FM FOR ISSUU

Aramark Workplace
Solutions Helpdesk
Gerard Gosling, AWS Services Manager, gives his account on how the Workplace
Solutions Helpdesk team used their Business Continuity Plan to mitigate the risks
associated with remote working.
Every day the helpdesk is a hive of
activity, but why do we do it?
We live by our company mission to create
experiences that matter where people
work, learn, recover and play. We do this
by being available to handle our customers'
requests, provide updates and assist them
with whatever is causing them difficulty;
be it a light that needs to be fixed, a major
plumbing leak, disaster recovery, fault
finding or they just want to get their office
painted and in recent times, prepare their
building for re-opening safely in the post-
COVID-19 normal.
We look after over 900 sites across the 32
counties on the island of Ireland supporting
Hard and Soft Services to our varied client
base which includes the following sectors;
Retail, Office Space, Utilities, Education,
Healthcare and Pharma to name a few.
In the last calendar year, we managed
over 58,000 reactive call outs, made and
received 80,000 phone calls, and sent and
receive 220,000 e-mails.
In early March of this year; Aramark,
like many other businesses, were closely
monitoring the pandemic spread of
COVID-19. Thankfully, the helpdesk
regularly test our Business Continuity Plan
(BCP) and took the decision to carry out
more rigorous testing in the event that
the virus would send the country into
subsequent lockdown.
As Aramark look after numerous essential
industries supported by our technical
team and specialist contractors, we
knew we needed to be able to support
our customers to ensure they remained
operational and, most importantly, safe.
On the 26th of March An Taoiseach, Leo
Varadkar, announced stringent lockdown
measures. Aramark, in the interest of
health and safety, made the decision to
close the physical office. At this point we
enacted our plan. This was not a drill!
Seamlessly, the Aramark helpdesk, with
the support of our colleagues in operations
and IT, moved to remote working over the
weekend and by 7am Monday 30th March
we were fully operational. Since then every
call is answered, every email is responded
to and every request is actioned by our
skilled team. Through our BCP, it allowed
agility and responsiveness to service our
customers as they reopened.
As a team we have also spent our
time wisely and have rolled out a new
and improved scheduling tool for our
technical team. As well as that, we have
completed online training and reviewed
and updated our processes to ensure we
are always moving forward.
As a manager I could not be prouder of
my team who have really gone above and
beyond to make this journey a successful
one. We have been lucky to have the full
backing of the Senior Team throughout
and, in turn, we have supported other
departments where we can. This is one of
the many reasons why Aramark is a great
place to work.
Now, as we learn to live with this virus,
we have been working hard to reopen
the office and get back to approaching
normality in a safe manner. This crisis has
really brought to the fore the cohesion
between all departments in Aramark
which has been indescribable. It is true that
at Aramark #WeDreamWeDo
42 | FM AUTUMN-WINTER 2020/21