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When Sodexo Grows, Its People Grow Too

If Sodexo’s culture is the wheels to the organisation’s car, its mission is the fuel that keeps the company moving."

Culture is the secret sauce of Sodexo

Sodexo is the first multinational company that I have worked with in my career. I hail from a start-up culture. In a typical start-up, there are particular ways of working. For instance, many times things could be unorganised. Often, work takes precedence over well-being. At times, a particular task ends up being a lone person’s job. When I shifted to Sodexo, I discovered a whole new world.

Working at Sodexo is more than meeting deadlines and closing deals. Professional learning and employee growth are key tenets of this organisation. Sodexo has a curation of time-tested processes, a wealth of knowledge in the form of business successes and case studies, and decades of rock-solid experience — all of these elements make the journey at Sodexo not only pleasant but fruitful too.

In this organisation, there is no worry about your work not getting recognized. Despite having big hierarchies and segmented groups of people working together, employees receive their deserved appreciation for their work efforts. Here, employee recognition is not only about awarding hikes or promotions, it is also about valuing the individual’s contribution to meeting business objectives and making an impact every day.

At Sodexo, it’s not just the coffee that fuels people. Inspiration, encouragement, belief, appreciation and creative freedom propel people to go the extra mile. These attributes are representative of Sodexo’s work culture.

The joy of collaboration at Sodexo

The days of working in silos are behind us. When I joined Sodexo, I realised that multiple stakeholders and decision-makers across verticals are involved in a particular project. When several minds wire up collectively to ideate on a common goal, the results are usually fantabulous. At Sodexo, we do this day after day through shared common goals, shared attitude and shared language.

I have an interesting story to narrate in this regard. I was assigned the project of garnering a new business in Coimbatore. The prospect was a reputed healthcare provider in that region. In our initial meetings with the client, I realised that the project’s mainstay was the welfare, health and safety of the client’s employees. Price was not the dominant topic of the discussion

When I just joined Sodexo, I wasn’t in line with the significance of health and safety at the client site. My work experience so far had not broadened me to domains beyond sales and securing wins. I learnt the importance of health and safety after joining Sodexo and understood the gravity of the organisation’s way of working and its principles.

While working on the project, my seniors helped me reach out to key stakeholders from HR and other concerned verticals in Sodexo and we collectively re-looked at the client’s objectives. Throughout, I gained new learnings from HR leadership and the healthcare team. And, it is this synergy that helped us win the client. We suffused enough confidence in the client that Sodexo was just right for its people's welfare objective and more.

Winning this client was special for Sodexo for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the client has a name. Next, we tapped into a new region. Personally, this win is special to me because it is my first one at Sodexo.

The opportunity to collaborate at work and a stimulating environment motivate me to come to work every day.

I thoroughly enjoy collaborating and connecting with stakeholders from different verticals. All departments are communicative and responsive. Moreover, at Sodexo, solutions are curated beforehand. We have more or less designed solutions in response to varied client requirements. So, I need to pick and pluck. And to me, this is one of the key elements that differentiates us from competitors.

Sodexo’s mission is poignant, practical and personal

I joined Sodexo in February 2021 during the second wave of the pandemic. My initial days were a rollercoaster for two reasons.

My professional learnings

I joined in the healthcare space. This domain was new to me. So, in a way, there were a couple of firsts for me — the experience of working at a multinational as well as the work domain. My initial months constituted my learning phase. My seniors supported me throughout. I didn’t go to any site during this tenure but I was part of every work call. From the conversations in these calls, I could garner the business ongoings.

I could personally relate to the organisation’s mission of improving quality of life. Supporting people’s needs, whether at the cafeteria or in a health care centre, is critical. Our services not only help people fulfil their needs, but they also bring a smile to their faces. I see purpose in the work that I am doing. I’m glad and proud to be part of such an organisation.

My loss

Sodexo adds a lot of people welfare initiatives in its basket, such as No Meeting Day, Sodexo Supports Me, I Care, and so on. For this organisation, well-being at work means taking care of your mental health. All these factors give me confidence that I’m at a place that truly lives up to its mission by caring for its people first.

At Sodexo, work is important, and so is employee wellbeing