Chief people officer Jez Langhorn on zero hours, low pay and making the food giant an employer of choice
The ‘McJob’ is disappearing, along with the sniggers that used to accompany a mention of the world’s biggest food chain as a serious employer. McDonald’s now has 97,000 staff members in the UK, and has won plaudits for the quality of its training and diversity initiatives. People Management cornered its chief people officer, Jez Langhorn, to pose some important questions.
Has offering a McDonald’s degree shifted perceptions of the business as an employer?
Every one of our employees recognises and benefits from industry-leading training and development, but often that doesn’t translate to the people outside McDonald’s. I would love to see the day when people aspire to have McDonald’s on their CV, and it is recognised as a desirable qualification by other employers. Jobs, not just at McDonald’s but in the broader hospitality sector, need to be recognised for the important role they play in the economy.
How are you using technology in your L&D efforts?
We have just finished deploying a workforce management system in all our restaurants. All our employees now have access to their training records, schedules, access to forums and an instant messaging service with managers. It empowers our people to take ownership of their own development. Most log into our people system using their phones or tablets at home. It also appeals to our digital natives (under 25s), who make up 70 per cent of our workforce.
What about older workers?
We know from research that if we have two or more over-60s working in one of our stores, we perform better, so attracting later-life workers is just as important to us. It creates a great balance, having older workers teaching and learning from younger recruits. We have a lot of grandparents coming back to work to increase their pension.
Are you worried that protests over low pay among McDonald’s staff in the US will cross over to the UK?
Because we pay people for performance, we find they move from their starting wage quite quickly. We measure that through a twice-yearly review, which means in their first year with us, someone could move their rate of pay twice. All employees are paid above the national minimum wage, but I think there is still a disparity between the minimum and the aspirational, higher living wage that just isn’t feasible for most right now. The economic model we’re working with has contributed to 32 quarters of consecutive growth in the UK, which we have invested back into developing our people.
Reports suggest the 8,000 new jobs you’ve promised over the next three years will be zero hours contracts. How will that work?
We don’t go through an exhaustive hiring process for all our new recruits for them not to work. All our people have flexible contracts of employment, which we are very transparent about when we hire them, and these contracts have been in place since McDonald’s landed in the UK. We don’t guarantee hours each week, we don’t set a minimum number of hours, we never ask people to be on call and we don’t have exclusivity clauses. We schedule people well in advance, depending on their availability and the number of hours they’d like to work. They are all permanent contracts of employment, which means every employee enjoys the rights and benefits that come with that.