Despite recent price hikes and profits, the company’s current restructuring aims to cut costs and reduce redundancies that higher-end companies feel are slowing innovation. This past January, Kempinski sent a note to employees warning them of the current situation, according to him ABC Chicago. He wrote, “Some initiatives will be deprioritized or stopped altogether. This will help us move faster as an organization while reducing our global costs and freeing up resources to invest in our growth.”
McDonald’s US President Joe Erlinger also revealed that the company will permanently close its 10 field offices across the US in the coming months, a decision that is driving at least some of the many layoffs (per Online restaurant business). As the company has expressed, physical outposts are underutilized and expensive, given the fact that many employees spend most of their time in restaurant locations rather than in offices. Instead, the remaining regional teams will move to virtual staffing, with one central national office overseeing all locations.
While it’s unclear if there will be more internal layoffs anytime soon, the overall Golden Arches expansion initiative appears to be prioritizing growth across its marketing and franchise divisions both in the U.S. and abroad, signaling the creation of more of jobs in the future.