Aramark WorkplaceSolutions HelpdeskGerard Gosling, AWS Services Manager, gives his account on how the WorkplaceSolutions Helpdesk team used their Business Continuity Plan to mitigate the risksassociated with remote working.Every day the helpdesk is a hive ofactivity, but why do we do it?We live by our company mission to createexperiences that matter where peoplework, learn, recover and play. We do thisby being available to handle our customers'requests, provide updates and assist themwith whatever is causing them difficulty;be it a light that needs to be fixed, a majorplumbing leak, disaster recovery, faultfinding or they just want to get their officepainted and in recent times, prepare theirbuilding for re-opening safely in the post-COVID-19 normal.We look after over 900 sites across the 32counties on the island of Ireland supportingHard and Soft Services to our varied clientbase which includes the following sectors;Retail, Office Space, Utilities, Education,Healthcare and Pharma to name a few.In the last calendar year, we managedover 58,000 reactive call outs, made andreceived 80,000 phone calls, and sent andreceive 220,000 e-mails.In early March of this year; Aramark,like many other businesses, were closelymonitoring the pandemic spread ofCOVID-19. Thankfully, the helpdeskregularly test our Business Continuity Plan(BCP) and took the decision to carry outmore rigorous testing in the event thatthe virus would send the country intosubsequent lockdown.As Aramark look after numerous essentialindustries supported by our technicalteam and specialist contractors, weknew we needed to be able to supportour customers to ensure they remainedoperational and, most importantly, safe.On the 26th of March An Taoiseach, LeoVaradkar, announced stringent lockdownmeasures. Aramark, in the interest ofhealth and safety, made the decision toclose the physical office. At this point weenacted our plan. This was not a drill!Seamlessly, the Aramark helpdesk, withthe support of our colleagues in operationsand IT, moved to remote working over theweekend and by 7am Monday 30th Marchwe were fully operational. Since then everycall is answered, every email is respondedto and every request is actioned by ourskilled team. Through our BCP, it allowedagility and responsiveness to service ourcustomers as they reopened.As a team we have also spent ourtime wisely and have rolled out a newand improved scheduling tool for ourtechnical team. As well as that, we havecompleted online training and reviewedand updated our processes to ensure weare always moving forward.As a manager I could not be prouder ofmy team who have really gone above andbeyond to make this journey a successfulone. We have been lucky to have the fullbacking of the Senior Team throughoutand, in turn, we have supported otherdepartments where we can. This is one ofthe many reasons why Aramark is a greatplace to work.Now, as we learn to live with this virus,we have been working hard to reopenthe office and get back to approachingnormality in a safe manner. This crisis hasreally brought to the fore the cohesionbetween all departments in Aramarkwhich has been indescribable. It is true thatat Aramark #WeDreamWeDo42 | FM AUTUMN-WINTER 2020/21
TECHNICAL SERVICESGERARD GOSLINGAWS Services Manager, AramarkNorthern Europe.FM AUTUMN-WINTER 2020/21 | 43