Institute of Internal Communication

David Fairhurst, Senior Vice President for UK and Northern Europe at McDonald’s Restaurants, has been been named CIB Business Communicator of the Year 2008. He received his award from CiB Vice President Simon Hughes MP at a gala lunch in London on Friday 14 November 2008.

David has been recognised for his outstanding achievements in promoting career progression, qualifications, employee engagement and pride in the workplace in a sector often identified with low wages and high staff turnover, as well as working tirelessly to counteract the public and media perceived stereotypes that can impact negatively on staff morale.

Confronting stereotypes head on, he has campaigned to change the negative dictionary definition of “McJob” (“an unstimulating, low-paid job with few prospects”) with a high-profile petition that attracted 105,0000 signatures from employees and the public.

This petition has now been submitted to the Oxford English Dictionary for review.

David has been voted this year’s “most influential person in human resources” by HR Magazine readers and is also recognised by Personnel Today as their number one PowerPlayer for the second year running.

His dedication has also been instrumental in McDonald’s achieving the 2007 Best Place to Work Award (Caterer magazine) and its first ever listing in the Financial Times’ Top 50 Great Places to Work.

Meanwhile, back in the internal communications arena we are pleased to say that CiB fellow Pete Maginnis was voted internal communicator of the year.

Pete is head of communications at Wolseley UK, the nation’s largest distributor of construction materials and products.

“The supporting material and the glowing testimonials that came through as part of the submission made Pete stand out head and shoulders above the others,” said COTY organiser Caroline Finch.

Pete is already a multi-award winner and the transformation that has taken part within the Wolseley UK communications team is a testimony to this worthy winner.

Colleague Simon Henning, who initially nominated Pete for the award, said: “To build an industry-leading and multiple award-winning internal communications function from scratch in less than two years is an astonishing achievement. I’m delighted that Pete’s hard work and dedication has been recognised by his peers.”

And former HR director Bob Mason commented following a major central services project: “The way in which Pete and his team supported this major project was a superb example of how they have added real and measurable value to Wolseley UK. It would not have been possible, but for Pete’s hard work, attention to detail and immaculate planning.”

Both David and Pete received their awards at a high-profile industry lunch on 14 November at the Park Lane Hotel in London, where we also saw the winners of the 2008 Communication Strategy Awards announced.