Sodexo Canada: A New Workplace in Montreal

Business and Industries

The human and the environment are at the heart of who we are, this is why we created Espace@Sodexo, Sodexo Canada’s new corporate office in Montreal. It relies on the seven life pillars to offer a quality-of-life space for our employees, our clients and our communities: Air, Water, Movement, Light, Sound, Spirit and Food. Espace@Sodexo opened its doors in September 2020, after six months of renovation in a BCorp building.

The objectives of this project answered seamlessly to the unexpected work-life changes of 2020, supporting agile decision-making and the chance to put our capabilities to use in the service of our people. This space is vital, flexible, inclusive and innovative. Tn this sense, taking people-first objectives to create spaces that inspire.

We’re creating an environment that helps us attract and retain the talent that moves Sodexo Canada forward. Further, it’s helping us reduce our real estate spending and creating better efficiencies in our physical spaces so they can be used to their fullest, while being sustainable and ensuring the safety of our communities.

Empathise and Define

Through the first steps of the creation of Espace@Sodexo, we ensured that our people’s needs were not only voiced, but materialized:

We collected qualitative information from our employees, we ran an internal survey to enumerate the expectations and a comparison analysis to our previous office
Nominated office ambassadors to build a project team in the goal of brainstorming the design

Our survey showed:

Flexibility with an increased number of meeting rooms of various sizes (1 to 20 capacity room)
Well-being focused rooms (internal bathrooms and showers, yoga and meditation room and a residential shared kitchen)
Biophilia: The design was created with the objective of reducing the ecological and carbon footprint of the company's office activities as much as possible, using energy efficient strategies and encouraging responsible user behaviour (recycling, composting, reusing). The use of natural and low Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) materials creates a healthy environment for the team. Finally, the extensive use of plants and the maximization of natural lighting contributes to the physical and psychological well-being of all.

Ideate

We worked with our local partners to create an innovative and personalized experience. To do that, we leveraged IoT and sensor technology to assess spaces’ true occupancy, manage facility management costs and analyze data to prepare and optimise for future shifts in the way our buildings are used. All of our working spaces at Espace@Sodexo have been developed to facilitate audiovisual conferences between employees in the office and those working from home.

These examples, alongside other initiatives we’re taking across the office redesign, are helping us ensure that the spaces we create are productive, flexible and resilient both for today and for tomorrow’s world.

Always putting Safety first

The office redesign is ensured to cultivate one of our core values: Safety.

As tomorrow’s world is unpredictable, and in light of the pandemic, the definition of the traditional workspace has grandly shifted. In this optic, one crucial question has been: How do we ensure a safe workspace is offered to our employees while encouraging collaboration?

An initial step to solve this question was to implement the Rise SAFE hygiene verification label – following an audit of our spaces and procedures by Bureau Veritas, we can clearly communicate that our employees and visitors can confidently work in our office spaces. bureau-veritas-rise-safe

We also incorporated contactless services throughout our building that enable better cleaning and fewer points of physical contact. And, since the beginning of the pandemic, we have added contactless solutions such as contactless keys, door handles and touchless faucet systems.

These solutions are helping employees move through their day with less friction and with consistent physical distance practices.

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Through the course of its development, the co-design of our space has continued to prove that the people-centred model and activity-based workspace design can be a solution that transcends trends and challenges of the day. Espace@Sodexo showcases the ways we can empower organisations to transform their workplace and plan for shifting futures.

Read more about Sodexo Canada’s Corporate Services and see how together, we can optimise experiences and spaces with services that enable productivity and connection wherever the work is done.