Singapore, April 17, 2007 McDonald’s has a long standing philosophy that the company can grow only if it enables its employees to grow, contribute and feel pride in working for McDonald's. This corporate mantra has garnered the company a national accolade recently. It also marked the first time that a company in the Quick Service Restaurant sector was singled out as one of Singapore’s Top 10 Best Employers since the biennial study’s inception.

The Best Employers in Singapore 2007 study conducted by global human resources services firm Hewitt Associates in partnership with The Business Times and The Straits Times Recruit assessed more than 750 participating companies based on the respective company’s environment, training schemes, rewards structure, work-life programmes and people practices.

The final results also took into account the findings from employee engagement surveys which Hewitt Associates conducted with a cross-section of each company’s employees.

In the Hewitt survey, amongst other attributes, employees cited McDonald’s:

• as a good company overall that provides a good career opportunity
• as having fantastic training and development programmes that groom employees to the next level
• as allowing managers and crew to attend University Accredited Programme (UAP) to upgrade their skills, knowledge and attain UAP certification
• overall as a company with strong and structured system for people practices
• as a company they are proud to work in (The company’s annual People Proud rating score in 2006 was a record high of 94%)
• as having work environment that is fun and challenging
• as having inspiring leadership who leads by example
• as having a leadership team that has been effective in building the brand and delivering results
• as having leadership that looks into employee needs and development

“This is a wonderful endorsement of what we have been practising all these years. At McDonald’s, it is all about people excellence and opportunities. We value our people – who they are today, who they could be tomorrow. As a first employer, we give our people training and experience that helps them wherever they want to go in life. And if they wish to stay in our restaurant business, the sky is the limit!" said Kenneth Chan, Managing Director, McDonald’s Restaurants.

Since opening in Singapore in 1979, McDonald’s continues to be steadfast in its commitment to training and developing its employees. The company goes beyond offering career opportunities to also ensuring lifetime employability. For example, in 2004, McDonald’s took the leadership initiative to launch the University Accredited Programme (UAP), offering employees a second shot at continuing their education.

The company also takes pride in providing the best service training in the industry and this is continually affirmed by the national Excellent Service Awards (EXSA) accorded annually. Indeed, over the last three years, McDonald’s Restaurant Managers have consecutively won the national SUPER STAR EXSA award.

“It is very heartening to note from the Hewitt survey that our employees value the McDonald’s culture and are proud to be working at McDonald’s," said Kenneth Chan.