In a worthwhile attempt to improve diversity and seek gender parity, popular fast-food chain McDonald’s has set an ambitious but appreciable goal of having equal men and women in leadership roles by 2030. It also committed to having women representing at least 45 per cent of its top positions by 2025.
To attain diversity and promote inclusivity, it pledged to increase minority representation in its senior roles in the United States from 29 per cent to 34 per cent by 2025.
In July, following the Black Lives Matter Movement, McDonald’s committed to more inclusion, equity, and diversity in its ranks. To further this goal, it appointed Reginald Miller as its Chief Diversity Officer in November 2020.
“We recognise these issues weigh heavily on our people and have heard – loud and clear – that diversity, equity and inclusion are priorities for our entire team, from our crews to our senior leaders,” McDonald’s chief executive Chris Kempczinski wrote in a letter to staff.
“We’re serious about holding ourselves and our leaders accountable to these foundational commitments,” he added.
McDonald’s has been, unfortunately, accused of gender discrimination and racial discrimination from black franchisees and executives in the United States.
To show more transparency, for the first time ever, McDonald’s also released a full breakdown of U.S. employees by race, ethnicity and gender.
The positives of the report were that the 2018 figures show the company had more black, Hispanic, and Asian senior managers than the industry overall. Women and minorities also contributed towards a larger share of service workers than the industry average. However, the share of black and Hispanic first and mid-level managers was lagging.
