Compass Group / Mount Charles - iStock / EMCOR UK / Sodexo - iStock
A news round-up of stories in the FM sector
EMCOR UK has introduced AXIS, a desktop and mobile app workplace app to enhance the workplace experience by seamlessly connecting organisations with their employees. It provides users with a personalised and real-time service so that they can get the most out of their on-site facilities and services.
The app, tailored to each client, connects with other IT services, such as computer-aided facility management (CAFM) enabling users to:
- Book desks and meeting rooms, EV charging points and car park spaces;
- Receive daily newsfeeds providing information about services, promotions and opening times of facilities such as food service and recreational facilities;
- Access FAQs regarding workplace facilities;
- Create interactive service requests and track jobs;
- Participate in surveys and provide feedback on facilities and services;
- Connect with colleagues and participate in workplace discussions;
- Collaborate and participate in upcoming events; and
- Use the ‘marketplace‘ feature to order food from an in-house or external food outlet and receive a notification when the order is ready to be collected.
Food service provider Sodexo has partnered with digital health and training platform The Allergy Team, to highlight the issue of food safety in schools and find a different approach to increase people’s awareness of the UK government’s allergen obligations.
Sodexo has a strict allergy action plan for managing food allergies safely in schools and adheres to all the FIC (Food Information to Consumers Regulation) and Natasha’s Law guidance and go beyond it to ensure its teams are allergen-aware around all foods – not just the 14 listed as major allergens. The company says its action process covers all the essential steps in catering – from outlining the responsibilities of parents, schools and catering providers in ensuring children with allergens are identified, to creating accurate allergen notices and posters for display, agreeing on serving procedures and regularly completing food allergen checklists.
Belfast-based contract caterer Mount Charles is increasing the use of smart technology in the implementation of unmanned retail stores in remote catering sites, as well as a more sophisticated version of micro-markets including elements of robotic technology.
The company said these options would allow clients to provide a catering service in challenging circumstances following the pandemic with new patterns of footfall in the office because of trends in home and hybrid working. These new self-serve units provide everything from hot and cold drinks to regenerated meals and snacks depending on what the client and team members on-site want.
It said demand for its vending services has grown post-pandemic and, although the company added that it remains predominantly a “people business’’, technology will allow it to provide options for all of the marketplace depending on the needs of the individual client, allowing the business to operate a 24/7 facility at otherwise uneconomic catering sites.
Compass Group UK & Ireland has extended Feedr, its workplace food service platform, to Scotland.
Acquired by Compass in March 2020, the platform is a UK-developed solution offering employers a scalable way to feed their staff, either in the workplace or at home. Following its take-up by clients across London, Manchester and Dublin, the Feedr app will now be available in Edinburgh. Whether a company is catering for 15 or 500, the Feedr allows individual users to select healthier choices from an extensive rotating menu of vendors.
The system is suited to a Covid-secure office environment. Feedr increases flexibility for corporate customers and facilitates social distancing thanks to app-based pre-order and pre-payment, agreed workplace collection points, and notifications when food is ready. The app enables companies to cater for their employees on-site or at home, using a technology-based approach to providing food from a variety of vendors. Suppliers signed up to cater for Feedr in Edinburgh include: Bowls, providing plant-based salad and poke bowls; Bonnie Burrito, which combines Mexican food with Scottish dishes such as irn-bru’ed pork or haggis; and Roots, which specialises in vegan and allergy-friendly breakfast and lunch dishes.
The initiative also offers social value, as a nutritious meal is donated to a school child in rural India for each online order in the UK and Ireland.
