McDonald’s launches Snapchat job applications

THE country’s largest youth employer has launched a bizarre new job interview in what’s being billed as a world first.

GETTING your first job at Macca’s is a snap.

The fast-food giant has teamed up with Snapchat to launch a McDonald’s-themed filter for the photo messaging app, with jobseekers invited to try on the uniform and send a 10-second video application.

Launching on today, the “Snaplications” campaign is being billed as a first for both companies. Once the application is reviewed, McDonald’s will send users back to the digital careers hub where they can download an application form.

McDonald’s employs about 106,000 Australians, with 65 per cent under the age of 18. In Australia, Snapchat has more than four million daily users, 82 per cent of whom are young people.

“I’ve learnt a lot about Snapchat recently from my 14-year-old daughter,” said Shaun Ruming, chief operating officer of McDonald’s Australia.

“We think this is actually a world first. Snaplications is basically a Snapchat ‘lens’ that gives users the ability to apply for a job — or at least commence that process — by sending a 10-second snap.

“We’re the largest employer of youth in the country, so we’re trying to look for new and innovative ways to recruit crew people.”

Mr Ruming said while the 10-second video wouldn’t replace the traditional hiring process, it would form part of the application. “It certainly won’t replace a thorough face-to-face interview, but we’ll obviously take it into account,” he said.

“We’re looking for that positivity, bubbly personality, someone we think would be good in a customer service role. Based on what my daughter sends to her friends, you do get a bit of a glimpse [from a 10-second video].”

Mr Ruming said McDonald’s and Snapchat “reached out to each other at a similar time”, after the fast-food chain noticed how many of its crew were using the app.

“Snapchat are quite interested to see what the result will be,” he said. “Obviously they’re driven by trying to encourage users onto their platform. We presume when someone applies via Snapchat, when their friends ask them how they got the job, they’ll talk about it.”

McDonald’s is the nation’s largest youth employer.

McDonald’s doesn’t have any firm targets for the experimental campaign. “When we first started talking about it that was one of my questions — how much are we trying to drive recruitment?,” he said.

“We’ve been really fortunate with the brand campaign last year, so we’re not in desperate need for hiring, we’re just trying to look for new and innovative ways to complement our existing hiring process.”

And the firm doesn’t yet have any plans for other platforms such as Facebook, like pizza chain Domino’s which last month announced it was launching a Facebook Messenger bot to interact with customers.

“We just wanted to start with Snapchat and see what reaction we get,” Mr Ruming said.

The Snaplications filter will be ‘live’ to all Snapchat users on Friday, after which jobseekers will be able to access it by following a link on the McDonald’s website which will take them back to the app.

McDonald’s did not disclose how much it paid for the campaign. Snapchat has been tipped as the new favoured platform among advertisers, with its ads, including sponsored filters, forecast to bring in more than $4 billion ($US3 billion) in annual revenue by 2019.

Nevertheless, shares in Snap Inc have had a rocky ride since the company debuted on the New York Stock Exchange last month, closing at $US20.70 on Wednesday — nearly 30 per cent below their all-time high of $US28.84 on March 3. The company currently has a market capitalisation of $US24 billion ($32 billion).

Snapchat, which only began monetising its platform in 2015, generated $US404.5 million ($536.6 million) in revenue in 2016, with a net loss of $US514.6 million ($682.6). While expected this early on, some analysts have raised concerns about the rate of losses.

This week, former employee Anthony Pompliano claimed Snapchat’s valuation was “built on a house of cards”, in a lawsuit alleging the company misrepresented various metrics including user numbers. Snapchat said the claims were the ramblings of a “disgruntled former employee”.

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