--- title: "McDonald's Is Hosting a Drive-Thru Event to Find New Employees Amid COVID-19" url: https://burnaze.com/article/686d5d34-3705-495b-a4e4-16a0be10576a source: "1851 Franchise" original_url: https://1851franchise.com/mcdonalds-is-hosting-a-drive-thru-event-to-find-new-employees-amid-covid-19-2713875 category: "Burger" industry: "Restaurants" segment: "Burger" topics: ["Operations"] published: 2020-09-16T15:10:01.000Z modified: 2026-11-01T02:28:03.063Z image: https://newimage.1851franchise.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=85,format=webp,width=1280,height=720/story/featureImage/4c4f9fd13b7386c2dc1509270d10db288654.jpg --- # McDonald's Is Hosting a Drive-Thru Event to Find New Employees Amid COVID-19 **TL;DR:** McDonald's is hosting a Drive-Thru Hiring Day to find new employees amid COVID-19, offering on-the-spot interviews with social distancing precautions. The event aims to address the labor shortage in the restaurant industry, which has seen a significant decline in jobs due to the pandemic. *originally published in 1851 Franchise on 2020-09-16. [Read the original](https://1851franchise.com/mcdonalds-is-hosting-a-drive-thru-event-to-find-new-employees-amid-covid-19-2713875).* ## Story **As the world adapts to COVID-19, remote job interviews are becoming increasingly popular. But no one enjoys a shaky internet connection, especially during something as important as a job interview, and McDonald’s is taking remote hiring to a new level with its recently announced** **Drive-Up Hiring Day****. On Wednesday, Sept. 16, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. only, applicants will be able to drive up and request an** on-the-spot **interview, which will be conducted with social distancing precautions in place.** **Drive-thru lanes have been lifelines for brands like McDonald’s during the pandemic. Now, the chain is turning to make-shift drive-thru lanes to help them with another recent challenge: a labor shortage.** **Since states began easing dine-in restrictions, industry jobs have rebounded after experiencing catastrophic lows in April. While the** **restaurant industry added 133,600 jobs** **in August, staffing levels remain nearly 2.5 million jobs below the pre-COVID-19 peak in February, according to the Labor Department.** **As a recent article on Bloomberg points out****, key demographics like teenagers, at the urging of their parents, and the elderly are staying away for health and safety reasons. Plus, emergency-enhanced unemployment checks have kept others on the sidelines.** **In June, McDonald’s said it wanted to hire 260,000 restaurant workers this summer. It’s unclear if they met that goal. The announcement follows similar, yet smaller, plans from** **Subway****,** **Yum Brands****,** **Taco Bell****,** **Dunkin** **and many more.** **Even prior to the pandemic, the QSR and fast casual segment had been** **dealing with an overall labor shortage****. As the labor market continued to shrink,** **franchisors boosted their benefits****, including paid sick leave, career opportunities and educational scholarships, to retain their most valuable asset: store employees.** **McDonald's said the drive-up interviews will be conducted using proper distancing and will be designed to be as easy as possible.** **“Applicants can stay in their vehicles or sit in the designated interview areas,” the regional operators said in a statement, adding that they hope to hire thousands of workers.** **To get a headstart on the hiring process, McDonald’s said job seekers can start an application via text or by using Alexa and Google Assistant.** **Last year, the chain launched McDonald’s Apply Thru****, a voice-initiated application process using Google Assistant or Alexa devices.** **“Potential applicants will receive a text message shortly thereafter with a link to continue their application process,” the brand said.** **McDonald’s said this is the first coordinated drive-up hiring event among its U.S. operators, though some franchisees including one in Louisville have conducted similar types of interviews in the past.** **With no appointments being necessary, it will be interesting to see if things go smoothly and participants respect the drive-thru hiring process. For those seriously looking for work, this could be a prime opportunity. On the franchisor side, this could be a key strategy in making hiring as seamless and painless as possible in order to attract workers at a time when it is increasingly hard to do so.** ## Entities - 1851 Franchise (publication) - Restaurants (sector) - McDonald's (company) - restaurant industry (topic) - Taco Bell (company) - Dunkin' Brands (company) - Subway (company) - Yum Brands (company) - Bloomberg (company) - labor shortage (topic) - covid-19 (topic) - hiring event (topic) --- Originally reported by 1851 Franchise (https://1851franchise.com/mcdonalds-is-hosting-a-drive-thru-event-to-find-new-employees-amid-covid-19-2713875). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/686d5d34-3705-495b-a4e4-16a0be10576a).