Mcdonalds’ Website Reflection:

After arriving at the page, I found it pretty simple to look at and decide where to click to find what I want. The first thing I looked for is a job opening and description. Once I clicked on corporate opportunities, you can click on what category and then what state and click search. Then it shows all the jobs relating to that category, if you click on one it will tell you the qualifications and requirements. Mcdonalds has an option to put job openings in a “job cart” where you can put the jobs you are interested in applying at. They also have an option to receive “job alerts” where if a position opens up, it will contact you by email.  Under the career tab is a link called employee benefits. Clicking here lets you know about the different employee benefits offered at McDonalds.  It would be nice if McDonalds would elaborate more on some of the benefits such as Mc$ave because I would like to know what that is. As well as know more about vacations, medical and different pay incentives. It would be nice if they were more specific and not general. After trying to find out what specific benefits they have, I clicked below the employee benefits page where they have pages that tell you what each benefit is. So they do have the specific information there but it was one more click away.  So far information wasn’t too hard to find. I like that they had all the information because it makes people more inclined to trust McDonalds and want to work for them. Navigation could use drop down tabs when hovering over the main Tabs in red to show what lies in that section without having to click all over. On the other hand McDonalds career page is not very inviting. Yes, they use McDonalds color scheme we all know but there is so much white page. It would be nicer to have more pictures of happy working employees.  More colors, possibly a different background other than white would help keep people’s interest while looking at the website. There seems to be some odd white space on the information pages. Using more pictures, graphs, and charts will help people see things easier and be more obliged to read more on the website. Since most people now-a-days can search the companies they are applying for online, they can compare and contrast as well as look for valuable information that may turn a future employee on or off the job opportunity. Using pictures, graphs, tidbits of information comparing your employee benefits to others may help prospective employees want to work for McDonalds. Using the four I’s of internet marketing, Interactive, Information driven, Immediate, and Involving, I think Mcdonald’s site could use more interactive things in their site. I saw the video called “Why McDonalds?” on the career homepage, and I think more of this will benefit other pages as well. Maybe even add a forum or conversation tool. After a while I noticed the facebook, and twitter links at the top of the page. To be honest I didn’t even see them there until I went to Walgreens page and then went back to see if McDonalds had them too. It might be a good idea to move these buttons to a more seeable area; I like the size though. A more persuasive tone in the information can also be productive because you are trying to sell your jobs to potential employees. You want employees that have the right qualifications and experience as well so being clear and precise about what those are will help. Having more people apply to a job gives you the opportunity to choose the best candidate.

After Viewing Walgreens’ Website:

Right off the bat I noticed that Walgreens had a livelier site. I based this on the fact that they had pictures on every page, as well as some videos. I also noticed that unlike McDonald’s site, they have a section called “life at Walgreens” which talks about the culture there, volunteerism, diversity and even a place to learn about other team member in the company. This is a great tactic because it makes people want to work here because of the good environment and social responsibility efforts. Walgreens spells it out for you almost in a persuasive way in order to sell their company to you a potential employee and they don’t make it difficult to find. I read this on Walgreens Career homepage “To millions of Americans, our retail stores are Walgreens. But it’s the talented, dedicated team members at our corporate locations whose support help make those stores run smoothly and who work to expand our business into new health and wellness categories.” I didn’t see anything like this on McDonald’s site. This statement really makes me want to work at Walgreens. As far as navigation, they do have drop down tabs from the main tabs and it was easy to find descriptions of the specific job areas. But they had a much more complicated looking job search page. After figuring out how to enter search results, about 5 clicks to enter job field, zip code, and miles away, I was able to find jobs. I liked that they had more options such as how many miles away are you looking and very specific job search areas. This helps narrow down jobs for someone looking. They also have a “job cart” and a “jobpage” if you sign in. Unlike Walmart, which only had a mailing address under Contact Info, Walgreens has a ton of different numbers and emails to contact for help. This is much more personalized and makes me trust Walgreens as a well-organized company. They also have a Share button that lets people share on facebook, twitter, email, and just about anywhere you ever wanted at the end of each page, I wish it were larger though. They also have a FAQs page for people to ask and read others questions. And if you are really having trouble on their site, there is a Site Map link to help you find the page you want. Though their colors are almost identical to McDonald’s, I didn’t notice it as much, probably because there is less white space and more pictures and a larger top line. Overall Walgreens had more personalization features and was easier to find valuable information for a potential employee. McDonalds has their accomplishments in the Corporate Accolades page, which I didn’t find until after I searched for careers so they weren’t much use there. I do like the information that McDonalds offers about employee benefits and accolades but they do not do it justice by not being as persuasive and really trying to sell their company.