you personally interviewed Danitra?

Comment by Karen Bucks on April 26, 2011 at 2:54pm: Thanks for your comment! Oh, I wish I interviewed her! I'm sure I could learn a thing or two. You can see the CNN article she is quoted in if you click on her name.

Comment by Ambrish Kochikar on April 26, 2011 at 3:10pm: There's an unfortunate error in this post. The 50K hires are to be made in US restaurants only, not globally. So that's better news for the US ecomony! On the whole, I think it's a publicity and PR move for McDonalds to be talking about it. Nothing wrong with it, to be clear.

The magintude is lost when one thinks about there being over 12K stores in the USA (http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/foo_mcd_res-food-mcdonalds-restau...). That's around 4 net new hires per store in the current year. Considering the folks work in 3 or more shifts, how many hires is that per shift? Insignificant.

Does this change anything about McDonald's or it recruiting practices? I'd like to know, but my guess is it's unlikely. Do any agencies help McD in making these store hires possible? Again, would love to know, but I'd be surprised if these hires were made with outside help. All applications are to be made in-store or online on their website. (http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2011-04-04-mcdonalds-...)

Is their hiring uptick a sign of times to come for broader economy? It seems that way to me. I predict nationawide unemployment will sink below 8 percent by Christmas. Still a long road ahead.

Comment by Karen Bucks on April 26, 2011 at 3:41pm: Good catch - Thanks Ambrish! Meant to write nationwide. Apologies everyone.

I agree with you that McDonald's processes probably didn't really change that much for this recent hiring uptick from a management point of view since they've already automated their application process. So managing the onslaught of applications they received per open req shouldn't have been a problem.

Thanks for all of your comments! Well appreciated. :) Any other thoughts out there?