McDonald’s UK Named A Top Innovator in Work-Life Balance
February 21, 2007
Working Families has announced its selection of McDonald's UK as a joint winner of its 2006 Working Families Innovation Award. The award recognizes the company for its pioneering approach to helping employees manage their work-life balance.
The Working Families Innovation Awards go to employers who have devised and implemented leading edge work-life balance policies and practices. McDonald’s UK was named a joint winner for putting flexible work at the heart of its business.
Under the company's pioneering Family Contract program, employees from the same family working in the same restaurant can cover each other's shifts without prior notice, giving them flexibility to manage the demands of their busy lives. Flexible work opportunities also allow:
- All hourly-paid employees to choose the hours they will be available to work and have their shifts scheduled within these timeframes.
- Part-time positions in restaurant management.
- Compressed summer hours for office staff so that they can get more from their weekends.
These flexible work practices have helped McDonald’s UK achieve the lowest staff turnover in the UK hospitality industry, a high proportion of female managers, and high levels of employee satisfaction.
“We’re delighted to have won the Working Families Innovation Award," said David Fairhurst, Senior Vice President for People at McDonald's UK. "Our employees are incredibly diverse but they have one thing in common – hectic lives. That’s why we’ve created the Family Contract to help our staff juggle their busy lives."
Fairhurst links flexible work opportunities to employee performance and business success. "By giving our employees the freedom to manage their shift commitments, we can increase their motivation and enjoyment of work. That is fundamental to our business because it is a simple fact that happy employees mean happy customers."
The Working Families Innovation Award is the latest in a series recognizing McDonald's UK as an outstanding employer. In 2005, the company became the UK's first large employer to achieve Investor in People Profile status. In January 2007, the company was named the UK's Best Place to Work in Hospitality. It was also included in the Guardian's 2007 list of Britain's Top Employers and the Times' 2007 lists of Top Graduate Employers and Top Companies Where Women Want to Work.
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