Dive Brief:
- McDonald’s is looking to recruit young seasonal workers by going where they hang out — Snapchat. A large percentage of millennials are looking for holiday jobs (67%), according to a survey by Wakefield Research on McDonald’s behalf. This survey result is driving the fast-food giant’s recruiting strategy.
- McDonald’s is using what it coined ‘Snaplications,’ allowing job hunters to receive job postings and begin the application process in a McDonald’s restaurant through the Snapchat app on their phones.
- Only 3% of U.S. recruiters reportedly use Snapchat. McDonald’s said the recruiting strategy has paid off, after seeing a 35% increase in in-coming applications and a 30% rise in traffic to its career page.
Dive Insight:
Through the “Snaplication,” job applicants can see a 10-second video ad of McDonald’s employees talking about their jobs on their smartphones. By swiping the ad, applicants will see the McDonald’s career page, along with instructions on how to apply for a job at a local restaurant. The recruitment strategy mirrors the way young job seekers engage in other activities on their phones, which might explain why it’s been successful.
Finding talent in the current market, especially for retail and food service jobs, has only gotten harder now that many experts say the U.S. has reached full employment. Organizations will need to come up with creative tactics to fill openings, both long-term and seasonal. Marketers learned long ago the art of reaching segments of consumers by meeting them where they’re likely to be — and for recruiters to succeed, they'll have to follow the same train of thought.
No one knows how effective McDonald’s “Snaplication” will be in the long run, but any creative approach that fills openings in a job seeker’s market is worth the effort. With so many options for workers, employers have also increasingly turned to benefits not usually offered to hourly employees like development and performance evaluations, and better pay to improve retention.
