McDonalds crew devour self-help portal

Gen-Y knows what it likes when it comes to jobs and, well, everything, really.

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Which is why Australia’s largest fast-food chain, McDonalds, has implemented a private cloud-hosted platform designed to allow its 125,000 strong crew to help themselves apply for a position, view their rosters or learn how to do their job over the internet.

“These people have never known the world without an internet,” McDonalds chief information officer, Henry Shiner told iTnews.

The platform recognises the way McDonalds staff "want to be taught, communicated and rewarded.”

The system, in development for two years, is called MeTime and handles approximately 65,000 sessions per day, or around 1.9 million visits per month. It was rolled out in April of this year, and runs on top a platform called Orion, developed by Australian company Workstar.

“At its core, MeTime delivers e-learning modules and curriculum, learning management and training evaluation,” said Shiner.

MeTime has also delivered a solid return on investment for the company, said Shiner.

“The implementation has brought to life a 65 percent reduction in the cost of delivering learning to our restaurants,” he said. “In addition to this, employee retention has been greatly improved through effective online recruitment, communication and training."

Shiner expects a return on investment from building the online platform at around 1.4 years.

The project was managed by McDonalds’ internal IT team, while specialist development was brought in to integrate the solution with existing corporate payroll, franchisee payroll and back of restaurant functions.

Shiner also said the MeTime platform is constantly being improved and developed upon.

“We want to bring further refinement and engagement to the overall business processes,” he said. 

McDonalds submitted the MeTime project for the 2012 iTnews Benchmark Awards.