(Narration) McDonald's in Shannon is a
high turnover outlet, catering for drive-through
as well as walk in customers.
Owner Kieran McDermott was initially reluctant
to take on someone with a disability.
I suppose I'm no different to any other employer
with their own business, that you want your
business to be the best, you want it to stand out
from the crowd and you want to make money.
One of the key aspects in terms of delivering
quality service and cleanliness to you customer
is obviously your recruitment.
And we put a lot of time and thought into what
type of people that we wanted to employ.
I suppose we were open about 4 months when
somebody approached me from the Clare supported
employment service and asked to meet with me.
Now, anybody that's just opened a business will
remember or understand that it can be crazy,
especially 4 months open and especially
in a McDonald's.
Everybody wants to meet you for sponsorship,
for this, for that, so they said they were looking
to place somebody with a disability.
To be honest with you it was the last thing that
I wanted to entertain.
(Narration) Despite his misgivings Kieran agreed
to meet with an employment facilitator from Clare
supported employment service, he asked her
to work at McDonald's for a day, so that she would
fully understand the type of working environment
she would be placing somebody in.
At the end of it we sat down and I was expecting
her to say, not really for me, we won't be placing
a person here, but quite to the contrary, she then
spend the next hour interviewing me and I was
blown away by the level of detail that she went into
about our business.
I was seeing if her supported employment service
was a fit for me, but far more importantly she was
making sure that my place of employment
was a fit for her candidate.
I hadn't seen it that way before.
Helen came to meet with Joe our store manager
and myself about a week later and the rest
I presume is history, because Helen has been with
us for two and a half years, she arrives every
Saturday and every Sunday and works on
our lobby area.
And she's a dream to be with.
As a result of our experience with Helen,
we now have Barry, who started with us 8 months
ago, Barry is king of the chicken station.
Barry works chicken on a Friday, he arrives about
12 every Friday and straightaway there is
a new buzz in the kitchen area.
What I would say to other employer's is,
maybe try and open your eyes to looking at
ability rather than disability.
2 Years on we are now in the top 5 McDonald's
in the country in terms of quality, service
and cleanliness.
And Barry and Helen have played no small part
in delivering that for me and with me.
