McDonald's is the largest family restaurant in the world, serving approximately 69 million customers across 36,000 restaurants a day: in more than 100 countries. The UK & Ireland market is one of the most successful entities across the wider business, serving on average 4 million people a day. It has operated in UK since 1974 and the business is growing continuously with more than 1,400 restaurants and over 154,000 employees.

McDonald’s UK & Ireland has a proven track record of investing in the development of its employees and offering flexibility as part of its dedication to being a modern and progressive company. Every year, it invests over £40 million in developing people, giving every one of its employees the opportunity to take part in structured training.

McDonald’s buys ingredients from over 17,500 British and Irish farmers and spends over £1.1billion annually on its food and packaging requirements. McDonald’s is committed to supporting British and Irish farmers to ensure it can continue to source many of its ingredients from the UK and Ireland.

McDonald’s is a market leader in its field, striving for the highest standard of quality, speed and restaurant experience. Re-generation of our restaurant infrastructure, covering digital ordering, re-imaging and dual-point service make working at McDonald’s more exciting than ever!

We are dedicated to using our scale for good: good for people, our industry and the planet. From bold recycling initiatives and sustainable sourcing efforts to our partnership with Ronald McDonald House Charities, we see every day as a chance to have a genuine impact on our customers, our people and our partners.

We're a people business just as much as we are a restaurant business. We strive to be the most inclusive brand in the world by building diverse teams who create delicious, feel-good moments that are easy for everyone to enjoy. Joining McDonald's means thinking big every day and preparing for a career that can have impact around the world.

Company Vision and Culture…

Our Global vision is to build a better McDonald’s and, in the UK, and Ireland we are working hard to be the UK & Irelands best-loved restaurant company.

McDonald’s is defined by its culture. Our culture shapes and informs everything we think and everything we do. Our culture influences the way we interact with each other, and how we interact with customers, franchisees and suppliers. Our culture motivates and inspires us to attract and retain great talent, creating positive, energising, exceptional working environment for us all.

Our values drive our culture and shape our beliefs, our priorities and our actions. They influence the decisions we make, how we treat one another and how we show up as a brand to the world.

Serve: We put our customers and our people first

Inclusion: We open our doors to everyone

Integrity: We do the right thing

Community: We are good neighbours

Family: We get better together

#LI-HYBRID

Hybrid Working

This role is based in our East Finchley office working 3 days in the office and 2 days remotely.

The Opportunity 

We are looking for an ambitious and forward thinking Reward Lead to drive the Rewards agenda within the UK & Ireland market, based on the principles and standards laid out in the Global Rewards Framework. As a subject matter expert and leveraging data-driven insight, the Rewards Lead monitors pertinent external trends, and defines pro-active steps to bring McDonald’s to a position of strength in the Rewards field.

What will my accountabilities be?

• Strategic lead, business and thought partner on full reward agenda
• Team leadership – provide direction, guidance and development for three direct reports, all with different specialisms within Reward
• Ensure continued gold standard partnerships are in place with clear deliverables and accountabilities across Pay, Benefits, Recognition & Wellbeing
• Lead the planning, design, evaluation and administration of employee compensation and benefit programs such as salaries, short and long-term incentives, job evaluations, performance appraisals, retirement plans, and life, health and disability insurance alongside other benefit and wellbeing initiatives
• Support HRBP’s knowledge building in the Reward space to manage queries at key points across the employee life cycle

Compensation

• Lead the UK market Pay Strategy Group and the Ireland Pay Strategy Group with Franchisees, Finance, Corporate Affairs and Insights

• Manage the year-end annual compensation review cycle and calibration process for all UK and ROI employees including merit, TIP (target incentive plan/bonus) and LTI (long term incentive)
• Design and creation of the Restaurant Bonus schemes, collaborating and engaging with senior leadership in Operations
• Oversight of the various bonus schemes (monthly, quarterly and annual) ensuring bonuses are paid accurately and on time
• Conduct external market benchmarking – ongoing dialogue with various departments at senior level both UK and Global counterparts
• Facilitate the nominations and local administration of the global LTI programme including appropriate communication and training. Handle employee queries including vesting rules and taxation implications
• Work with Global Total Rewards to submit accurate MI data for CEO Pay Ratio Gap and Gender Pay Equity reporting and remuneration
• Responsible for leading on gender pay reporting for the UK&I market
• Work with Global Total Rewards, Finance and People Team senior leadership to submit year-end merit increase requests and off-cycle merit increases utilising external and internal insight and trends
• Manage the UK&I LTI process for leavers and transfers. Coordinate with the Global compensation team to support the RSU tax process as part of the annual cycle
• Oversight of MRL (McDonalds Restaurants Ltd) allowances and close collaboration with HR compliance to ensure allowances are administered fairly and consistently and not at a detriment to equity

Benefits

• Oversees the third-party relationships in place to manage various pension schemes, with a strong working knowledge of Pension scheme legislation and regulations for both Defined Benefit and Defined Contribution scheme in the UK

• Member of the Trustees of the group healthcare programme, responsible for the management of the scheme and the close monitoring of the budget vs. spend
• External vendor contracting, ongoing relationship management and delivery accountability
• Works closely with a third-party provider to design and develop Benefits communication and engagement to 175,000+ employees across three segmented platforms
• Continued exploration and enhancement of the digital employee experience in the area of benefits reward and recognition, working with external suppliers to drive cost effective solutions at scale across MRL and franchised populations
• Works to support and align the franchisee and MRL healthcare schemes to support the TUPE process
• Works with franchisees and our external benefits broker to seek out opportunities for scale, collaboration and enhanced communication in the benefits area e.g., Life assurance.

Recognition

• Responsible for the various reward and recognition programmes and budgets associated with the programmes
• Oversight of the nominations for various national and global recognition programmes
• Lead and deliver the Annual Employee Appreciation Day celebration in the UK&I, working collaboratively across departments
• Oversight of the award merchandise and collateral available for restaurants to purchase ensuring financial considerations and sustainability are key factors.

Global Mobility

• Manage all reward aspects of oversees assignments by working closely with respective UK and Global HR Business Partners and the Global Mobility Team case manager

What Team will I be a part?

You will be part of the Rewards team, who are a sub function of the People Team.

Who are my customers?

• Internal McDonald’s UK and I relationships including (but not restricted to): the Executive team and Department Heads, Finance, Internal Communications, Corporate Affairs, Operations, Legal, Payroll, IT and the Directors of the Trustee of the Pension Scheme
• Internal McDonald’s global relationships including the Global Rewards CoE and the Reward leads in the Lead and High Growth Markets.
• External relationships with third party suppliers
• Franchisees on various working groups including pay strategy
• External bodies and groups e.g. Low Pay commission

Your experiences

• An inclusive leader: You will be a collaborative, thought provoking leader, encouraging your team to bring their whole self to McDonald’s and to proactively lead their careers
• A great communicator: You’ll be good with people and able to express sophisticated things simply. You will inspire people to take action and affect the business direction.
• A great teammate: You’ll have a track record of developing and nurturing effective relationships and networks of alliances with others to collaborate. You will be naturally consultative in approach, taking enjoyment in sharing knowledge and inspiring and supporting others to deliver business critical work.
• A self-starter: You’ll be able to work ‘hands on’ with a small, focussed team and deliver results with the drive and resilience to handle the many complexities of an ever-changing Reward landscape
• Insights-led: You’ll be adept at unlocking valuable insights to shape plans and demonstrate commercial value

What background do I need to have?

• Experienced Reward Lead with a strong track record of success ideally in a fast-paced, matrixed retail and/or FMCG environment covering activities across the full Reward spectrum
• Experience of influencing at a senior management and board level
• CIPD qualified (preferable but not essential)
• Strong project management skills and analytical competence, with a heavy focus on attention to detail
• Experience of managing external suppliers

At McDonald’s we are People from all Walks of Life... 

People are at the heart of everything we do, and they make the McDonald’s experience. We embrace diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive culture that means people can be their best authentic self in our restaurants and offices, which helps us to better serve our customers. We have a strong heritage of diversity and representation within our communities, which we are proud of. The diversity of our people, customers, Franchisees and suppliers gives us strength.

We do not tolerate inequality, injustice or discrimination of any kind.  These are hugely important issues and a brand with our reach and relevance means we have a very meaningful role to play.

We also recognise our responsibility as a large employer to continue being active in our communities, helping to develop skills and drive aspirations that will help people to be more aware of the world of work and more successful within it, whether with McDonald’s or elsewhere.”