2.3.2 Weaknesses
Unhealthy Food Menu
Healthy is an important part in the food industry. McDonald’s tried to introduce healthier choices in its menu, but the menu is still largely formed of unhealthy meals and drinks. The first association that comes to our mind about McDonald’s is that it serves junk food. Even though McDonald’s has added salads and other lighter items to its menu, this does not change as a strong shift towards healthier food. This is one of the weaknesses of McDonald’s because people nowadays preserve healthier food.
High Employee Turnover
Most job at McDonald’s are a low skilled and a low paid job. As a result, there is a significant amount of employee turnover, which increases training costs and add to overall costs of McDonald’s. Many employees do not take the job seriously, or only do it for a short period of time and this can lead to lower performance operations of McDonald’s. Besides, high employee turnover can harm McDonald’s ability to retain customer and provide high-quality customer service. Customers might feel more convenient and comfortable talking to the same employees and customer service representative over time.
Negative Publicity
Negative publicity is the adverse publicity that McDonald’s face due to particular reason, which may lead to potentially disastrous consequences. Documentaries such as 2004’s documentary “Super Size Me”, documented Morgan Spurlock’s rapidly deteriorating health as he ate only McDonald’s for a 30-day period, every item on the chain’s menu at least once. Morgan Spurlock gained 11.1 kilograms, a 13% body mass increase and experienced mood swings, sexual dysfunction, and fat accumulation in his liver. As a result, many health conscious consumers do not even consider having a meal at McDonald’s. Negative publicity has tarnished the reputation of McDonald’s among its customers. Needless to say, it affects McDonald’s business.

3.0.3 Overcome the identified weaknesses
Unhealthy Food Menu
Due to the unhealthy food provided by McDonald’s, many healthy conscious consumers do not prefer eating a meal at McDonald’s. Thus, McDonald’s should introduce some healthy food to the customers instead of purely junk food. For example, McDonald’s can introduce the option to substitute egg whites in breakfast meal and roll out chicken wraps as its first menu with cucumber. McDonald’s can give people the choice of a salad instead of fries in the combo meals. Besides, the food has to prepare in a low fat, sugar and salt content. McDonald’s can change the carbonated drinks to fruit juice or yogurt drinks to provide a more healthy meal.
High Employee Turnover
Due to high employee turnover, cost of McDonald’s has increases and has lead to a lower performance of operations. Therefore, McDonald’s should increase the pay of overtime rates when employees work very long hours to retain the workers. McDonald’s can construct an exit interview questions that solicit candid feedback from departing employees. Ask resigning workers the reason why they choose to look for employment elsewhere. Besides, McDonald’s should emphasize the importance of understanding human behavior and of motivating employees toward achievement. Insurance and Health Savings Accounts also can be introduce as a way to reduce the percentage of employee turnover.
Negative Publicity
Due to the negative publicity, the reputation of McDonald’s has fall. McDonald’s can improve their image by involving in a number of charity and sponsorship programmed across the country. Besides, if McDonald’s faces complaints and bad publicity, respond quickly, honestly and decisively. McDonald’s has to take the responsibility if the bad publicity is true rather than try to escape from the fault. For example, McDonald’s can apologize to public, make amends and explain how they are going to do better in the future. Eventually, most of the public will be very forgiving. Moreover, planning and preparation can significantly reduce the chances of getting bad publicity. Any staff of McDonald’s has the power to enhance or ruin the reputation of the business. Therefore, staff training is essential to make sure the staff can handle the customer complaints well so that a small problem does not become a big headache.