McDonald’s receives 500 applications a week

McDONALD’S is receiving 500 applications a week from people looking for jobs at its Irish restaurants.

This new wave of interest in working at the restaurant chain is a long way from the days when McDonald’s held open days in search of staff and advertised extensively the benefits of a “McJob”.

The company confirmed just over half of all applicants were from Irish people. For every 36 applications it receives, it has just one job to fill.

McDonald’s said it pays 8% more than the national minimum wage, with the general starting rate set at €9.31.

It has filled 130 vacancies since the start of April and plans to continue to hire over the summer, as they prepare to fill posts in Wexford and Portlaoise.

Two-thirds of recent appointments are Irish, but McDonald’s insisted it only selects “the right person for the job”.

A spokewoman said: “McDonald’s are an equal opportunities employer and do not discriminate between Irish and non-Irish applicants. McDonald’s has a number of applicants from countries requiring work visas and, as a result, there is an eligibility-to-work issue.”

The company also has a People Centre in Dublin, where management training takes place, while all middle and senior managers attend the Hamburger University in Chicago for training.

The Hamburger University is a training facility of McDonald’s corporation and was designed to instruct personnel employed by McDonald’s in the aspects of the business.

Over 70,000 managers have graduated from the institution and it has 30 resident professors.

The facility includes 13 teaching rooms, a 300-seat auditorium, 12 interactive education team rooms and three kitchen labs. The faculty has the ability to teach in 28 different languages and more than 5,000 students attend each year.

When McDonald’s opened a restaurant in Ennis, Co Clare, recently it received applications from unemployed bankers, accountants and architects.

In 10 days, it had 500 job applications and the jobs were not advertised anywhere else except for the banner it put up on the store window.

The situation was in marked contrast to when a McDonald’s outlet opened in Shannon in late 2002 and the restaurant owners had to seek employees.

McDonald’s said recently that, for the first time in a decade, it is witnessing an increase in applications from Irish people looking for jobs.

The company also said 40% of its franchisees started as crew members, explaining that “there is a clear opportunity for career progression”.