McDonald’s Seeks More Diversity In Its Workforce and Menu

McDonald’s is doing all right in building up a diverse employee base, as incoming CEO Don Thompson commented in January 2011 (above). But this week he told the Chicago Urban League that the company has a lot more it could be doing to keep the company’s diversity numbers going up.

"Diversity fuels innovation, and innovation fuels success," Thompson said, according to the Chicago Tribune. He also noted that the company’s work on diversity as well as inclusion "was the reason we were the No. 1 company on the Dow last year."

The company doesn’t want to just have a diverse employee base, Thompson said, but also be sure that its suppliers and franchisees are as well. The company is looking to help women and minorities own more franchises and is willing to help some of them financially to make it happen.

When it comes to suppliers, McDonald’s currently “buys 55 percent of its food and paper products from women and minority-owned businesses,” according to Thompson. And that adds up to be a nice chunk of change. McDonald's US alone spends $9 billion annually on groceries.

And Thompson wasn’t just talking about the employee base, either. He also noted the importance of having diversity on the menu.

Right now there are 160 menu items in McDonald’s “global pipeline,” the Trib reports, “including oatmeal from the United States and chicken McBites from Australia” as well as Europe’s kiwi pops, which may be soon sold in the States.

Below, see how McDonald's promoted diversity at its famed Hamburger University management training program in 2010: