The people in the call centre talk to the person in their car and take the order. The information is passed back to the person actually making the order in the McDonalds store, and when the customer drives around to the payment station the food is ready. They don't even know they were talking to someone who is thousands of kilometres away.

The logic of doing it this way is that the call centre people do a better job of getting the customer order. They do it to a script and this ensures all the right questions are asked, and any issue resolved quickly. They use software to create workflow that links processes together and reduces administration.

In the end the call centre people do a better job of order taking because they are chosen specifically chosen for this kind of work, they run it as a process, and it's all they do. (The follow up to this is to be found in a later edition of the New York Times. According the later NYT story, the call centre solution now covers the whole of the US right across to Honolulu in Hawaii.)

So what about China and our souped-up, catch-'em-quick-before-they-change-jobs hiring process?

Just think about McDonalds, or any fast food restaurant for that matter, looking for new staff in some city in China. The people they need normally come from the vicinity of the store, otherwise they will have a long commute.

But people in this industry don't do long commutes. Not for long anyway, and not when there are so many food 'n retail jobs available in China. So McDonalds gets who it gets in the vicinity of each store.

The call centre on the other hand looks for a specialised type of person. Someone that is suited to doing this work. When they hire they test candidates for skills and interview against behavioural issues that are associated with success in the job. Then they give the person the tools to do the job.

They substitute technology for proximity so they can cover any location.

Call centers locate in big cities because there is a readily accessible base of people to choose from. And they simplify the process by scripting it so that the accessible base of people is as big as possible.

Over time the call center company hones its skills by measuring everything they do. This goes down to a very low level of detail such as the time between the button being pressed and the delivery of the final order. Or the number of orders that have mistakes. And so on.

At present this is all being done from a central call centre but there is no reason that it could not be done from the person's home. Even on a part time basis. So it's not much of a stretch to imagine McDonalds orders in the US being taken in India, or China.

And it's also not difficult to imagine companies in China outsourcing their whole hiring process to that same call centre, or a company like it. Background checks and confirmation of educational achievements in China are already done this way.

Why not the whole hiring process?

-- Article by Talent in China and courtesy of Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching entry level jobs and other career opportunities.