Speaking to HR magazine, Langhorn said the majority of the company's employees are on "flexible contracts", which entitle them to all the benefits and rewards, and access to training and qualifications, of a permanent contract.
Last month McDonald's came under fire after it was reported that 90% of its employees are on zero-hours contracts.
This followed research published by the CIPD that found there could be more than one million workers in the UK on this type of contract.
Langhorn, who has been in his current role for two years after spending one year as McDonald's UK HR director, said his employees always work the amount of hours agreed at the beginning of their employment.
He said McDonald's has used zero-hours contracts in the UK since it opened its first restaurant in 1974.
Never on standby
"We never have, and never will have, people sitting at home on standby waiting for the phone to ring," he said.
"We spend a lot of time and money training our people, so it wouldn't make sense for them to be at home with zero-hours."
He cited himself as an example of how the controversial contracts work for McDonald's staff.
"When I fist started at McDonald's, at the age of 16, I wanted to work 10-hours a week and that is what I got given," he said.
"Then when my exams came I wanted two months off to study, and the flexible nature of my contract allowed this. After my exams I wanted full-time hours and again the flexibility in my contract allowed me to work 40-hours a week."
He said this type of contract works for its people. "We do an annual staff survey to gauge thoughts on a whole host of different issues and one question we ask is around employee contracts," he said.
"From a response rate of 90%, around 94% of our employees said they were happy with their hours and the flexibility of their contract."
Langhorn refused to get drawn on other companies' use of zero-hours contracts but said McDonald's will continue to work this way. "We know this works for us and we know it works for our people," he said.
