McDonald’s: The Diversity Project

The objective of the project was to raise awareness of the positive benefits of a diverse work environment in order to address negative consumer feedback about the diversity of the McDonald’s workforce as well as celebrating their diverse and talented employees.  There was also a desire to contribute to the diversity debate from a social agenda perspective. From the employee perspective working with and learning about different cultures was one of the things that they enjoyed most about working in McDonald’s – there was a great sense of community and belonging.  However, many employees had experienced disrespectful behaviour from consumers and McDonald’s wanted to defend them by addressing this issue.  This came from a perspective that if diversity is managed well it can be a positive force for both employee and employer. The execution of the project had an external and internal dimension.  Externally, TV commercial was produced called “Change the Script”.  This commercial challenges people to open their minds to working with over 40 different nationalities.  It also involved the use of t-shirts worn by the crew which challenged head on some of the misconceptions e.g.  “I speak English but I pretend I don’t…..”.   The development of the concept behind the commercial and t-shirts came from Crew focus groups and they approved the creative direction and concepts. In addition 40 employees appeared in the ad.

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