Fast-food companies have known for decades that it isn't hard to find good workers. It's hard to keep good workers from leaving. The national employee turnover rate in the quick service restaurant industry rose to 130 percent last year, according to the National Restaurant Association's Restaurant Industry Operations Report.

With the industry expected to create an additional 2 million positions over the next 10 years, companies are looking for new ways to recruit, train and retain dedicated employees.

McDonald's, the world's largest restaurant chain, says it wants to spotlight career opportunities available within its company and, in turn, drive out the dead-end job perception of its restaurants.

"In 1975, I began as a swing manager in Georgia," says Karen King, east division president of McDonald's USA, who appeared in a TV commercial as part of a campaign to emphasize career opportunities at the fast-food chain. "Now I oversee 5,200 restaurants between Maine and Florida. I truly believe that with hard work, anyone at McDonald's has the chance to excel."

The campaign that features King is designed to showcase career growth at McDonald's. In addition to the advertisements, it features a Web site, www.mcdonald.com/careers, which details King's career path as well as success stories from other employees across the country.

Professor Jerry M. Newman, author of "My Secret Life on the McJob," said in a recent news release that the best way to change the

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negative image of the "McJob" is to positively redefine the perception of the fast-food worker.

"A fast-food worker is able to handle a variety of demands and produce under pressure, a veritable Big Mac of reliability, integrity and workplace maturity," says Newman, a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor in the University at Buffalo School of Management.

Fast-food employees today receive flexible schedules, rising wages and health insurance. Career training and even college-accredited courses are now available. According to King, the McDonald's campaign is intended to help current and potential employees realize and seek out those benefits and rewards.

"One of the things that is important about this campaign is I want employees to have that same sense of pride that I do and to understand they have the opportunities that I have," King adds.

The latest employment figures show that 30 percent of McDonald's franchise owners, 50 percent of its corporate staff, and 70 percent of restaurant managers started as crew. Additionally, 40 percent of McDonald's top management started behind the counter, including CEO Jim Skinner.

Courtesy of ARAcontent