Founded in 1955, McDonald’s is the world’s largest restaurant chain by revenue, serving over 69 million customers daily in over 100 countries across 39,000 outlets. After opening its first UK restaurant in Woolwich, London in 1974, the company now has more than 1400 sites nationwide and employs more than 130,000 people.
The Challenge
McDonald’s wanted to streamline the recruitment process by reducing the burden placed on restaurant and area people managers to ensure compliance with right to work legislation at a local level. Whilst training was provided centrally and an audit process was in place, this checking was becoming increasingly cumbersome and costly as well as being difficult to ensure that so many people were kept up to date with ongoing complex legislative changes. The company was looking for a managed service provider that would remove complexity from the recruitment process and assure maximum brand protection at a reasonable cost.
The Solution
After carrying out a competitive tender process, which included taking up references and business due diligence reviews, NSL was awarded the contract. Key to the decision-making process was the fact that the company was able to demonstrate a successful track record of delivering such comprehensive services and was culturally aligned with the McDonald’s business.
NSL now provides McDonald’s with a fully managed service that includes a bespoke candidate checking portal that guides applicants through the right to work process and provides useful tips and tutorials to assist with the successful upload of their documents. This secure service uses market-leading technologies and the world’s most comprehensive database of identity and immigration documentation. It also assists with employees and the visa renewal process from a right to work perspective via a secure portal. A dedicated helpline is also available to provide expert guidance and support.
“The deployment process ran smoothly and any technical issues between the various people systems were quickly resolved without impacting our ability to offer an improved employee and manager experience,” commented Peter Lonsdale, McDonald’s HR Consultant – People Services Helpdesk. “NSL’s managed service has eliminated risks and potential loopholes in the recruitment process while also delivering a convenient, prompt and effective service for both candidates and hiring managers.”
The NSL Valid8 portal allows full configurability, enabling different levels of user access to be defined within the system depending on job role and associated privileges, i.e. store managers, area managers and central HR teams.
“We know the complex demands of working with a business like ours can be challenging, but NSL has risen to the challenge and delivering a level of service that is meeting all our needs,” continued Lonsdale. “From the start of the relationship, we have been impressed by the company’s collaborative approach and we meet regularly with its excellent designated relationship manager. NSL has facilitated visits to its customer service centre, delivered masterclasses to our people and supported us in driving uptake through franchisee events. The company has also delivered a flexible response during the covid pandemic.”
Initially the service was launched to all McDonald’s company owned sites and offices plus franchisees who elected to opt in. As a direct result of the successful deployment, McDonald’s, along with NSL, have actively sought to extend the service to UK franchises which were still handling right to work checks using their own HR teams.
To spread the word about the service, McDonald’s and NSL jointly facilitated a series of webinars around changes to immigration legislation following Brexit and the subsequent impact on the candidate experience. Interactive Q&A sessions were also conducted to help franchisees to understand the benefits of using NSL for candidate screening and how this would eliminate the need to keep up with the complex ongoing legislative changes. Many franchisees quickly recognised that adopting the NSL service would allow them to work in a much smarter way.
“Extending the service to franchisees is helping to improve brand protection by ensuring that more operators adopt the same modern approach to handling the right to work checking process. In this way, individual franchisees are able to focus on more productive and priority areas,” concluded Lonsdale.
NSL’s managed service can accommodate multiple McDonald’s franchises through the ongoing management of employees who are on time-limited documents. It also proactively handles movers (employees transferring from one store to another) and leavers, directly via an established API link.
Mark Hoskin, Group Business Development Director at Marston Holdings, added: “Working with such a globally recognised brand as McDonalds is testament to the strength of NSL’s fully managed right to work solution.”
