In today’s tough employment market, one company has become the go-to option for the frustrated job seeker: Starbucks. That’s a problem for McDonald’s as it seeks to beef up its workforce for what’s expected to be another year of sales growth.
To nab the attention of top-flight candidates, the Oak Brook, Ill.,-based burger giant is tackling the image of a “McJob.” That means a weeks-long advertising and public-relations campaign leading up to April 19, when McDonald’s Corp. plans to hire 50,000 store-level employees.
McDonald’s hopes to get across the message, much as Starbucks Corp. has successfully done, that a job with it is not a dead end and can offer solid benefits and long-term career opportunities, which the company says already are available to its 600,000 restaurant employees in the United States.
Ron Paul, president of Technomic, a Chicago-based restaurant industry consultancy, described the redefining of a McJob as a tall order.