What McDonald’s McHire Can Teach Heavy Industry About AI Hiring
What McDonald’s McHire Can Teach Heavy Industry About AI Hiring
When McDonald’s rolled out its AI hiring platform, McHire, across 1,450 restaurants in the UK and Ireland, it didn’t just streamline recruitment—it set a new bar for how tech can reshape workforce operations.
https://www.hrdconnect.com/casestudy/inside-mchire-how-ai-helped-mcdonalds-drop-time-to-hire-by-65/
The results speak volumes:
65% reduction in time-to-hire
20% increase in candidate completion rates
85.9% candidate satisfaction
Up to 5 hours saved per recruiter per week
How did they do it? A conversational AI assistant named Olivia handled pre-screening, scheduled interviews, and kept candidates informed—all in real-time. But McDonald’s didn’t stop at software. They brought in franchisees, recruiters, HR, legal, and cybersecurity from the start. They trained in person. Piloted. Iterated. They treated AI as a business tool, not a gimmick.
Now, imagine this level of execution applied to heavy industry—construction, oil & gas, mining, transportation—sectors where hiring is not just a function, but a critical bottleneck.
What if heavy industry moved this fast?
Across Canada and the U.S., skilled labour demand is outpacing supply. The construction industry alone needs over 1.2 million new workers by 2027. Yet, most companies still rely on dated workflows: posting jobs, sifting through hundreds of resumes, scheduling phone screens, and hoping they find someone who fits.
The result? Missed deadlines. High turnover. Projects stalling because crews aren’t fully staffed.
There’s a better way.
At Bluebelt, we’ve built an AI-powered hiring platform specifically for heavy industries. Like McHire, our assistant—Blue—interviews candidates by phone, screens for job-fit competencies, and delivers scored profiles to hiring managers. But we’ve tuned it for the boots-on-the-ground realities of industrial employers: high volume, fast turnaround, and role-specific fit.
We’ve already seen companies cut time-to-hire by over 80%, reduce mis-hires, and spend dramatically less time on resume review. Our recent case with GTA Equipment Rentals proves it: from 800 resumes to a successful hire in 3 days—with 10x the ROI of traditional recruiters.
Move fast—or fall behind
The pace of change is accelerating. AI isn’t a “nice-to-have”—it’s rapidly becoming table stakes. Companies that delay adoption risk getting outpaced by more agile competitors who are hiring faster, retaining better, and scaling smarter. In industries where every hour of downtime costs money, speed and precision in hiring is no longer optional—it’s a competitive advantage. The early adopters are already reaping the benefits. The rest risk being left behind.
But here’s the catch: none of this works without buy-in.
McDonald’s success wasn’t just about having great AI. It was about aligning the business—getting decision-makers, legal teams, and frontline recruiters involved early. It was about treating hiring as a strategic priority, not an administrative headache.
If you’re in operations or HR leadership and want to build a faster, smarter hiring machine, the McHire blueprint is right in front of you. And Bluebelt is built to help you act on it—today.
The playbook is there. The tech is ready. The question is: will your company use it?
👉 Try Bluebelt’s free demo: https://www.bluebelt.co/demo
