I work at McDonald’s. I learn at McDonald’s

Working at McDonald’s is a never-ending source of communication opportunities. So, at the end of 2016 we turned to the employees – the greatest communication channel of them all. We managed the entire campaign from a transparent angle, and because people were curious, McDonald’s employees answered their curiosities.

For the first time, employees have become the voice of McDonald’s – and they’re a strong voice, indeed. We wanted to make them feel that what you get from McDonald’s is more than a job, and we looked for their stories to share with everyone. We didn’t want to be the ones talking about the employees, and we asked them to speak up. And when a McDonald’s employee shares his/her story, you will most definitely want to hear it. That’s what we’ve been told. And that’s what we are telling in the following chapters. 

TASK, OPPORTUNITY & RESEARCH

McDonald’s is one of the most important private employers in Romania. Actually, in 2016 it reached top 10 most active private employers on the local market, raising its team in just one year with almost 1.000 employees. A hat too big to wear? Not really. As the brand is already known as one of the largest employers in the world and the largest first employer. Meaning that in the entire world there are hundreds of thousands of people (if not millions) who had their first job at a McDonald’s restaurant. Now that’s a hat with a size too large. In Romania, McDonald’s has a team of over 5.000 employees and has been named in the past three years Best Employer by Aon Hewitt employer study.We did a third party study regarding the brand employer perception, was to find out and understand for what McDonald’s as an employer stands for in people’s minds. The research program was multi-stage, involving 3 respondents’ segments: current McDonald’s employees, potential target, HR/employing & career experts. We took all the data from the complex research study and continued with a thorough Desktop research – local & international employer brand communication. On the McDonald’s intranet we looked at international campaigns similar with our task and, furthermore, we closely analyzed communication programs run by competition or retailers both locally and internationally. 

PLANNING

The Strategic Approach. Dealing with the struggles of the entire retail & food sector in terms of employment urged McDonald’s to have the right approach, with tangible results – close to the brand, easy to identify and with long term perspective. The negative perception of the demanding work required in the quick service restaurants sector did not help too much with this task. Thus, we decided to take transparency as our mantra in creating the PR strategy and decided to talk openly about what working at McDonald’s really means. And we do this with Our Jobs. Your Questions – the (internal) data base of all questions related to working for the company. So, do you have any questions?

The Creative Idea: Although people from outside the organization cannot see, McDonald’s is indeed a “school” for many of its employees, especially for those who make the brand the largest first employer in the world. The company nurtures soft skills that one cannot “learn”, but practice. This is how “I work at McDonald’s, I learn at McDonald’s” platform was born. It is a homage to more than 28.000 people who have been trained in this school and to some 700 current employees who have been with the company for more than ten years. The creative concept proposed by Friends/TBWA was part of an integrated communication campaign and amplified in all media.

EVALUATION

Bloggers shadowing project

8 dedicated articles (Andrei Cismaru, Andreea Retea, Cristian Florea); + 13.000 unique visitors on blogs; 12 SM posts; 876 reactions on Facebook; 40 shares in social media.

Employer Profiling

Generated more than 80 stories regarding McDonald’s as an employer (exceeded objective with 60%); More than 60% of the articles mentioning the brand (locally generated) include information related to the employer brand (exceeded objective with 10%); We included the brand’s expert opinion in a cover story

The stories of the employees

95.700 visits in the career section of the website; 70.800 unique visitors in the career section of the website; 1 minute and 38 de seconds average time spent in the career section of the website; 9.100 de users clicked the Apply button; 542.474 Facebook Reach for the posts sharing the employees’ stories (7 posts, during January-August); 6.819 reactions, shares & comments for the posts sharing the employees’ stories (7 posts, during January-August)

Overall results of the campaignIncreased by 9 pts the Good employer brand indicator in Q1 2017 vs Q3 2016 (exceeded objective with 7 pts); Increased by 6 pts the Company I trust brand indicators in Q1 2017 vs Q3 2016 (exceeded objective with 4 pts); Increased by 6 pts Ethical responsible company brand indicator in Q1 2017 vs Q3 2016 (exceeded objective with 4 pts); Increased by 2 pts the overall Brand Opinion in Q1 2017 vs Q3 2016 (exceeded objective with 1 pt).

Internal ambassadorship program

Office employees – increase with +0.4% vs 2016); Crew employees – increase with +1.5% vs 2016); Manager employees –decrease with-0.6% vs 2016)