Human Resource Planning at Mc Donald’s Australia Free Essay Example

The aim of the report is to analyze the Human Resource Planning and Job Design policies being carried out at Mc Donald’s Australia. By focusing on cultural differences and taking advantage of the local labor pool, the organization has been able to offset the drawbacks caused by the global economic recession. Since Mc Donald’s started operations in the continent, it has continued to provide employment to the youth and opportunities of growth and advancement within the organization (Mc Donald’s Annual Report, 2010).

Due to the relatively flat organizational structure followed, there are many opportunities for lateral promotions within the organization. The employees are provided flexi work timings to suit their needs, and both part time and permanent employees are provided almost a similar range of benefits. Being a fast food service based entity; all the employees are required to have excellent interpersonal skills allowing them to provide customer service of the highest standards.

All employees are provided with the basic orientation and skills required to perform their jobs.

The focus is not just on equipping them to perform their current duties well, but to train them to be able to do well at more demanding positions (Welch, 2004). Mc Donald’s introduced the concept of quick and efficient service to provide the highest quality product to the customers. Having pioneered the ideals of Quality, Service, Cleaning, and Values, the brand has invested considerable resources to keep the ship steady in turbulent waters.

Through consistent human resource planning, Mc Donald’s draws up effective job designs that make sure the organization always has a number of high potential employees to induct, and well trained employees who can be promoted to a higher position.

Introduction The aim of the report is to analyze the Human Resource Planning and Job Design policies being carried out at Mc Donald’s Australia. Mc Donald’s Australia is the continent’s largest fast food service and holds significant influence on the economic performance.

McDonald’s Australia is a subsidiary of the United States McDonald’s Corporation. McDonald’s is widely recognized as the most successful franchise organization in the world. Over 490 Australian McDonald’s businesses are owned and operated by Franchisees (Mc Donald’s Australia Homepage, 2010). It started its operations in Australia in 1971 and since then, seven hundred and thirty one outlets have been opened across the country. To date, Mc Donald’s Australia is the country’s largest recruiter of those aged fifteen to twenty one.

The opening of a single outlet creates up to seventy jobs and also results in business for the construction and building industry, creating a growth spiral for many of the country’s small businesses. More than two hundred and thirty five outlets are being managed by the Mc Donald’s Australia organization. Personnel required by the licensee organizations are trained at the outlets that are owned by the company itself. A number of employees working as part of the middle and top level management of the organization initially started their careers from these outlets.

These individuals were able to combine education and expeirncfe to join specialized organizational departments like Marketing, Finance, and Human Resource etc. Though most of the success achieved so far by Mc Donald’s is through licensing agreements, but having a solid operations base of well functioning outlets is also important (Millett, 2004). Human Resource Planning and Job Design at Mc Donald’s Human Resource Planning can be defined as the process through which an organization determines its specific human resource needs for the future and the steps taken to fulfill those needs.

Job Design is simply a combination of Job Descriptions drawn up for each hierarchical position in the organization. Mc Donald’s Australia has concentrated efforts to provide equal opportunities for all employees and taken steps to prevent discrimination at all costs. Mc Donald’s vision has been to be recognized as an “Employer of Opportunity”, which implies that the organization focuses on promoting careers and allowing employees to continuously improve themselves through skill development and training.

To that end the organization has an extensive annual budget devoted to Training and Development that improve customer service and care. In all human resource activities, the focus remains on providing opportunities, recognizing talent, and grooming leaders (Hodgettes, 2006). In keeping with these trends, the organization has modified its hierarchy. At the lowest level are the crew people. They are divided into the front counter individuals and the back area crew. The front counter crew is responsible for being the “face of Mc Donald’s and are highly trained to provide the highest level of customer service.

The back area crew is responsible for the preparation of all the meals that are ordered. This is the place where the most critical tasks are being performed. Each item on the menu is prepared ensuring that the required quality and taste standards are met. Those working at the Drive Thru outlets perform a combination of the front counter and back area work. The job description includes the employee’s ability to keep calm and smiling while working under high pressure. The Crew Trainers are charged with the responsibility for providing training to the new employees according to their designated roles.

They also serve the responsibilities of Quality Assurance Department for the organization by ensuring that all standardized procedures are followed at every step. At the top of the hierarchy are the Management Staff that supervise the entire operations of the outlets. This comprises the Shift Managers, the Assistant Managers and the Restaurant or Branch Manager being responsible for the overall performance and appearance of the outlet. The next step up in the hierarchy is becoming the Area Manager. The emphasis on training and development ensures that the organization saves considerable costs of external recruitment.

When a position becomes vacant, more often than not there is an internal employee who has the required training and skills to immediately assume the responsibilities. This saves both time and costs. As part of the focus on Human Resource Planning and Job Design, the organization has invested a total of fifteen million dollars in its various training initiatives. In February of this year, Mc Donald’s also launched “Me time”. This is a completely web based recruiting, inducting and training module that has been implemented across its seven hundred outlets in the continent.

To ensure quality across the multiple regions it operates in, there is an annual meeting organized for each branch manager in which their personal experiences and key learnings are shared. To provide excellent incentives for its human resource, the company policy for compensation is “pay for performance”. While all employees are paid the standardized wage for that particular position, they are offered discount cards for shopping and bonuses for exceptional performance (Gibson, 1994). Since a team based structure is followed at the organization, the individual motivation has bearing on the group performance.

To get a promotion, all employees need to do is perform well at their current duties while developing diverse skills through training. Impact of Internal and External Factors The recession that has hit the globe has also affected the fast food industry globally. Despite the fact that the world’ largest organizations have taken a massive hit in terms of profits, Mc Donald’s Australia has been able to retain a stable financial position. This has been mainly achieved by the increase in depth of the menu offered and extensive renovations carried out at all of the outlets.

Being a franchise, quality assurance is at the forefront of the organization’s policy; realizing that without the properly trained human resource excellent service cannot be provided to the customers, the organization continues to invest heavily in training initiatives. In 2009, McDonald’s served about 1. 56 million customers per day in Australia, an average of 100,000 more customers per week than in 2008 (Oches, 2010). As of 2010, the organization employs close to nine thousand employees across the country.

The cost minimizations achieved through the continued organizational focus and investment in the human resource planning and improving job design has enabled the organization to deal with external adversities like rising raw material costs and overall slowdown in the economy (Mc Donald’s Job Design details, 2010). Being a culturally receptive and sensitive brand has also helped the organization’s operations. Mc Donald’s Australia relies completely on the local produce as its raw material and there are no additional finances spent on importing high quality beef and chicken. Conclusion

Mc Donald’s Australia continues to be the “Employer of Choice” for many years in running. Efficient Human Resource Planning activities have enabled the organization to recruit the ideal candidates that provide the best fit between the organization’s requirements and the candidate’s skill set. Mc Donald’s follows a flat organizational structure with two major hierarchical levels, the crew and the management (Lindbeck, 2000). The extensive investments in human resource training and development over the years have allowed many opportunities for the current employees to get promoted to higher posts whenever there is a vacancy.

There are many internal promotions to the top management level, thereby saving the time and costs required for external recruitment and selection (Clegg, 2007). The job design for each of the designated posts of the organization is clearly and specifically spelt out in the company policy manual. Being a service organization, the ability to interact well with customers is part of the job description for all front counter and management level employees. The operational structure is such that a team based culture abounds.

Both the front and back area employees are required to coordinate closely to ensure that order are prepared with efficiency and quality. References Clegg, (2007). A circular and dynamic model of the process of job design. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology. (80, 321-339). Dowling, Welch. (2004). International Human Resource Management 4th Edition. Thomas Learning UK Gibson, (1994). Organizations behavior structure Processes (8th ed. ). Boston: Irwin. Hodgettes, (2006). International Management: Culture, strategy, and behavior, 6th edition. Mc Graw Hill. Lindbeck, (2000).

“Multitask Learning and the Reorganization of Work: From Tayloristic to Holistic Organization,” Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 18(3), pages (353-76). Mc Donald’s Annual Report, (2009). www. mcspotlight. org/company/companyhistory. html Mc Donald’s Australia Careers Page, (2010). www. mcdonalds. com. au/careers Mc Donald’s Job Design details. http://mcdonalds. com. au/careers/grow-with-us/crew-training/traineeships Oches, Sam. (2010). McDonald’s Down Under. QSR Monthly Magazine. Robbins, Millett. (2004). Organizational Behavior. Pearson Education Australia.