Summer 2015 NACUFS Internship!: Week 5: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Monday, July 6th

Today we learned about Human Resource management from Betsey, the HR manager. She covered everything from the hiring process and employment policies, to training and the importance of effective communication. Every company has an HR department and we see can why - without policies in place, the workplace would be chaotic! She shared several examples of HR policies in place here at Sodexo. We learned that it’s smart to document any and every situation to avoid future conflict, whether it be taking notes or saving old email threads. We also learned that having employee appreciation programs helps create a positive workplace, and that respect and concern for employees is very necessary. Even though there are over 275 Sodexo employees here at RPI, Betsey took the time to learn each and every one of their names. She makes sure to say hello to everyone whenever she sees them so the employees know who she is as well. We really enjoyed getting to learn about an entirely different side of food service management that we hadn’t previously been aware of!

Tuesday, July 7th - Thursday, July 9th

We started the morning with Frank and Mark in Father’s (the convenience store) to discuss ideas about introducing a small area designated for healthier food options, including some of the new products we suggested! Through our discussion, Mark told us about contracts that food companies like Pepsi has which for instance, may make Sodexo promise to give them a certain amount of fridge space to stock their products with.

flatbread pizza for lunch in the student union, with hummus instead of cheese!

We watched Sodexo corporate training videos about wellness, diversity in customer preference, and controlling waste management. There are tons of other topics too. It’s so great to see how many resources Sodexo offers to further develop employee and management skills. Sodexo also provides a toolkit with weekly LTO’s (Limited Time Offer meals) to choose from, and other marketing and promotion materials to guide retail sales. One of the many advantages to an institution having a corporation like Sodexo manage their food services is that food trends are already analyzed. Those trends are then put into action with things like LTO’s and new healthy recipes to satisfy the ever-changing preferences of students. As Retail Director, Mark usually gets to choose with LTOs to use for the students each month! Mark has worked with all sorts of different universities and he told us that what sells big at one school may not sell at all at another school. For example, one school he worked at went crazy for turkey based sandwiches, but when anything with beef was introduced it hardly sold at all. We found this really interesting, and we learned that you have to try different options to see what works best for the current students you are serving and then learn from that. However, likes and dislikes change, so it’s important to be open minded and have fun with the LTOs you offer.

We browsed the data on LTO sales report, which includes the money made from each item sold, the production cost, and the amount of people who ordered each item. Collecting data like this allows management to decide which items are popular enough to be offered again, and which ones are not worth the investment.

Mark told us about some differences between a brand retail operation and a Sodexo concept retail operation. There are advantages to both, and introducing a new concept or brand depends on contracts already in place at each particular institution.

EMPAC building where we had lunch

After lunch, we learned about budgeting for retail locations by looking at a budget sheet of Jazzman’s Cafe for this past year. Mark told us that we need to be careful when trying to interpret them. While the location may have made more profit this year as opposed to last year, it might not necessarily be because more students were going there. It could be because the location spent less on materials or cut the number of hours it was open. It’s important to really check all the numbers in a budget report to see the differences between years and what accounted for each of those differences. Retail operations are always changing because the types of students and what those students want from the location are always changing.

We looked at student satisfaction surveys issued by Sodexo for specific retail locations like McNeil Room and Rathskeller. It’s hard to get students to respond---but it’s better to have a larger sample size to get more accurate data. Often the responses can be inconclusive due to unclear questions and no area for a written explanation, so it can be difficult to interpret. However, it can be very helpful to see which aspects of retail can be improved (i.e. speed of service, quality of food, hours of operation, variety of healthy items.)

Farrid and Mark gave us input about the interview process for salaried positions, which led to some both funny and helpful examples in Mark’s past. He gave us some great advice for how to prepare for and be comfortable with interviews. We will definitely be looking into doing some mock interviews at school this fall. He also told us about his previous jobs with Sodexo and in food service in general. His stories have really helped us understand what happens behind-the-scenes. In every new location that Mark has started working at, he changes what doesn’t work there to make it better! The result has always been an increase in sales, and a more efficient way of getting things done. We hope we can be as influential as him when we begin our career!

We had the opportunity to browse through the Food Management System (FMS) which is a database of recipes, nutrition information, reports, and more to help food operations run smoothly and keep consistency. Due to new nutrition labeling laws, all menu boards here have to display calorie content, and other nutrition information upon request. Mark printed out the email he received about this so we can see what specific materials Sodexo will need in each location to implement these new rules.

Mark has made us feel so involved in the retail management process, and more, here at RPI. We are so glad we got to spend as much time as we did in this division of food service.

Friday, July 10th

specialty food event announcements we designed for student orientation week

Today we were back in the Marketing department with Maria. We started to prepare some things for Student Orientations next week. We will be manning a booth that has information about meal plans, food allergies, and more campus dining options for both the students and the parents. Today we printed, cut out, and pasted labels on postcards to be sent to the upper classmen moving off campus in order to get them to resign with a dining plan on campus. At RPI, freshmen and sophomores are required to purchase a meal plan. After that, they can choose whether or not they want one. One of the goals here is to show each student why they should keep purchasing a meal plan, despite living off campus. The food is great, there are tons of options, and it’s by far the most convenient way to eat balanced and healthy meals during college! We printed signs about some care packages Sodexo will begin to offer this year: exam cram, munchie mania, healthy snack pack, and more. These are bags of snacks parents can purchase through Sodexo to be sent to their kids while they’re at school. We even got to get some of the snacks from Father’s to display them in Sodexo bags to show the parents the true value of the purchase. After lunch, we worked on designing signs for 3 different specialty days in McNeil Room for lunch during orientation. Each day has a different theme and special meal that is offered for the parents and students.