After 47 years in the suburbs, McDonald’s is ready to move into their newly renovated headquarters in Chicago’s West Loop. As a way to progress the burger company and become more modern, CEO Steve Easterbrook has been working on encouraging new ideas and collaboration from the McDonald’s employees. Take a look inside McDonald’s new headquarters that has a restaurant that is open to the public!
“With over 3,000 employees, McDonald’s has officially opened the doors of their new headquarters which was designed with collaboration in mind.”
McDonald’s Restaurant with International Options
On the first floor, there is a McDonald’s restaurant that is open to the public. And, the unique thing about this restaurant is that it showcases menu items from around the world, including McSpicy Chicken Sandwich from Hong Kong, Cheese & Bacon Loaded Fries from Australia, and a Mozza Salad from France. McDonald’s will be switching around the menu every few months as they add other international foods onto the menu for their customers to try. Also, this location has digital menus, espresso drinks with full-time baristas, fresh pastries, add-ons for drinks and desserts, touchscreen ordering, and cordless charging tables. You can visit this restaurant at 110 N. Carpenter Street, from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.
Hamburger University
On the second floor of the headquarters, you can find McDonald’s famous training facility also known as Hamburger University. This is where the company trains their managers which was first founded by McDonald’s grill-man turned senior chairman, Fred Turner, in 1961. Since then, there have been more than 80,000 restaurant managers, mid-managers, and owner/operators that have graduated from this school. McDonald’s test kitchen is also located above the University which is the room where the company experiments on new sandwiches and sauces.
McDonald’s Employee Cafe and Work Neighborhoods
Furthermore, McDonald’s does an amazing job of bringing out the creativity from their employees as they make the work environments as comfortable and spacious as possible. On the sixth floor, there is a McDonald’s employee cafe, McCafe with barista-style coffee and Canadian pastries. There is also stadium seating so that employees can have room to collaborate and hang out during meals. There is a Tech Bar which is readily available for employees who are experiencing any IT issues. McDonald’s has also created “work neighborhoods” which has several open floor plans that give their staff the option to pick what type of environment best suits their needs during the day. Each neighborhood has huddle rooms, communal tables, individual workstations, private phone rooms, and personal lockers.
The Future of McDonald’s
As McDonald’s gets settled into their new facility, Easterbrook is thrilled to be located in an up-and-coming neighborhood known for its trendy restaurants. Easterbrook hopes to cultivate more ideas and tap into emerging food trends. According to a spokesperson, by 2020, McDonald’s hopes to modernize all of its restaurants as they have already begun implementing new technological ideas into their headquarter McDonald’s restaurant.
