Talent Management Report: McDonald's Business and HR Strategies

This report examines McDonald's talent management strategies, focusing on how the company aligns its business, human resource, and staffing strategies to achieve operational excellence and growth. The analysis highlights McDonald's approach to hiring, retaining, and developing employees, emphasizing the importance of customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction. The report discusses the company's specialization strategy and its use of employee training programs, such as the Leaders at McDonald's program, to foster leadership skills and ensure consistent service quality. It also identifies potential talent-linked threats to McDonald's competitive advantage, such as high employee turnover, and suggests strategies, including the Guest's model of HRM and flexible working practices, to mitigate these risks and maintain a strong workforce. The report concludes by emphasizing the crucial role of talent management in McDonald's business strategy and its ability to maintain customer trust and competitive advantage.

TALENT MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................3
McDonald’s business strategy and foundations of its competitive advantage...........................3
Alignment of business, Human resource and staffing strategies of McDonalds........................4
Possible talent-linked threats to the competitive advantage of McDonalds...............................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................9
References.................................................................................................................................10

Introduction
The case study for McDonald's business has been considered to understand the business
strategies with respect to the talent. The employees are the most important assets of any business
because they convert all other assets/ resources into revenue. It is important for the business to
hire, retain, and manage the employees with the right skills, knowledge, capabilities and aptitude
(Business Insider, 2017). Talent management is an important element of human resourcing
procedures, programs and approaches used for identifying, assessing, developing and retaining
the talent.
McDonald’s business strategy and foundations of its competitive advantage
The business strategy of my Donald focuses on growth and operational excellence so it can be
stated that McDonald's make use of the specialisation strategy. As per the given case study
business realises that people are its most significant assets. The business makes use
of this workers and creates its strategies in such a manner that these workers focus on
providing high level of customer satisfaction. It focuses on delivery of cleanliness, quality goods,
fast services and value to the clients (Henebery, 2017). This is the socialisation business strategy
where the business lays stress on particular kind of customer strategy on the basis of fulfilling
that particular segment needs. The clients who come to McDonald's prefer Great
food, attention of the staff members, clean restaurant and fair pricing. Will the strategic needs,
the staff have to be nice with the clients and there has to be consistency in the food prepared. It is
important that the workers ensure cleanliness in the outlet.

All these strategic needs have to be fulfilled by the staff members of McDonald's therefore it is
important that the right kind of employees is hired for bringing such vision to actuality. The
success of McDonald's is due to its capacity of hiring right individuals who apply the same
vision for the clients. The high quality employees provide McDonald's with a competitive
advantage in the market, by application of the Business strategy discussed above.
As the staff's satisfaction forms the basis of attaining competitive advantage, it is important that
the strategy which is followed by the workers must be carefully considered
(Corporate.mcdonalds.com, 2017). It is necessary that the people who are hired by McDonald's
are highly customer oriented and they also need to be trained on the same perspective.
This strategy leads to the great stuffing and since the employees are promoted from within
the organisation therefore they get motivated to stay for long term with the same business
(Structured Orientation for New Graduates, 2004).
McDonald's not only hires great people but also maintains that the talent by use of it
principal known as "people province". It will use its workers and provide them with the needed
skills, tools and equipments which are needed for providing the customers with great services,
high level of accuracy at work and Consistency.
The business identifies and tracks the people aspects which have impact on the business
performance (Gandhi Arora, 2015). Therefore McDonald's is capable of evaluating and
continuously improving the alignment among the staffing and business strategies.
Alignment of business, Human resource and staffing strategies of McDonalds
As stated above, McDonald's has to pursue two business strategies which are the operational
excellence and growth. For achieving this, it is important that the workers provide support to the
business. These workers need to have great communication and customer servicing skills. Even

though the workers which are hired by McDonald's are highly skilled, still for the alignment of
business strategies, human resources and staffing, McDonald's has to provide the staff members
with regular training and development. It takes appropriate measures for retaining the talent. The
management processes a clear understanding and knowledge regarding the attitude, skill set that
is needed by its workers. And in order to stay ahead in these as well, McDonald's has created its
own staffing strategy. In terms of human resourcing, the aim of McDonald's is to be one of the
top employers in the society and for this it provides the workers with a great
working environment. The workers are promoted from within the organisation
therefore encouraged to show great performance at work. These practices make the employees
have a feeling of belongingness with the business and also make them feel as a part of
McDonald's. By following the strategies, McDonald's is able to retain talented people because
the potential candidates stay with the business in the long run as they hope to get promoted to the
higher level within the organisation (Schweyer, 2013).
The initial two steps used by McDonald's for gaining the competitive advantage were
restructuring of the staff's performance development system (PDS) for all the staffs and using a
talent review procedure for the staffs. This business has also set up different improved
development programmes for the workers at all the levels. One of the examples of such
programme is known as "leaders at McDonald's program (LAMP)". The business has also
started with the leadership Institute (leadership developing programs. With the initial rolling out
of policy for performance development system, in 2001 McDonald's made a decision of
practising the same in three major segments. These segments were:
- focusing on the accountability,
- increasing the differentiation among other performances,

-focus on need to enhance receptiveness for innovation, betterment and change (Hatum and
Preve, 2015).
Disadvantage development was started in McDonald's for promoting the advancement of exit
YouTube talent and creating the development opportunities for new workers. This strategy laid
stress on talent and diversity management in McDonald’s.
The launch of "LAMP "program was done for creating innovative ideas to bring changes in the
perception of participants and to apply a worldwide approach in turning to be The business
which is capable of retaining top talent (Reed, 2012). The focus of the strategy had been on
development of great potential talent for turning to be a future leader and making the
performance to be better for business growth. The main aim of this strategy was to expand the
competency and acceptance of employees to turn to be future leaders (Goldsmith and Carter,
2010). When the people are promoted from within the business then there is a decrease in the
time needed for newly promoted managers and achieving faster outcomes, therefore the business
stands out to be further effective for development and attainment of top talent. This also helps in
improving the diversity profile at the management level.
With the start of McDonald's leadership Institute and the launch of global leadership
development programmes, the aim was to develop the skills among the workers so that they can
be ready to get remote it up to director level (Noe, 2013). This institute and program are related
with the exceptional development support, trainings, learning seminars and development
sessions. Through the global leadership development programmes, the existing employees were
provided with detailed overview of the leadership roles and responsibilities and they were
prepared for their future roles. This way the individual contributors also got an expanded base for
networking with their peer groups.

The promoted workers show their gratitude towards the business by providing the clients
with great level of customer service (Lewis and Sequeira, 2012). Similarly the potential workers,
who wish to get promotion, also focus on the client satisfaction, which is the key for attaining
competitive advantage. This way the business strategy of McDonald's has been aligned to its
staffing and human resourcing strategies.
Possible talent-linked threats to the competitive advantage of McDonalds
The key possible talent related threats which can harm the competitive advantage of McDonald's
would be high turnover of workers and that aggravated by the time when the business find it
complicated to hire people particularly in the younger age bracket (Yamamoto, 2011). Since the
McDonald's tries to promote the employees from within the organisation as a part of its retention
strategy, therefore it would lack the younger task force and therefore it might lack the new talent,
harming its competitive advantage (Gberevbie, 2008).
Due to the tight labour markets, the business would also be facing an issue of huge costs linked
with the training of employees and if the employee retention problem continues then this cost
can be a multiple times (Bais, 2012).
For improving its future and retaining its brand image as a great employer, McDonald's can
actually apply the different strategies for attracting the largest labour pools i.e. the students or
teenage segments. The students can be hired as trainees and provided with training which can
help the business to retain those are for the long run. This would help the business to get the
new talent and fresh skills.
The Guest’s model of HRM can be applied to McDonald's. This model will help the business in
seeking the employs engagement in terms of achieving business goals and it will also focus on
the fulfilment of needs of the staff members (Aitalieva and Panasyuk, 2016). By use of this

model, McDonalds will turn more flexible. This model can be linked with the commitment of
staff members and their high performance levels rather than approvals. The major focus of HR
functions in this business would be able to successfully attain the predefined aims (Shabib-Ul-
Hasan, 2012). This would be done by improvement in the skills and abilities of the workers.
Since the employees are highly valued in this organisation therefore the employee participation
would be useful for cultivating a trusted and healthy work environment.
Practices of HRM at McDonald's revolve around recruiting, selecting, workers, job design,
reward and recognition for the improvement and motivation of the performances of workers. It is
also suggested that the business exercises flexibility at the workplace by which McDonald's
would be able to keep the workers are motivated. Motivated workers would be putting in extra
efforts for giving their best performances and successful accomplishment of their work targets
(Fast Company, 2017). This way the business would be able to retain its goal of having
competitive advantage and this flexibility will make the workers empowered to prove their
proficiency. Moreover by practising the flexible working, the team building activities want to be
hindered. Flexibility at workplace won't be useful for only the employees rather it would be used
by the management for enhancing the productivity of the business because they would be able to
provide the workers with trusted, healthy and sound work environment (Conlow and
Watsabaugh, 2013). Since the employees would be free to choose their working schedule is
therefore there would be high level of satisfaction inculcated among them which would
consequently encourage them in delivering the desirable performances.
By offering the flexible working practices, the craving of McDonald's to hire more experienced
and skilled people at different hierarchies will be fulfilled. For example, on the Christmas eve or

during festive season, when there is more footfall expected that the outlets then part-time
workers can be hired so that the client demand is fulfilled easily with the maximisation of profits
(Clinton Foundation, 2017).
The people can get support by working with McDonald's, if the jobs are offered with flexibility
and they have option to choose their timings. This can be used to retain the existing people, and
others can also join the organisation as part-timers and support their living or education. This
saves a brand image will also be created for McDonald's and simultaneously it would be able to
retain its existing staff, with opportunities for them to grow and develop.
Conclusion
Business strategy for McDonald's is focused on customer satisfaction and therefore it hires
talented people who can help the business in maintaining the trust which the customer is having
McDonald's, all over the world (Training Magazine, 2017). The strategy of competitive
advantage through customer satisfaction can be achieved by keeping the staff members satisfied
and retaining the skilled are talented workers, who can add value to the clients experiences. It is
important to hire talented pool of people, but it is further necessary to retain that talent within the
organisation. This case study has been utilised for understanding the need of talent management
for any business to stay competitive.

References
Aitalieva, V. and Panasyuk, M. (2016). THE SPECIFICS OF CORPORATE CULTURE
MANAGEMENT IN A FOREIGN SUBDIVISION OF MCDONALDS COMPANY. Business
Strategies, (11), p.1.
Bais, D. (2012). Employee Retention Management:some Issues. International Journal of
Scientific Research, 1(4), pp.22-24.
Business Insider. (2017). McDonald's is about to unveil a huge plan to save its business - here
are 8 things investors need to hear. [online] Available at:
http://www.businessinsider.in/McDonalds-is-about-to-unveil-a-huge-plan-to-save-its-business-
here-are-8-things-investors-need-to-hear/articleshow/47130718.cms [Accessed 28 Sep. 2017].
Clinton Foundation. (2017). Talent for Tomorrow: How McDonald’s is Redefining Employee
Education and Training. [online] Available at:
https://www.clintonfoundation.org/blog/2014/08/12/talent-tomorrow-how-mcdonalds-
redefining-employee-education-and-training [Accessed 28 Sep. 2017].
Conlow, R. and Watsabaugh, D. (2013). Superstar leadership. Pompton Plains, NJ: The Career
Press, Inc.
Corporate.mcdonalds.com. (2017). Leadership Development - McDonald's Training ::
McDonald’s. [online] Available at:
http://corporate.mcdonalds.com/mcd/corporate_careers/training_and_development/
leadership_development_career_pathing.html [Accessed 28 Sep. 2017].

Fast Company. (2017). Making Over McDonald’s. [online] Available at:
https://www.fastcompany.com/1686594/making-over-mcdonalds [Accessed 28 Sep. 2017].
Gandhi Arora, R. (2015). Talent Retention. Saarbrücken: LAP LAMBERT Academic
Publishing.\
Gberevbie, D. (2008). Employee Retention Strategies And Organizational Performance. IFE
PsychologIA, 16(2).
Goldsmith, M. and Carter, L. (2010). Best practices in talent management. San Francisco:
Pfeiffer.
Hatum, A. and Preve, L. (2015). Managing Talent Risk. Harvard Deusto Business Research,
4(1).
Henebery, B. (2017). Inside McDonald’s talent strategy. [online] L&D. Available at:
http://www.ldphub.com/general-news/inside-mcdonalds-talent-strategy-238465.aspx [Accessed
28 Sep. 2017].
Lewis, A. and Sequeira, A. (2012). Effectiveness of Employee Retention Strategies in
Industry. SSRN Electronic Journal.
Noe, R. (2013). Human resource management. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Reed, D. (2012). Leveraging Your Employees' Values to Retain Staff and Develop
Leaders. Proceedings of the Water Environment Federation, 2012(1), pp.544-548.
Schweyer, A. (2013). Talent management systems. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley.
Shabib-Ul-Hasan, S. (2012). Managing Talent; Twenty Commandments about Talent
Management. IOSR Journal of Business and Management, 2(6), pp.31-36.

Structured Orientation for New Graduates. (2004). Journal for Nurses in Staff Development
(JNSD), 20(3), pp.125-126.
Training Magazine. (2017). McDonald’s Recipe for Success. [online] Available at:
https://trainingmag.com/content/mcdonald%E2%80%99s-recipe-success [Accessed 28 Sep.
2017].
Yamamoto, H. (2011). The relationship between employee benefit management and employee
retention. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 22(17), pp.3550-3564.