Psychometric testing aids McDonald’s soft skills search
14 January 2015
McDonald’s uses psychometric testing as well as “realistic” job previews to aid its restaurant managers’ search for soft skills among applicants, according to the restaurant chain’s chief people officer Jez Langhorn.
Wed, 14 Jan 2015McDonald’s uses psychometric testing as well as “realistic” job previews to aid its restaurant managers’ search for soft skills among applicants, according to the restaurant chain’s chief people officer Jez Langhorn.
McDonald’s, along with entrepreneur James Caan, the CBI, National Youth Agency, LearnDirect and Barclays, is today [14 January] launching a campaign calling for a “whole-scale re-evaluation” of the value of soft skills such as communication, teamwork and time management.
The campaign is supported by research from Development Economics, a research and analysis group, which shows soft skills contribute £88bn to the UK economy and this is forecast to increase to £109bn during the next five years.
Langhorn told Recruiter that McDonald’s, which only hires one in 20 applicants, seeks candidates armed with these skills or the propensity to develop them.
Langhorn said: “We have quite sophisticated psychometric tests as part of our online recruitment system and a realistic job preview that helps validate psychometric tests looking for those skills.
“We also do a short realistic job preview for people after interview,” he added. “So we ask them to come into a restaurant and have them come onto the restaurant floor and let them experience what McDonald’s is like. We can evaluate them in a real-life McDonald’s experience.”
According to Langhorn, restaurant managers are also given formal training to look for these skills at interview.
“We have a suite of materials and training courses as well to help them [restaurant managers] look for these skills and look for these types of people who can demonstrate those skills when they come and work for us.”
McDonald’s, along with entrepreneur James Caan, the CBI, National Youth Agency, LearnDirect and Barclays, is today [14 January] launching a campaign calling for a “whole-scale re-evaluation” of the value of soft skills such as communication, teamwork and time management.
The campaign is supported by research from Development Economics, a research and analysis group, which shows soft skills contribute £88bn to the UK economy and this is forecast to increase to £109bn during the next five years.
Langhorn told Recruiter that McDonald’s, which only hires one in 20 applicants, seeks candidates armed with these skills or the propensity to develop them.
Langhorn said: “We have quite sophisticated psychometric tests as part of our online recruitment system and a realistic job preview that helps validate psychometric tests looking for those skills.
“We also do a short realistic job preview for people after interview,” he added. “So we ask them to come into a restaurant and have them come onto the restaurant floor and let them experience what McDonald’s is like. We can evaluate them in a real-life McDonald’s experience.”
According to Langhorn, restaurant managers are also given formal training to look for these skills at interview.
“We have a suite of materials and training courses as well to help them [restaurant managers] look for these skills and look for these types of people who can demonstrate those skills when they come and work for us.”
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