Our employees’ development, a key to our success

Every day, our services improve the Quality of Life for 75 million people in businesses, hospitals, schools and remote sites around the world. The fact that we are the leader in most of these markets is not by chance. It is a result of the talent, skills and commitment of our employees, our most important resource. It’s no wonder that we strive to help them grow.

 

Training at the Heart of Our Strategy

The increasingly sophisticated and varied expectations of our clients are constantly evolving, challenging our expertise and know-how. Training is a powerful strategic lever that enables us to respond to today’s needs and anticipate tomorrow’s.

Regular, sustained investment

Over the past two years, we have provided employees with eight million hours of training. In 2010, 9 out of 10 employees around the world received training. In the UK, Sodexo received “Investors in People” certification, a national label recognizing major companies that invest in skills development. In France, Sodexo received the "Gold Award" for its approach to professional training from the training institute Demos and won the "Best training strategy" award from the National Association of Human Resources Directors and the Federation for Vocational Training.

At all levels

Whether for a front-line employee or a manager, we provide training regardless of level: we believe that all who contribute to our development need to be able to improve their skills and grow with us. We are particularly committed to supporting employees who join us who have few qualifications. For them, we are developing technical training curricula and degree programs to improve basic skills (including language proficiency, office skills,etc.).

Sodexo Management Institute

Throughout the world, our managers benefit from a wide range of training programs (business techniques, leadership, strategy ...). They can also take courses at the Sodexo Management Institute. Inspired by Pierre Bellon’s philosophy that "the Group’s ambition is the sum of the ambitions of its leaders," the Sodexo Management Institute offers a wide array of programs designed to provide real-time support toward the Group's strategic objectives and meet the needs of participants.

Innovative approaches

Whether in Ireland, South Africa or Siberia, each of our employees can benefit from the training we offer. For several years, we have been constantly innovating with new media to offer training that is accessible everywhere and to everyone.
 

CLIMB, designed around a business game

In 2010, the Sodexo Management Institute developed a program called CLIMB (Change, Leadership, IMplementation, Behaviors) to support the company’s 1,000 senior managers in their implementation of Sodexo’s strategy. This ambitious program combines self-testing, dedicated educational resources, videocasts and other tools. The highlight of the course is a "business game" called Virtuoso, through which participants train a team over several days on the strategic management of a virtual company. 400 leaders have already completed 6,000 hours of training as part of CLIMB.

 

E-learning development

Distance learning or e-learning, enables us to quickly and consistently reach a large number of employees. In the U.S. today, 50% of training is conducted through e-learning modules. In 2010, the agency ON24 awarded Sodexo the trophy for the best online training program.

 

 

 

Educating for Diversity and Sustainable Development

Our vision for training is not limited to knowing how to do: we are also interested in knowing how to be, such as in the areas of diversity and sustainable development.

 

Diversity everywhere

We have established several mentoring programs to enhance women's access to management positions.

In Australia and New Zealand, the "Women in Leadership" initiative launched in 2009 enabled more than 80 high potential female employees to participate in a personal development program and to be mentored by a senior executive over several months.

In addition, 24,000 Sodexo employees worldwide have participated in the day-long "Spirit of Inclusion" training which raises awareness of diversity issues.

 

E-Learning for Sustainable Development

To help operational managers and leaders of 34,000 sites in 80 countries take charge of Sodexo’s Better Tomorrow Plan, an innovative e-learning program has been developed in the form of an online 16-minute tutorial, developed in seven languages. Each version includes quizzes, polls and testimonials from colleagues who have implemented innovative initiatives in their countries.