A major fast food chain is getting creative with its hiring efforts to combat a staffing shortage.

Sanaia Emanuel, 17, was one of many people hired on the spot at McDonald’s locations across South Jersey on Wednesday. It was part of a drive-up hiring event to fill 2,500 open positions.

“They just drive up and in the back we have an area set up where they can stay in their car and we can interview them in their car if they want,” says McDonald’s owner/operator Patrick Powers. “If they walk up, we will have social distancing there where they can sit 6-8 feet apart and do their interview outside as well.”

Powers owns 10 McDonald’s in southern New Jersey. He says that he lost some employees who didn’t want to work during the pandemic. He says that now he is having problems filling positions.

“We haven’t had a ton of applicants. We’ve had a good bit depending on the store or the area. Some stores were really struggling, for instance, down at the Shore it’s very tough for us down there to hire people,” Powers says.

Each location looking to hire about 10 new employees and they say these new crew members will play a critical role in helping to reopen dining rooms that have been closed during the pandemic.

“We will have to have people for our front counter registers…We have the extra sanitation in the lobby, so I have people that we stationed out here just to clean tables and wipe down the kiosks that we have, the beverage centers in those types of areas. So we definitely need more staff for that,” Powers says.

The hiring event was only for Wednesday. But the stores say that they will continue to accept applications for potential employees.