McDonald’s describes working at its restaurants as America’s best first job, but now the company wants to help employees with their long-term career plans beyond building burgers.
The company announced Tuesday the launch of its «Where You Want To Be» mentoring campaign for employees and the addition of career advising services to its Archways to Opportunity education program.
“By connecting restaurant employees’ aspirations with the necessary education tools and career advising services to achieve them, we continue to reinforce our role as America’s Best First Job,” said Melissa Kersey, McDonald’s U.S. chief people officer, in a statement.
“Through this campaign and our ongoing education investments we are committed to helping all those who come to work for us — or our independent franchisees — to see the possibility of their own potential,” Kersey said.
The effort is a result of a workforce preparedness study conducted by the company which determined the top industries where employees ultimately would like to work: entertainment, technology, health care, entrepreneurship, and restaurants/food service. The campaign will pair restaurant employees with mentors in their fields of interest.
Influencers involved in the campaign include rapper and actor Bryshere Gray, aka Yazz the Greatest, per PR Week; digital content creator and former McDonald’s crew member Tyler Oakley; entrepreneur and author James Altucher; and board-certified dermatologist and dermatologic surgeon, Dr. Meena Singh. Workers interested in food service careers will shadow McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) owners/operators.
Applicants will submit a video describing how working at McDonald’s has provided them with skills they can apply later in their careers, per USA Today, and the selected group of employees will participate in a Career Shadow Day in December and January.
The study found that 17 percent are undecided on their long-term career plans, so McDonald’s is adding free career counseling to its education program in conjunction with the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning. The program will help restaurant employees identify potential career paths and help them reach their short- and long-term education and career goals.
The company also plans to launch a career and education exploration mobile app in 2019.
In August, Chicago-based McDonald’s launched a global program called “Youth Opportunity” to provide pre-employment job readiness training, actual employment opportunities, and workplace development programs for youths, and announced it will distribute an additional $1 million in grant money to Skills for Chicagoland’s Future to develop a new apprenticeship program in conjunction with City Colleges of Chicago.
