Aramark

Source: Energy Digital

Date :5/31/2007 11:04:37 AM

Offshore excellence

Engaging with the unique challenges posed by catering and service provision for the offshore oil and gas markets, Aramark Offshore acts as a benchmark for the company as a whole in terms of implementing best practice. Offshore Managing Director Susan Elston spoke to James Hurley about working in remote locations, developing in-house stock management software and winning the RoSPA Scotland trophy

Written by James Hurley & Produced by Glen White

Aramark is a global leader in professional services, providing award-winning food services, facilities management, and uniform and career apparel to health care institutions, universities and school districts, stadiums and arenas, and businesses around the world. Headquartered in Philadelphia, the company has approximately 240,000 employees serving clients in 18 countries.

The company’s UK offshore division provides hospitality, catering, logistics and facilities management predominantly for the oil and gas industries.

Aramark’s offshore customers include offshore platforms, drilling rigs, dive support vessels and supply boats.

The company has seen significant growth in the last twelve months. The global political climate can act as a catalyst for change in the oil and gas markets and the crisis in Iraq and the ensuing hunt for alternative sources of oil has undoubtedly contributed to the company’s recent successes. But Aramark’s Offshore Managing Director, Susan Elston, insists it’s not simply external factors driving the company’s growth. “We’d expect to see similar growth in the next twelve months,” she says. “We’re diversifying beyond standard catering so our technical capabilities definitely bring in some additional benefits to our growth aspirations.” This diversification has allowed the company to benefit from a general recognition in the industry of the age of some of the assets, which has resulted in a need to improve the internal fabric of accommodation facilities.

A unique challenge

All of Aramark’s divisions can call upon an array of support from a company with truly global resources. Yet there is something about working in, and providing services for, the offshore industries that is unique. According to Elston, this has led the Offshore division to cultivate a reputation for excellence in safety management, communication and innovation.

“The uniqueness of remote sites poses special challenges,” she says. “It’s not a case of popping in to solve a problem or issue instantly. This makes having good methods of communication essential. We have to make significant use of things like conferencing facilities – the communication challenge means we’re constantly looking to improve our processes. Offshore was at the forefront when email was first introduced as a communication tool.

“Getting used to timescales is also an important factor. Bearing in mind the back-to-back nature of the industry - employees often work on two week on, three week off rotations - if I want to communicate with the entire workforce, I would need four weeks’ comfort to know that I’ve managed to reach everybody.”

These challenges mean that Aramark has to take a flexible approach to implementing new systems and processes. “We’ve had to become much smarter in terms of adapting the technology to suit us,” Elston explains. “Quite often, organisational systems that we wanted to roll out across the business have to be adapted from what we had originally intended. This means that Offshore needs to embrace technological change far more swiftly than our onshore counterparts. For example, we’ve had to adapt the systems in place across the wider organisation to develop stock management software that meets our own specific needs.”

None the less, being part of such a large organisation does allow Elston’s division to leverage some significant advantages. “Within Aramark we have real synergies across the businesses, from the copper mines in Chile to remote camps in Alaska. It helps that we’ve got a big recognition of best practice sharing across different segments of the group. We’ll share best practice, knowledge and expertise across the globe where necessary. While traditionally we’ve had a strong record on developing our own systems and solutions, the company is fast overtaking us, and we’re taking advantage of what it can bring to us,” she says.

In-house solutions and safety management

In an age where outsourcing and sub-contracting are increasingly becoming the norm, Aramark still emphasises the benefits of finding solutions within the company. Elston feels this is one of the factors that give the company an advantage over its competitors. “We recognise the benefits of in-house capabilities. In the past where we’ve had growth there’s been ‘multi skilling’ in the general workforce. Equally we’ve brought in some specific competencies in terms of how we manage projects and there’s the technical expertise that goes along with that. For instance, we employ our own architectural and project team. When we’re doing additional projects with standard hotel and catering services, we directly employ the joiners, electricians and so on, so we minimise the need for sub-contracting,” she says.

With a large and varied workforce committed to unusual working patterns and potentially dangerous conditions, good people management is vital in any offshore environment. Fortunately, this is an area in which Aramark excels. “Organisationally, the Offshore division is recognised from a health and safety perspective as being at the forefront of best practice. We’re able to positively contribute to the company as a whole by sharing our systems and processes. This is especially true of the behavioural side and how we manage and engage with our people.”

Indeed, Aramark’s practices in health and safety have been consistently recognised, both within the catering sector and across Scottish industry as a whole. This culminated with the company being awarded the coveted RoSPA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents) Scotland trophy in 2005. The award is for the highest standard of occupational health and safety management and performance by an organisation based in, or operating wholly in, Scotland.

Elston is justified in feeling that this was a superb achievement for the company. “When you’re involved in the oil and gas business and people management generally, keeping your people safe has to be a major focus for anyone in senior management,” she says. “When you’re doing everything you possibly can, constantly reviewing processes and continually looking to improve, you know you’re keeping safety at the forefront, which in itself is justification enough. Acknowledgement through an award is just the icing on the cake. It’s important for the entire team to know that there is recognition for all the effort that’s been put in. RoSPA is a cross-industry award, so this wasn’t just benchmarking against our own industry.” RoSPA has consistently recognised the company’s excellence in safety management; Aramark has also been commended with the hotel and catering industry sector award for five consecutive years.

A long-term commitment

Aramark’s diversity as a business should ensure its continued survival beyond the long-term changes that will affect the oil industry, yet some might see service provision for the offshore oil and gas markets as a proposition with a future that’s far from guaranteed. Elston sees many reasons for optimism, however. “Everyone should be very positive about the future of North Sea activities because there’s still a lot of oil and gas out there to be produced,” she argues. “We see a long-term commitment there. That could well be with existing clients. There are also global opportunities. From an Aramark perspective, we will continue to look at the right opportunities in the right countries. For instance, Norway is a target country for us. We’ve just set up a company there and we’ll be actively looking at new business. There are real synergies between the UK and Norway now and we can realise the benefits of sharing the business with our clients here and in Norway.”

Elston also sees Aramark’s plans to diversify into additional services as a potential source of future growth. “We still haven’t fully realised the opportunities to provide additional services to our customers. The range of services that we can provide has continued to expand so we don’t provide all of the services to all of our current clients. That provides a real opportunity within the existing business.”