May 28, 2019

As a workplace experience service provider, how would Sodexo create the work environment for its own employees?

 

 

 Sodexo endeavor the best effort to improve the experience and life quality for their clients and customers through integrated service.

Then, as a workplace experience service provider, how would Sodexo create the work environment for its own employees?

Now follow Zhi’s steps and let’s explore Sodexo’s new office in Beijing!

01

One day in Sodexo’s new office in Beijing

10:00 AM

After arriving at Sodexo, I have to go through this facial recognition check at the gate.

The AI system at the gate is related to the staff’s attendance check. The machine, after recognizing faces, will make decisions of whether to open the gate or not.

 

10:01 AM

The system identifies me as a visitor and passes me to the reception desk for visitor registration.

 

 

We just need to fill in our personal information in the smart visitor system of Sodexo SHARP FM and then take a visitor note. Now let’s go!

 

 

The experience at the desk explains the idea of paper-free, which is environmentally friendly and efficient!

10:03 AM

The lady at desk gently called me when I was about to leave. “Don’t forget your coffee,” said she, handing me a nice cup of iced latte at the same time.

 

 

The reception desk is right beside Aspretto Coffee, which is an affiliated coffee brand to Sodexo. According to the staff, you can find Aspretto now can be found in many venues of the clients served by Sodexo. A cup of coffee, a cup full of possibilities.

 

 

10:05 AM

A lovely robot here! Let’s play with it before it helps me get to the working area!

Do you know that this little service robot has a big brother, UU? Last year, during the First China International Import Expo, UU met the public at Sodexo’s booth and it even went to CCTV!

Robots like UU, fitting the service scenario at receptions and powered up by AI technology, are service robots introduced by Sodexo mainly for concierge service, workplace guidance, meeting room navigation and employee attendance. They can recognize human faces and even sing and dance.

 

* Rotatable TV. You can enjoy programs no matter at the reception desk or in the pantry.

 

10:10 AM

Time for work!

In Sodexo’s new office in Beijing, even working can be enjoyable. The design and decoration of the industrial style are fully in line with the aesthetic of younger employees in the workplace nowadays.

*Sharing working stations

 

11:40 AM

Meeting rooms or telephone booths, which one would be picked for a small temporary meeting? I’d love to book a meeting room!

 

We can make all the reservations within the smart conference room system of SHARP FM.

I’ve noticed that the meeting rooms are named after planets as Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, while the telephone booths after roles in Peking Opera as Sheng, Dan, Jing, Mo, and Chou. I feel like I’m in parallel spaces. Isn’t it exciting?

 

Do you think that’s all? Then you are wrong. Look at the magical shifting space in the meeting rooms! Too many people in too small a place? Let’s break it down! See that? Tracks on the roof and movable glass wall!

 

12:00 PM

Lunch break! Staying in the office of the world’s largest global company providing catering service and integrated facilities management, I have no desire of going anywhere else for lunch.

Vending machines in the pantry can serve you a meal with whatever you want to eat or drink! Here, you only follow few steps before getting delicious food. Take it and go! How convenient the new catering retailing method is!

 

1:00 PM

How about a cozy rest in the pantry after lunch?

 

 

The history wall is telling you the journey of this 54-year-old global company, composed with its glorious past and the splendid present.

 

We have automatic temperature and humidity adjustment and a built-in air purification system. Real-time data, including the PM2.5 index and indoor and outdoor humidity, can be displayed on the screen beside the history wall.

 

2:00 PM

 

Back to work!

This is a baby care room, specially designed for working ladies who are also great moms. It demonstrates the company’s respect for its employees implanted in its corporate culture.

 

2:41 PM

Now I have to go out for an hour. So, I’ll just take my stationery on the sharing working stations and leave it in the storage with face recognition.

 

7:00 PM

Let’s call it today! Before leaving, I need to classify and throw away the wastes! I’m a good “one-day” Sodexoer!

 

As a matter of fact, Sodexo does a good job in other details regarding environmental protection. You can never find a disposal cup and the straw is also environmentally friendly!

This is a movement called “Let’s Go Greener” initiated by Sodexo, advocating behaviors that would benefit the environment, including avoiding disposable plastic straws and plastic stir bars in the office, replacing disposal cups with mugs, installing disinfection cabinet, using towels instead of paper to dry hands, encouraging the use of personal tableware no matter in canteens or for deliveries.

 

02

High-quality life service in the workplace

After visiting the new office in Beijing, Denis Machuel, CEO of Sodexo Group, said:

This is a digital laboratory, a space where everyone can make innovations; this is also a humanized laboratory, a place where everyone can co-work.

* Denis Machuel, CEO of Sodexo Group

Why did the group's top leader rate Sodexo's office environment in Beijing with such a high score?

Why did the group's top leader rate Sodexo's office environment in Beijing with such a high score?

1. Digital and innovative transformation

In 2017, Sodexo began the journey of digital and innovative transformation, internally and externally, while cooperating with other companies at the same time. It has built an internal digital and innovative ecosystem that combines digital technology with an integrated experience of life quality, realizing upgrades in terms of services and customer experience.

Driven by artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, big data, and Sodexo's digital innovation solutions, SHARP FM—Sodexo's one-stop system of integrated facility management—was born, widely used in the new office in Beijing. Four functions of it particularly highlight the system:

• The smart visitor management system allows visitors to complete the invitation and registration process online in a paperless and efficient way.

• The conference room reservation system is equipped with IoT sensors, enabling booking, publishing, and allocating meeting rooms automatically.

• The service request system proposes, responses and tracks service requests in a real-time manner.

• The intelligent inspection system helps administrators complete tasks efficiently and intelligently.
  2. Humanized experience: eternal work and life experience
  Workplaces are far more than just for work, but a living environment, a community that creates a pleasant experience of a better life and work quality for individuals and businesses as well.
  As mentioned in Sodexo's 2018 Global Workplace Trends report:
  Human Capital Management 3.0: Employee experience transformation will provide opportunities to connect different technologies and projects, helping employees and companies maximize their potential.

 

• The new site in Beijing has implanted plenty of experiential design and layouts in the office, which has improved the quality of life of employees. At the same time, it has turned the office into a model room for integrated facilities management services and presented the services quality to its clients. For example:

• All smart operations can be completed on SHARP FM;

• Aspretto Coffee is offered;

• Service robots interact with staff and visitors;

• Sharing work stations and facial recognition storages are provided for onsite staff;

• New retailing method of catering is applied;
  ……
  Apart from that, Sodexo organizes various off-line and charity activities for staff to enjoy living their lives. This includes:
  Sodexo Superwomen Festival, in which superwomen in the company presents their skills such as handicrafts, parties and cosplay...

 

• Family Day in Company, a day when employees’ families are invited into the company to experience their working atmosphere;

 

• Coastal Cleanup Activities, transformed from the annual meeting of company’s top administrations, cooperating with charity organization Rendu Ocean;

 

• Food Education Promotion, when employees and Sodexo's nutrition diet and healthy life expert team are invited to Hope Primary Schools to popularize the concept of food education for children.

 

• Sodexo, with its work-life solutions, turns work and life quality into a lifelong experience that seamlessly integrates employees' daily pursuits for work, community, family and materials.

With insights and experience, professionalization gives Sodexo a better understanding of individuals and businesses’ needs in the workplace;

Digitization drives Sodexo to adapt to the needs and develop targeted solutions to create a new and smart experience;

Humanization makes Sodexo contemplate and practice how to improve employees’ life quality, how to be people-oriented, and how to bring the improvements into reality;

On the journey of creating a better and integrated life quality service ecosystem, Sodexo has always been acting a leading role.