Recruiters, let’s go to McDonald’s!

Many say that AI will not replace human recruiters.

And I believe that statement remains true, overall.

But this is not true in every case.

It is increasingly clear that AI is taking over some types of recruitment at specific levels.

Let’s go to McDonald’s, shall we?

Not for the fries this time.

For a lesson on using AI for hiring,

We all know McDonald’s: the World’s Largest Restaurant Chain and undisputedly one of the most well-known brands worldwide. McDonald’s serves nearly 70 million customers daily across 40,000 outlets. The restaurants lean heavily on hourly workers for operations, with hiring volumes over 2.1 million globally.

This presented McDonald’s with significant challenges. Many of the stores are franchised, and the recruiting function is often run by the restaurant owners, who have little recruitment skill, and less time.

(The slides are from my recent speaking tour around the UK, organised by the REC, entitled “AI in Recruitment”. The original information on this McDonald’s case study was inspired by an article written by Johnny Campbell of Social Talent. He’s a good guy with great recruitment knowledge. Give him a follow.)

The cost was enormous. For each absent crew member, they lost $500 a day. With an average time-to-hire of 21 days, that’s $10,500 in lost revenue for just one vacancy. Multiply that by the number of unfilled roles across their global operations, and the financial impact was staggering.

The solution is McHire, an AI-driven hiring system powered by Paradox.

The old system of resumes and interviews was replaced with text applications. The AI-powered chatbot handles the rest – screening candidates, scheduling interviews and sending offer letters. What used to take 21 days now takes just 3.

The result? McDonald’s unlocked an additional $2 billion in annual revenue.

So, this is transformative. AI is not just supporting hiring but fundamentally redefining it.

The lesson for me here is that AI can reshape hiring. (Even though I have been saying for a while, it will only augment hiring)

But at what level of staff is the next question

Teenage hospitality workers are unlikely to be recruited in the same way as your next CFO.

This is not to say AI can’t help at this level. It can. But it is much less likely to be able to replace it.

Here is my best guess about the future of AI and recruitment. And it is a guess.

AI will replace these recruiters soon.

***********************************************************************************************************************************************************************

In five decades of agency recruitment, I have never known a time when it was more important to train recruiters on the new skills required in a changing landscape.

Yet many leaders are cutting staff development spend.

They will pay the price

Waiting for the market to fix your results is not smart

Better skills, smarter tactics, and new ideas are the way to thrive in any market

Train your recruiters now with the best new recruitment learning tool on the market

Review the SRA contents summary.

How it works

Compare subscriptions

**********************************************************************************************************************************************************************