Quick service restaurant giant McDonald’s Philippines hopes to see 90 percent of its employees, including service crew, vaccinated “as soon as possible” as part of the company’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

But, this will have to be largely supported by the government’s vaccination effort for now, said Margot B. Torres, managing director at McDonald’s Philippines.

“Our target is that 90 percent of our employees and crew are vaccinated,” Torres told Business Bulletin. “We want this soonest the better but we are dependent on the supply”.

Torres said while McDonald’s Philippines is committed to have its own supply of COVID-19 vaccines and distribute this for free among employees, the thousands of doses of Moderna and Astra Zeneca it ordered will not arrive in the country until the latter part of this year.

“We are waiting for our orders to arrive,” Torres said. “But while waiting, we believe that the best vaccines are the ones that are available.”

In the meantime, McDonald’s Philippines encouraged its employees to sign up with their local government units (LGUs).

As of now, 12,000, or 58 percent, of the fast-food chain’s 20,000 crews are already registered in different LGUs. Of this, 3,145 have already received their first dose, while 315 are already fully vaccinated.

Torres said the majority of these employees are from the McDonald’s stores in the National Capital Region (NCR).

Earlier this month, McDonald’s Philippines joined COVID-19 (IATF) Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases in a ceremonial vaccination event to prioritize the A4 category, which includes restaurant crews, employees who are required to physically report to work.

As of May, the willingness rate among McDonald’s employees to get vaccinated is now at 95 percent, Torres said.

Back on track

Meanwhile, Torres said that amid the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination drive in the country, she is confident that McDonald’s Philippines will be able to re-establish its normal business operations by 2022 to 2023 after being affected by the pandemic.

“We are on track. The business this year is much better than last year and we also have the right strategy,” Torres said, adding that the company’s growth will still be driven by its delivery and drive-thru services.

Already, 98 percent of the company’s branches nationwide are already operational, compared to only 93 percent in June last year. As of end 2020, the company has 653 branches nationwide.

McDonald’s Philippines is one of the private companies in the Philippines giving away a 10 percent discount for fully vaccinated customers.

To address the impact of the pandemic, McDonald’s Philippines designed last year a business continuity planning framework, which consists of four stages, including ‘now’, ‘near-term’, ‘mid-term’, and ‘long-term’.

‘Now’ involves the company’s immediate response to the pandemic such as the additional investment poured into its COVID-19 safety measures as well as the maximization of its existing service channels.

The ‘near-term’ plan is considered the recovery phase, which saw the firm’s efforts to stabilize its operations last year. The ‘mid-term’ or rebound phase is expected to happen within this year, while the ‘long-term’ plan is set for 2022 to 2023.