Compass Group – one of the world’s leading providers of food services and facilities management – has skilfully recruited to build a high performance group of people. Compass Group specialises in providing catered food and auxiliary services to a variety of industries, spanning from providing food for the cafeteria in your local hospital to the provision of static and mobile guard services in the protection of industrial and residential properties. Their portfolio of services allows them to operate with expertise in each of their target markets such as: offshore and remote, defence, business and industry, healthcare, education, leisure and corporate hospitality, facility management and security services.
For Managing Director, Gerhard Poelzl, engineering a high performance culture where people are committed to delivering safe and high quality products and services is a passion. Today, Compass Group has been recognised as achieving three key national certifications; ISO 9001 Quality Management, ISO 14001 Environmental Management and AS/NZS 4801 Occupational Health and Safety, for all (500+) sites around Australia, as well as HACCP Food Safety Management for selected sites across the nation.
In addition, Compass Group is committed to maintain, and enhance if possible, a productive, safe and healthy environment. Compass is committed to achieving their environmental goals by way of the Green Table Australia (GTA) framework initiative, which will complement its existing ISO 14001:2004 certification.
SITUATION
In much the same way a coach works to create an elite sport team, Compass Group – one of the world’s leading providers of food services and facilities management – has skilfully recruited to build a high performance group of people. Compass Group specialises in providing catered food and auxiliary services to a variety of industries, spanning from providing food for the cafeteria in your local hospital to the provision of static and mobile guard services in the protection of industrial and residential properties. Their portfolio of services allows them to operate with expertise in each of their target markets such as: offshore and remote, defence, business and industry, healthcare, education, leisure and corporate hospitality, facility management and security services.
Compass Group’s Leadership Team has developed a shared service function to provide strategic support to the 12,000 strong service business. The Health, Safety, Environment and Quality team are ably supported by the National Business Enhancement Manager, Justin Whitely and National Compliance, Training and Audit Manager, Judy Hanson.
For Managing Director, Gerhard Poelzl, engineering a high performance culture where people are committed to delivering safe and high quality products and services is a passion. “We achieved our first certification nearly nine years ago when we gained ISO 9001 – Quality management. But really our journey to build an integrated and comprehensive management system started around three years ago.”
Today, Compass Group has been recognised as achieving three key national certifications; ISO 9001 Quality Management, ISO 14001 Environmental Management and AS/NZS 4801 Occupational Health and Safety for all (500+) sites around Australia, as well as HACCP Food Safety Management for selected sites across the nation.
In addition, Compass Group is committed to maintain, and enhance if possible, a productive, safe and healthy environment. Compass is committed to achieving their environmental goals by way of the Green Table Australia (GTA) framework initiative, which will complement its existing ISO 14001:2004 certification.
This commitment extends also to the prevention of pollution, as well as ensuring that the company’s operations make the most efficient use of natural resources and energy, and that the impact on the environment is either minimal or positive. Compass Group recognizes that it cannot control many of the environmental aspects originated from its relationships with clients and subcontractors. Therefore, it also acknowledges its very important role in influencing contract parties and other stakeholders through communications and marketing, and that Green Table Certification can assist this process.
Poelzl states: “Putting a robust management system in place meant we had to have the right resources available to achieve the outcomes. No team can be effective without the necessary support structure. We have a partner in NCS International (NCSI) who got to know our business, which has enabled us to achieve our goals quickly and to a high standard.”
“NCSI’s flexible approach enabled us to build a highly effective improvement system that really works for our business.” According to Jim Gerrard, NCSI Client Manager and Lead Auditor, “Compass Group is a unique business and a standard approach to certification was not what they required. Working with them, we came up with a flexible approach which enabled them to achieve what their business needed. At the same time, we made sure they met the demands of the rigorous independent certification process.”
“They have developed a very strong team that is focused on achieving real improvements across their business every audit cycle,” said Jim.
“Compass Group’s approach to independent certification not only recognises and rewards their employees, it empowers their people to want to achieve at a higher Standard.”
Compass Group has built a leading management system and it’s own independent internal audit structure. Each year, they deploy independent audit teams throughout the business who set about conducting more than 600 audits, one for each operating unit. According to Gerhard, “we also use our senior operations people to conduct cross functional audits and make sophisticated tools available to teams that enable them to gain management system performance and continuous improvement metrics.”
SOLUTION
All effective business improvement programs rely on metrics to feed the process and help establish benchmarks to drive the company forward. At Compass Group, the team has led the development of an audit tool called AudIT. Delivered by IT firm Compliance Experts, AudIT asks questions specific to each audit site and provides the information the audit teams need to carry out their role quickly and efficiently while on site.
“The beauty of the audit tool is that it can be used on a hand held tablet, which makes it an extremely portable and flexible business tool. Put simply, it means an audit can be conducted in a remote village, townships, an offshore oil rig or defence site anywhere in the region, in a matter of hours. After the audit is completed, the auditor can connect to the web and generate a range of reports and statistical analysis that each site can use to drive their continuous improvement programs.”
“Planning for Improvement is at the heart of our management system. It’s great to know where you have been, know where you are and, importantly, know where you are going as a business. We have always focused on developing a culture from a training perspective not a basic compliance perspective. To train people effectively you need to be consistent and provide them with accurate information on their performance on a regular basis.”
For Gerhard, empowering employees with information is critical to the success and integrity of the management system. “We help people understand what we expect of them and in turn our clients know what to expect from us. We can deliver consistent service standards and where necessary develop processes to manage risk and drive continuous improvement.”
BENEFITS
The AudIT System Compliance Auditing Tool system enables Compass to ask questions specific to each audit site and provides the information the audit teams need to carry out their role quickly and efficiently while on site.
In addition, the AudIT System operates as a comprehensive operational KPI compliance tool in real time.
Compass can customise audit checklists to suit any clients requirements, and use the system to schedule and manage contract audit resources. The ability to conduct audits using online tools and tablets is a tremendous advantage, especially when working on an offshore oil rig or a remote village.
Compass can use the system to perform issue-tracking, reporting and post-audit analysis.
Compass Group is utilising its internal independent audit team to benchmark its compliance to all of the standards. The National Audit Team developed the AudIT Compliance Monitoring System in partnership with software developer Compliance Experts, to electronically record results of Compass audits on a tablet while walking around a site. This information is then synchronised with a web-based database to capture all audit information and provide statistical analysis.
Electronic guidance notes are also available for each question in the audit tool, to guide the Auditor on the required standards and ensure Auditor consistency.
This system has impacted on Compass Group’s operations by focusing attention on the importance of compliance with its systems and Environmental Management system, through successful certification to ISO 14001:2004, in addition to AS/NZS 4801:2001, and continued certification to ISO 9001:2000.
The AudIT Compliance Monitoring System in itself is an environmental innovation for the business, as it is a paperless means of recording and reporting audit results, and also streamlines the compliance audit processes, saving time, money and resources.
