Insight june x test

Insight The magazine for Sodexo managers

June/July 2015

Issue: 28

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Shaping up for growth

08

Survey seeks safety insight

10

Two years of PeopleCentre

12

Why we must be flexible

NEWS 02 Royal recognition 03 Eight awards for

stadium teams

06 Highlights from the Quality of Life conference H

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TeamTalk Information to help you communicate with your team

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Insight June/July 2015

Solid foundations for future growth As we enter the final quarter of the financial year, how are we doing against our 2015 goals?

Ben Edwards caught up with chief executive officer for Sodexo UK & Ireland, Debbie White to find out more and to hear about our plans for 2016 and beyond.

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hree years ago, Debbie White and the executive team established five challenging goals for the UK and Ireland business. They were to: • Be recognised as a leading competitor in our segments • Achieve 50% engagement by 2015 • Grow profitable revenues to £1.5bn by 2017 • Improve operating margins by 1.5% by 2015 • Make Sodexo a chosen, wellknown and understood brand So, how is the business doing?

“We’re very much on track with our goals,” says Debbie. “I am delighted with our progress. I’m confident that if we keep up the momentum, we will deliver our commitments and have another great year to celebrate.”

Debbie says that the business has made significant progress being recognised as a leading competitor in our segments by getting closer to clients and really getting to grips with their strategic priorities.

Later in the summer, Sodexo will know if it has hit its employee engagement rate, once the

results from the recent pulse survey have been received.

In terms of growth, the business has followed a fantastic 2014 with another amazing year.

“We are set to achieve doubledigit revenue growth,” Debbie adds. “By the end of the year, we should be around £1.35bn, which will reflect the best growth rate across the Sodexo Group.”

Operating margin is also on the up, thanks to a focus on contract design and management, keeping the lid on overhead costs and a mantra of “flat is flat is flat”.

Finally, the Sodexo brand is becoming more well-known and understood with more effective communication about what the business means by “Quality of Life”.

“We’re performing well,” says Debbie. “But we could be even better if we combine client focus with global best practice. However, to achieve that magical combination requires a step change.

“To grow faster and make sure our growth is sustainable, we have to think differently and we have to operate differently. And the time to do that is now.”

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Insight June/July 2015

‘We need to build a truly global organisation that can better support our clients, both locally and globally, and help them deliver outcomes that improve the Quality of Life for their employees, customers and consumers.’

Debbie has spent the last couple of years working with senior leaders from around the world to develop Sodexo’s global strategy and, from September this year, Sodexo in the UK & Ireland will transition to a new model that will enable the business to leverage its global expertise and knowledge to create unique value for clients and support Sodexo’s long-term growth.

“The marketplace is becoming more competitive with significant external pressures that come from globalisation,” Debbie explains. “And our clients and consumers are expecting much more from us.

“We need to build a truly global organisation that can better

support our clients, both locally and globally, and help them deliver outcomes that improve the Quality of Life for their employees, customers and consumers.”

From September, Sodexo will adopt a new way of working.

Segments will be organised globally so the business can gain deeper insight into the challenges clients face and better understand their goals and ambitions.

Through that market intelligence and client focus, segment teams will be able to define offers that help clients achieve their objectives.

“Our segment teams will then need to work closely with Service

Operations to define the services to support those offers,” Debbie adds. “This close collaboration between segments and Service Operations will be absolutely key to our success.”

As segments better understand the current and future needs of their markets, Service Operations will develop standardised services, processes and systems to meet this demand. Debbie comments: “It’s a major change in the way we work and will drive standardisation and the sharing of expertise across our whole business.”

Within Service Operations there will be a food services platform

and an FM platform, which will be split into hard and soft FM. These platforms will be supported by the very best supply chain, technology, health and safety support, bid support and mobilisation. Bringing all this expertise together will allow Service Operations to develop the best way to support teams across all segments.

Segments will also be supported by transversal functions – including finance, HR, and brand and communications – which will be responsible for ensuring consistency and efficiency across the organisation, both at a global and regional level.

“Transversal functions will work in partnership with the segment teams to promote profitable and sustainable growth,” Debbie says.

“Refreshing our strategy and reshaping our business to put the client at the very heart of everything we do is to help us grow and become more successful. That’s exactly what transversal functions need to focus on too through efficient, effective support of the business.

“They will help to alleviate the administrative burden on our operational teams, taking on more of the tasks that currently prevent them from focusing on what will drive our success – real market insight and customer centricity.”

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Insight June/July 2015

Flexible working mindset must change Executive board member Jane Bristow tells Nick Turrell why it is so important for Sodexo to embrace a way of working that will benefit the business and employees, and why we all need to think ‘outside of the box’.

Jane Bristow is pushing for progress on offering employees the opportunity to work flexibly.

Flexible working is a key global workstream for Sodexo Women’s International Forum for talent (SWIFt) and Jane is championing the need to embrace it around the world.

She says the perception that it is all about working mums is wrong. “As a services company, people are our only asset, and having a diverse, inclusive and engaged workforce is critical to our success,” she said.

Jane also believes we underestimate the ability of the individual to propose arrangements that can work for both parties.

“Our team members are just as focused on delivering great service to their customers as managers are and often have far more creative solutions to issues than we credit them for,” she said.

There are all sorts of reasons why people want to work flexibly, she continued. For example, it could be the need to have time to care for elders, for religious reasons to take time out to pray, or – as increasingly is the case with young people – they simply don’t

Jane Bristow

want to work in the same way as their parents’ generation.

“It is an absolutely critical thing to embrace and organisations, Sodexo included, have not made the progress I would have liked to have seen,” said Jane.

Flexibility comes in all shapes and sizes. It can include part-time working, job-sharing, varied start and/or finish times, a change of shift pattern, term-time working, compressed hours, working from an alternative location and homeworking. Some employees may only need flexibility on an ad-hoc basis.

“Fundamentally it’s about

engagement with our employees; building a Quality of Life proposition for them,” Jane continued.

Of course, often on an informal basis, flexible working arrangements have been operating throughout Sodexo for many years but in June 2014, legislation promoting it was introduced in the UK, and Sodexo has also aligned its internal processes in Ireland.

But Jane insists that regardless of the law, it simply makes good business practice to offer employees the opportunity to work flexibly.

She said: “I accept that for

some this is a really difficult issue.

However, we need to engage with our employees and say ‘we need to provide a service to our customers; how are we going to do it?’”

Jane insists managers have to place more trust in employees and make individuals more accountable.

“If someone needs to have an hour away to go to the dentist or to take their elderly mother or father to a hospital appointment, give them the responsibility of organising cover and they’ll do it.”

Jane continued: “As part of any

Your rights to flexible working Since June 2014, all employees in the UK with at least 26 weeks’ service have had the statutory right to request flexible working.

Employees should make applications in writing to their line manager, using the flexible working request form available on SodexoNet and Your_Sodexo, detailing what changes they desire, when they would like the flexibility to start, and if they perceive any impact on the organisation.

Organisations like Sodexo have a duty to consider such requests in a timely manner and consider whether its implementation would have any detrimental impact on quality, performance or on ability to meet customer demand.

In Ireland, where the legislation differs, Sodexo has aligned its approach enabling all employees with 26 weeks’ continuous service to make a flexible working request.

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Insight June/July 2015

flexible working application process, we encourage employees to think about the impact their request will have on the business and, if it is potentially negative, how this might be overcome.

“Line managers need to understand the legislation and the business case for flexibility and have the authority to make appropriate decisions about how to enable flexibility within their teams.”

Getting buy-in from clients is also crucial, and not always straightforward. “Managers may need to defend employees’ flexible working arrangements to clients who would have preferred a more traditional working pattern,” said Jane. “It is important for managers to communicate the business benefits, to allay clients’ fears and to help make the flexible arrangement work.”

Indeed, good communication is vital for all managers, and it becomes increasingly important when employees are working from various locations and get together less frequently.

“Successful flexible working is really about trust; trusting employees to manage their work in an efficient and appropriate way,” Jane continued. “Employees should be judged on their outputs

rather than on hours spent at their desks.

“Young people in particular are saying ‘if you don’t give me the right work-life balance, I’ll go and work for a company that does.’

The days of presenteeism, people being sat where they can be seen to be working between set hours every day, are long gone.

“I’m not saying it isn’t more difficult to manage, but if someone commits to doing a piece of work at a certain rate within a certain time we should be flexible enough to accommodate it.

“We can be very rigid in our mindset. Many other businesses are not and the battle for talent is getting ever tougher.

“Making your company a desirable proposition to candidates, whilst retaining those you already employ, is a top priority,” said Jane.

“Flexibility is a key component for both engagement and for attracting and retaining the best talent.”

Jane says while some line managers ‘get it’ there are others who struggle with the concept.

She concluded: “We need to think outside the box more and, if we start doing that, we will ensure we have a diverse, talented and engaged workforce for the future.”

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Click here to read more or to leave a comment

Open attitude to flexible working has boosted engagement Carol Williams is Sodexo’s services manager at Ministry of Defence (MoD) Donnington in Shropshire, where we provide fully integrated support services to the Armed Forces community; including catering, retail and l eisure services, hotel services, cleaning, waste management, tailoring and laundry. She believes an open attitude to flexible working has encouraged a good work-life balance within her team, and boosted engagement.

“I believe in working together as a team and allowing colleagues the flexibility to take time out of the business to collect children from school or attend school events or go to appointments, as long as they do their contracted hours within that working day or week,” she explains.

“As a parent I understand some things can be difficult to arrange around working times.

“We also have made changes to accommodate the health considerations of some colleagues who may no longer be able to carry out certain duties within their contract but are still able to work. By adopting a flexible approach we can identify other areas for them to work in, and this has had a positive impact.

“This attitude encourages a good work-life balance and, as a result, I have found my team members to be more engaged within the business. They are prepared to go the extra mile with duties or overtime when asked, which benefits the business, and overall they feel more supported.

“Engagement is a key priority of Sodexo and I believe this is a great way to achieve this – it really has worked for MoD Donnington.”

As part of an awareness-raising campaign organised by the diversity and inclusion team, Jane Bristow will be leading a webinar on the subject on 1 July.

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Team Talk: Helping you communicate with your team

Insight June/July 2015

Team Talk is designed to help you communicate messages during your regular team meetings. Here are key highlights and messages from your segment head, which you can cascade to your teams.

TIME TO RECOGNISE EXCELLENCE It’s an exciting time in our segment and an incredibly busy period for us all. With this in mind, I want to make sure we Neil Murray are all focused on Corporate Services formally recognising the efforts of those who go the extra mile.

The fast-approaching launch of our Star Awards nominations process provides a great opportunity to recognise teams or colleagues. Consider teams or individuals that have excelled over the last twelve months and think about how you or your team have impacted the Quality of Life of those we serve.

Spend some time talking about Star Awards nominations with your teams and keep an eye out for further information. Thanks for your continued hard work; I look forward to reviewing the nominations!

KEY FOCUS ON PATIENT ADMINISTRATION It has been yet another busy few months in Healthcare,

Simon Scrivens Healthcare and TVF

particularly in the area of offer development, where we are continuing to

build and work on some new and exciting business propositions.

A key focus area for us is patient administration where we have developed a solution for a patient contact centre. This will provide a single point of contact for patients to access services and book appointments in hospitals, and deliver improvements in the quality and efficiency of the administrative services for our clients.

TEAM COLLAbORATION ON A GRAND SCALE We are in the midst of our busiest period; the ‘summer season’. With another successful Chelsea Flower Show, CHris John Sport, Leisure & Travel Art Antiques London and Royal Ascot under our belts, we are now focusing on Henley Royal Regatta, Hampton Court Palace Flower Show and The Open at St Andrews. It’s a hugely testing time for all involved and the events team work around the clock to make them happen. Our executive team was recently involved in their own major event; a triathlon including a bike ride from London to Brighton to raise money for Stop Hunger. Please do visit our donation page and give generously through the link on SodexoNet and Your Sodexo

FANTASTIC PULSE RESPONSE RATE

EFFORTS DEMONSTRATE OUR TEAM SPIRIT

Exceptional results FOR OUR CLIENTs

Thank you to everyone who completed the Pulse survey. We had a fantastic response rate and I look forward to seeing the Jane Bristow results in July. I know Education many of you have been busy helping colleagues access the employee

The over-arching focus

As we move well into

website and I would encourage you to continue.

Going forward it will be an invaluable tool through which we can communicate with our people – not

for Defence continues to

summer and well into

be our response to the

our financial year, it is

MOD’s challenging Project Hestia programme.

Andy Leach

However, against this

Defence

testing background, two incredible fundraising efforts have taken place.

Firstly, more than £18,000 was raised across Defence on Stop Hunger Day, closely followed by

extremely pleasing that our custodial estate is

Tony Leech Justice Services

continuing to deliver exceptional results for our clients and those within our care. Our prisons continue to set the highest standards and I am always pleased to hear our clients refer to our performance in such positive

to forget all the great offers and information they

an additional £15,513 for the Nepal Earthquake

can access from there too! I know many of you will

Appeal in support of our Nepalese colleagues and

be exceptionally busy with summer schools by the

our Gurkha clients and customers. The Defence

time you read this. These will be very important to

executive team pledged to match the amount

us as we progress towards year end so I would like

raised for Nepal with an additional 50%, bringing

as we move to our operating model. Thank you for

to thank you in advance for all your hard work to

the final total to £23,269. These efforts reflect the

the great work you do every day.

make these such a success.

team spirit that characterises Defence.

terms. I am very pleased with the mobilisation and transition of our six Community Rehabilitation Companies, but we still face a number of challenges

Please share these messages with your teams