Human Resource Management in McDonalds

The report evaluates the effectiveness of HR function in McDonalds, including recruitment, selection, training, and performance management. It also discusses the employee engagement and relations policy in the organisation.

Running Head: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
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Human resource management
12/29/2018

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Contents
PART-A................................................................................................................................................3
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................3
Company Overview...............................................................................................................................3
HR function in McDonalds....................................................................................................................4
Human resource management functions in McDonalds.........................................................................5
Employee engagement and employee relations policy in the organisation............................................8
PART-B.................................................................................................................................................9
Training needs analysis (TNA)........................................................................................................10
Benchmark- SGS Hong Kong..........................................................................................................10
Post-training effectiveness assessment............................................................................................10
Return on Investment on current training efforts.............................................................................11
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................................12
References...........................................................................................................................................14

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PART-A
Introduction
The report brings about the discussion on the assignment ‘human resource management’ and
the related aspect within two parts, i.e. Part A and Part B. The discussion will consist of the
evaluation of effectiveness of HR function which is considered a part of the strategic
realignment. The evaluation of the HR function is an essential aspect to the determination of
the organisational goals and objectives in the long term. Thus, the report will conduct an
analysis on the company McDonalds to identify the extent to which the company has been
able to meet the contemporary expectation and the standards of performance. HR function of
the company will include the key concepts of recruitment, selection development, and
training of the employees to increase the levels of productivity. The part A will end up
determining the recommendations at which the company must work to enhance their
effectiveness in operations. The report will follow the discussion to the part B, which will
provide a brief understanding of the process of training needs analysis of the employees
working in McDonalds. In the end, report will conduct an assessment of the training process
in the organisation, and the practices in Hong Kong. The report will outline the current efforts
and the return on investment on the efforts and activities initiated by the managers or owners
of the company.
Company Overview
McDonalds is a fast food company founded in the year 1940 as a restaurant by the key
founders Richard and Maurice McDonalds in San Bernardino, California, U.S. The company
has started their business as a hamburger stand, and later turned into a franchise. McDonalds
has been considered as the largest restaurant chain in terms of the high revenue and profits
earned in the industry. The fast food joint has been operating over 100 countries serving
about 69 million customers on a regular basis. The brand has been popular for their
hamburgers, but the company has diversified their operations into chicken products, breakfast
items, soft drinks, milkshakes, wraps, desserts, and others (Andreasson and Johansson, 2016).
McDonalds opened in Hong Kong in the year 1975, it was the first restaurant which offered
people clean restrooms, and driving customers to demand the same products as offered by

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other restaurant and food chains in the country. In Hong Kong, Mcrefugees are known to be
called as the poor population in the country and they use the McDonalds restaurant as their
24-hours temporary hostel. The restaurant in Hong Kong, lacks the facilities of effective
systems towards ensuring environmental sustainability and ecological balance, thus it needs
to improve in this particular aspect. For an example, food chain of McDonalds in the city has
been found with negligible engagement in the activities such as reuse and recycling as there
is a very little landfill space which makes the residents difficult to rely on indestructible
plastics used by the stores. However, discussing about the McDonalds in Hong Kong it has
been found that the menu in their outlets emphasize on the social trends which drives the
people who are the factors behind the popularity of these restaurants (Wallace et al., 2014).
HR function in McDonalds
The success of any organisation depends on the quality of the production and the excellence
in terms of the services provided to the worthy customers around the world. Further, to attain
excellence in the services, it is known that efficient human resource management plays an
important role in every organisation. The process of attaining efficiency in operations
includes the aspect of acquisition, development, and judicious utilization of the resources i.e.
financial, and human resource which the firms require to satisfy their needs and wants of their
potential customers. The aim of discussion in this section is to understand what human
resource management is and explore the core functions of HR. In a general sense, human
resource management is concerned with the key elements of hiring, motivating, and retaining
workforce in the organisation. The primary function is to determine what number and type of
employees are required to accomplish the goals and objectives of the organisation (Ashkenas
et al., 2015).
Thus, in context to the food chain store, McDonalds few core HR functions will be analysed
which are performed with their purpose, i.e. to manage and lead people, and the maintaining
the workplace environment effectively. Discussing the HR and the functions or
responsibilities and other aspects in context to the company, it has been determined that
McDonalds people are considered as the most valuable asset of the company. In addition, the
managers aim to ensure best employment services to their employees which act as the
motivating factor for them to work towards higher levels of customer satisfaction
(Bamberger, Meshoulam and Biron, 2014).

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Ian Choy has been the senior direction in Hong Kong in the department of people or human
resource management; thus performs his job and the key responsibilities effectively. The
senior HR manager and the other human resource managers have certain responsibilities
which consist of handling employee relations, payroll, benefits and the training and
development of the employees in the organisation. In addition, they have certain
responsibilities which consist of monitoring the levels of customer satisfaction, and ensuring
maximum productivity from the operations in the organisation. Human resource specialists in
the fast food chain operates or functions under higher authorities, i.e. HR directors, and
managers. They examine the effectiveness of efficiency of the practices and the strategies
adopted in the organisation to hire best talent and competent workforce in the organisation
(Grant‐Smith and McDonald, 2018).
To perform these above-mentioned roles and responsibilities, an HR in any organisation will
have to acquire essential skills or abilities such as organising, effective communication skills,
discretion, multi-tasking, and conflict management. Acquiring these skills will lead to
effective functioning of the organisation and attainment of positive organisational outcomes
in the organisation.
Human resource management functions in McDonalds
The discussion will here conduct an analysis of the approach towards workforce planning,
recruitment, and selection of the employees and their performance appraisal systems. Starting
the discussion with workforce planning is essential to understand other HR functions related
to employees in the organisation. Workforce planning refers to assessing, forecasting, and
planning the demand and supply of workforce, determining gaps and ensures the
management of talented workforce. In this process, there is major role of the employers as
they anticipate the needs of labour, and employs them using effective HR strategies. To
realize about the company’s HR planning or workforce planning process it has been found
that the owners and managers runs with the belief to strengthen the team to impart the right
skills, knowledge and abilities to the right person in order to get the job done (Leekha
Chhabra and Sharma, 2014).
At McDonalds, the HR managers or directors identifies effectively the need of the employees
in the organisation, and then follows the approach towards appropriate recruitment and
selection. The company implement People practice and Development program which helps

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them anticipating the needs of labour and facilitating them towards the attainment of
efficiency in the operations. As per the data obtained from the research conducted in the last
year, it has been found that the company provided employment to around 440 thousand
people, amongst these some were employed on hourly basis in the company. Therefore,
analysing the above discussion it can be stated that McDonalds ranks high amongst the high-
scale employers in the industry.
Recruitment and selection strategies of employees
Talking about the strategies of McDonalds in the recruitment and selection, it can be stated
that the process of recruitment and selection of employees is essential for every kind of
organisation to meet the organisational needs and objectives. Recruitment can be defined as
the process of identifying the organisational needs to employ individuals required in varied
positions. In general sense the process refers, simply putting the right person at the right place
at the required time.
McDonalds provides recruitment to the staff who wishes to develop and progress in the
provision of exemplary services. The company provides a job-description for each applicant
mentioning about the duties and responsibilities and the personal skills and competencies one
should possess for the vacant job position in the organisation. With reference to the
established policy of recruitment in McDonalds it has been stated that each restaurant or store
need to fill their vacancies on hourly basis. The competencies which are considered
important for the individuals to possess to acquire the job in McDonalds consists of job-fit,
teamwork, accuracy, speed, the ability of customer engagement and personal interaction
skills to build healthy relationships in the organisation (Epstein, 2018).
The company utilizes some recruitment avenues which includes advertisements as their one
strategy. In addition to this, the company also uses job centres, career fairs, and other local
facilities to attract efficient individuals in the company. The process of interview in
McDonalds assess the person’s capability to become employee of the company and the
process of interview gives rates to the candidates on their responses to the questions and
provides them jobs accordingly. After the process of recruitment gets completed, the HR
manager in the company focuses on selecting few candidates from the list. Selection process
starts from initial psychometric tests of the candidates which derives a score. All the

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unsuccessful candidates are notified in writing from the HR manager of the company,
whereas all the selected employees are inducted through the Welcome meeting which they
are required to attend. The welcome meeting conducted for all the new comers in the
organisation provides them a brief about the job role, food, hygiene, and safety; including
some other aspects, training, policies, procedures and the development programmes available
for the employees.
Training and development of employees
A training programme in the organisation helps the employees to acquire and strengthen the
essential skills required in their job position. Other important element of ‘development’
brings all employees to the higher level where they have similar knowledge and skills for
accomplishing their goals and objectives. Thus, there are many benefits of the training and
development programme in the organisation, and the major benefit is observed as a trained
employee usually represents higher productivity towards attaining their targets. Training is
considered an important part of the work experience of employees in McDonalds. Majority of
the training of employees in the company takes place through the method of on the venue or
on-the job training. On-the job training is beneficial because it has been found effective
enabling people to learn more while working at the workplace. All the new recruits in the
company are trained to enhance and develop their skills, and also the company conducts a
development session for the crew members and the new recruits as well to acquire skills to
deliver their job at best (Gibbs, MacDonald and MacKay, 2015).
Performance management and reward practices
The process of performance management of employees is a powerful tool which helps in
enhancing the engagement of employees through on going and open communication. It is
effective to the growth and success of the organisation because it identifies and defines
expectations of the employees and aligns them with the organisational objectives.
Performance management includes the concept of performance appraisal, which is integral to
the HRM or HR function in McDonalds. The performance appraisal process in the company
has been designed for managing the performance of employees effectively, and the process
starts with the identification of performance dimension in McDonalds. For this purpose, the
HR managers at the company rely on the mechanism of job-analysis which determines the
effectiveness of the performance management system in the organisation (Op de Beeck, Wynen
and Hondeghem, 2016).

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The system of performance management of employees in the company has been linked to the
reward system or practices for the employees working in the organisation. In order to drive
high performance culture in the organisation, McDonalds has introduced the performance
development systems (PDS) which facilitates in the evaluation of performance of each
employees. The rewards are given to each individual based on their performance, and the
reward system is kept at the heart of business strategy. Employees are motivated to work hard
towards the attainment of goals with the help of both monetary and non-monetary awards
such as high compensation, bonus schemes, incentives and others. In terms of the long-term
incentives in McDonalds it has been analysed that the company provides stock to the
employees who fulfils the criteria of the company to make them personally responsible for
higher productivity at their best. There are some other programmes also which the company
has introduce as a part of reward system i.e. car program which allows the employees to
utilize the car of the company at a discounted price. Thus, the discussion has stated that the
company assures the implementation of effective reward system which leads to positive
impacts on the employee performance (N. Bolton et al., 2014).
Employee engagement and employee relations policy in the organisation
From the above discussion it has been understood that McDonalds has achieved efficiency in
their operations and effective human resource management within organisation. Thus, the
discussion will now assess the effectiveness of employee relations and their engagement in
the organisational activities. To maintain effective relations with employees, the company
ensures that they are committed towards the organisational goals and act ethically in
accordance to the spirit of law. Employees in McDonald also focus on the completion of
their regular training on the standards, anti-bribery laws, and other rules and regulations. This
determines the employee’s efforts towards improving their relationship with the managers or
superiors in the organisation. To ensure the compliance towards the laws, McDonalds has
introduced a global anti-corruption policy which stated that contain s essential guidelines for
the employees on all the applicable anti-bribery laws (McDonnall and Crudden, 2015).
McDonalds in their all restaurants follow a human rights policy which mentions that the
company accepts and fulfils all the needs and expectations of their employees, and respect
human dignity and rights. The managers in the company ensure that employees work in
environment which is free from harassment, intimidation, or abuse, whether physical or
sexual or any threat of violence. The employees right to healthy work environment, and the

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facilities providing access or fulfilling basic necessities of life i.e. health, water, and non-
discriminatory work environment is considered as major aspects of the company’s
regulations towards fostering the employee engagement, and enhancing their relationship
with the employees.
McDonalds has been appreciated for their flexible working arrangements which play a vital
role in organisational performance. Flexible work practices are found to be advantageous to
both, the employer and the employees. Flexible working hours is one great change which has
motivated the employees to show their high commitment towards attainment of
organisational goals and objectives. Thus, flexible work options consists of flexi-time remote
working, reduced or compressed working hours dependent on the needs and agreement
between employer and employees. In addition, these flexible work practices are established
for both men and women, working in the organisation (Timms et al., 2015).
Adopting a flexible working style, the company has achieved great results in terms of
reduced employee absenteeism or turnover, staff sickness, and other issues which hamper the
growth and performance of employees. After research, it has been found that McDonalds has
been a successful organisation over years. However, there are certain areas of employment
legislation which determines the necessity of McDonalds to work in accordance to certain
laws; stating that the organisation must work towards those things. McDonalds and some
other organisations in the food chain were forced by the law to make fair pay or
compensation to all the races, and genders, and provide them working conditions. Moreover,
they should ensure providing them equal treatment, and accommodation especially to the
disabled workers in the organisation. Thus, these are certain areas of legislation towards
which the organisation must attain effectiveness and improve their operations (Timms et al.,
2015).
PART-B
The report above has discussed well all the aspects of the human resource management or
assessment of the organisation in terms of employee performance and increasing revenue in
the long term. Now, Part B will evaluate the training and development process of current HR
function as the discussion will follow analysing the training needs of the employees and
implementing the practices in Hong Kong (Massey, Meyer and Mullen, 2015).

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Training needs analysis (TNA)
It refers to the process of identifying the gap between employee training and the needs of
training. Training can be defined as the process of the acquisition of skills, concepts, or
attitudes which results into improved performance within workplace. At present McDonalds
at their restaurant in Hong Kong, conducts the need analysis through a series of step
(McDonalds, 2018).
The first step in the need analysis process is to determine the desired business outcomes or
goals, then linking the business outcomes with the behaviour of employees. The third step is
to identify the trainable competencies for the employees, moving onto the evaluation of the
competencies. The fourth step after the evaluation of competencies is the determination of the
gaps in the performance of employees, which results into a decision sorting out the training
needs of employees in the organisation. Thus, the company follows the procedure to
complete their training needs analysis and fulfilling the gaps in employee performance
(McDonald, Thompson and O'Connor, 2016).
Benchmark- SGS Hong Kong
McDonalds has established a benchmark of ensuring and maintaining high levels of food
safety for their customers in Hong Kong. Managers have an understanding of food safety, as
they consider it as the top-priority, which determines their standard performance. For
ensuring this, the company has appointed an independent, internationally recognised
organisation which performs the function of inspection, verification, testing, and certification
to tests some of the selected ingredients on a monthly basis (McDonalds, 2018).
Post-training effectiveness assessment
The training method or process at McDonalds consists of the four steps, which includes
prepare, conduct, coach and follow through or follow up. The company focuses on first
identifying the needs of training of employees, and emphasizes providing on-the job training
in the organisation. Thus, a brief will be provided regarding the assessment of post-training
effectiveness within the organisational practices in Hong Kong. Managers in their restaurant
at Hong Kong evaluate or assess the process of training, through giving certain things
importance (McDonalds Hong Kong, 2018).
The process is assessed by coaching or undertaking few tasks each day rather performing all
at once or single day. Then, after undertaking or attributing number of tasks to the trainees,

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their progress needs to be evaluated within the intervals of 30, 60, 90 days. After assessing
their performance for the training programmes or process implemented, it is necessary that
the trainees or employees are motivated or encouraged continuously; in terms of positive
support or feedback. Then, the human resource managers or food safety managers focus on
making recommendations to them towards any issue in their performance (McDonald,
Thompson and O'Connor, 2016).
Employees’ training must be evaluated to determine whether the training provided was
successful or not. McDonalds ensures cost evaluation. It has been a fact that the properly
trained employees result into higher productivity and they are more likely to be employed in
the organisation for a longer period of time (Leberman and McDonald, 2016).
Thus, to assess the after-training effectiveness it has been found that the training process at
McDonalds resulted into a positive outcome; as well trained employees are good
investments for the company. However, the objectives of training initiatives which has been
implemented by McDonalds are aligned effectively with the business strategies. Most
importantly, the results have been observed in terms of higher levels of customer satisfaction,
with a large and diversified workforce (Boehm et al., 2014). To discuss about the training
programmes, it has been found that the company has identified and implemented MDP
(management Development programme) to assess the effectiveness of training imparted to
their employees in the organisation. Further, moving to the discussion on the training process,
there will be an assessment of the investment made on training efforts and the return on that
investment earned by McDonalds. Return on Investment (ROI) refers to the measure of the
monetary benefits gained by an organisation within a specific time-period in return for an
investment made in the training programme (Jones, Taylor and Reynolds, 2014).
Return on Investment on current training efforts
McDonalds Hong Kong has been found to make an expenditure of more than $40 million on
training of their employees. This includes the total costs of training imparted to the crew,
managers, and the development programmes offered to the corporate employees.
Approximately, $21 million has been spent annually on the training of crew which includes
the time of both, trainer and the trainee. By involving learners, they not only become
motivated by their training experiences, they also develop new skills and acquire abilities to
attain perfection in their work. Through applying these skills and knowledge at the

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workplace, the business attains benefits from innovation, productivity, efficiency, and leads
to attainment of strategic business goals (Saray, Patache and Ceran, 2017).
To calculate the ROI on the investment or current training efforts made to improve
performance, the table can be utilised which describes some of the aspects which play a vital
role in concluding the return on the investments made to conduct training programmes.
Weighting Score W*S
Engagement 10% 50 5
Feedback 5% 90 4.5
5Assessment 25% 82 20.5
Application 25% 76 19
Business Impact 35% 73 25.55
Total 100% 75
Training is considered to be the kind of investment which not only emphasizes on bringing
high returns on investment but also leads to provide support towards attaining high
competitive advantage in the overall industry. Thus, the return on investment made on the
current training efforts of McDonalds is 75% which is quite satisfactory. The rate of return is
satisfactory because it assures the company and the managers to attain high revenue from
their food items, attracting large number of customers (Muehlemann and Wolter, 2014).
Conclusion
To conclude the above discussion it has been analysed that McDonalds has achieved great
significance and higher success over the years. The above report has stated from the
beginning the operations of the company in Hong Kong, mentioning all the aspects of
employee performance and organisational growth. Part A and part B in the report has
revealed out about the flexible working system and stable and healthy relations of managers
with their employees in the organisation. This is highlighted as one of the reasons for the
company gaining a competitive advantage in the food chain stores around the globe. Hence,
the success of McDonalds is built on the pillars of high standardised services, quality,
cleanliness, and food safety assurance to their customers over the years.

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