BELONG
Supporting Employees with Benefits
Sodexo has launched Vita, a global benefits program which will provide all Sodexo employees with a minimum standard comprehensive benefits package. It aims to be fair and inclusive, so every employee has the financial protection and emotional support to be happy at work and beyond.
The Vita program includes a commitment to ensure every Sodexo employee benefits from a Life Insurance offer; an Employee Assistance Program giving them access to confidential advice, guidance and counselling; and Parental and Care Leave which will ensure they can spend time with their loved ones when it matters most. More specifically, Sodexo is committed to providing 12 weeks’paid parental leave for the primary carer and 2 weeks’ paid parental leave for the secondary carer. This move paves the way for Sodexo to be the market maker in its industry.
Engaging former employees
Sodexo has invested in activities to respond to the labour shortage and attract and recruit onsite teams to ensure it continues to deliver a quality level of service to clients and consumers.
In India, for example, Sodexo developed a program called Win Back, which focuses on incentivizing former employees to rejoin the business. In 2022, the number of Win Back hires represented 13% of total hires across the country.
ACT
Acting with purpose to fight hunger
Sodexo employees have a significant role to play in the delivery of its purpose and mission, over and above their day-to-day activities. When it comes to having an impact on local communities, Sodexo is refreshing its volunteering policy to encourage employees to take one day of paid leave per year to give their time in support of Stop Hunger or another local cause dedicated to tackling hunger and food insecurity (to know more about Stop Hunger: p. 76 and 77).
Individually, one day of volunteering is an opportunity to have a personal impact on people in the local community. Collectively, with the potential to provide 422,000 volunteer days annually, employee volunteering combined with the scale of the organization is a unique prospect to make an impact around tackling hunger and food insecurity.
Raising awareness about reducing food waste
At Sodexo, with 60% of its business linked to food and serving 100 million consumers worldwide each day, the Group knows how important preventing food waste is!
Since 2012, Sodexo has celebrated ‘WasteLESS Week’ globally as an organization. This campaign, which runs during October, is a key moment to empower consumers to waste less and to support Sodexo teams in their efforts to reduce waste all year round.
THRIVE
Creating a culture in which people can grow
Sodexo has invested in training programs to support a whole range of topics, including job-specific know-how, key Sodexo initiatives and ways of working, as well as ensuring employees understand their role in meeting legal and regulatory requirements. In September 2022, Sodexo launched the Sodexo Academy, which provides learning pathways to ensure an attractive learning experience, to close skills gaps and to enable business strategy.
A priority action for the Sodexo Academy is to focus on the operational frontline, which represents 95% of Sodexo’s total workforce. Following feedback and insights from the leadership community and 6,000 frontline employees, the global learning and development team is working closely with the regional teams to deliver a global standard that meets the needs of frontline teams, with a specific focus on onboarding, customer service and health and safety.
Equipping leaders with new skills
This year, Sodexo designed a leadership program focused on helping leaders acquire and finetune the skills to effectively manage teams in today’s shifting context. The empathetic and collective leadership program, which was piloted in France, is now being deployed globally.
The program promises to help leaders be more empathetic; develop self-care techniques in order to better look after themselves and their teams; work more collaboratively with others; be more comfortable with giving and receiving feedback in the interest of continuous improvement; and effectively manage teams in a hybrid way of working.