Eurest National Accounts
Organisation Size: 15,500
Sector: Contract Catering
Organisation Location: National
"We have seen a measurable increase in morale within the division, resulting in a reduction in labour turnover and an increase in employee satisfaction."
John Bennett, Managing Director
Status
Achieved accreditation as Eurest National Accounts in August 2005
The Organisation
If you've ever eaten in a staff restaurant in an organisation, or bought a product from a vending machine, the chances are it was provided by Eurest National Accounts.
A division of the UK's largest contract caterer, Compass UK & Ireland, and part of the world's largest foodservice group; Eurest National Accounts provides catering and vending services to blue chip companies nationally. It also provides fine dining and staff dining services to high profile city institutions.
Eurest's services go beyond the kitchen though. Its facilities services also cover the provision of security, reception and post room services to clients.
In total, through its five operating companies – Eurest Corporate Accounts, Eurest Business & Industry (B&I) Scotland and Ireland, Quadrant, Baxter and Platts and Restaurant Associates, the company employs 15,500 people in 1,850 sites across the UK and Ireland.
Four of the companies that make up Eurest National Accounts had previously achieved the Investors in People Standard in their own right. However by joining together with B&I Scotland & Ireland they sought to come together under one accreditation.
Background
"The contract catering industry is a highly competitive industry," explains Regional Training Manager Anne Franklin. "Business success is influenced by the economic climate in which our clients operate.
"The impact of their business means we have had to restructure some accounts within the organisation."
In the light of this, Eurest was keen to demonstrate commitment to its people. It also wanted to highlight its vision of being an employer of choice.
"We hoped that with Investors in People as a framework we could achieve all these objectives," continues Anne. "In fact it became a catalyst for many initiatives, some of which our employees themselves asked for and we delivered."
The company was also aware of the impression that Investors in People accreditation gives to the outside world.
"We wanted to send out a clear message to clients and prospective clients that Eurest is a business that cares about its people," adds Anne. "These are values that are very much in line with those of the organisations we serve."
The Strategy
Using the Investors in People Standard as a framework, Eurest developed a host of initiatives aimed at recognising and rewarding people's contribution to the business.
"The schemes we put in place were based around two main areas," explains Anne. "Reward and recognition and what we call our 'Eight Real Opportunities', in other words things that we as a company should be doing to live up to our promise to people."
One of the first steps was to introduce an employee award scheme. Dubbed the Great People Recognition Scheme, it features Star Awards issued directly by managers to people for 'doing great things' or behaviour that supports the company's visions and values. There are also Excellence Awards where employees are nominated by their line managers and peers for 'Employee of the Quarter' or 'Employee of the Year'.
"We also wanted to encourage staff to come up with great ideas," says Anne. "So each month we asked Unit Managers for ways to improve our business in the areas of people, service or results. The winner and runner-up are awarded £250 and £100 respectively to spend with their team.
"All the ideas are collated and distributed to other units and the top four appear in '100 Great Ideas' – a book published globally by Compass Group."
In addition Eurest introduced tangible financial incentives in the form of management share options and bonus schemes.
"The second part of the programme was to develop a toolkit based on our commitment as a company to provide people with 'real opportunities'", continues Anne.
"These fall into eight main areas ranging from 'learning and growing' and 'making a positive impact' to 'being recognised' and 'having a work/life balance'.
The toolkit, which is tailored towards the position and role of Eurest's staff, outlines a variety of ways for managers to develop their people and provide them with opportunities.
"It was important we got the approach to the 'Eight Real Opportunities' right," comments Anne. "It needed to be challenging, novel and meaningful so it was not just seen as another 'company gimmick'."
Finally Eurest boosted its internal communication with regular team briefings, as well as newsletters and intranet sites for each account. This is backed by a division-wide staff magazine, forums for sharing ideas, appraisals and job chats.
The Result
"We measure our results in a number of ways," says Anne. "Obviously the usual financial indicators, but also the amount of each client's business we operate, staff satisfaction and turnover of labour. "We have reported positive results in all four categories."
Eurest also discovered that, as a result of the initiatives it had undertaken, its people are more content, which has had a direct impact on the bottom line.
"We conduct an annual staff satisfaction survey," explains Anne. "Since introducing these new measures the overall satisfaction levels have increased to 84 per cent. This in turn has helped reduce our staff turnover, which has reduced dramatically by around seven per cent."
Anne is no doubt that Investors in People has made a major difference to the business.
"Using Investors in People as a framework has been of huge benefit," she concludes. "It has given us the impetus and direction needed and provides tangible evidence of our achievement."