busy, busy, busy – but it was all worth it

So many exciting things have happened over the last six weeks that it's hard to know where to begin. Work has been hard but well worth the effort, and I have even had the chance to escape for a couple of weeks. By the time you read this I will have just returned from a holiday which I took in Auckland and Honolulu.

In the lead-up to the holiday my husband had almost forgotten what I looked like. As a progressive company Sodexho is introducing a lot of new initiatives, and as a result I have travelled the length and breadth of the UK to learn more about all the changes and new technology being introduced across the company. It is my role as district manager to cascade the relevant information to all my team.

It is an exciting time at Sodexho and I am not ashamed to boast about what is happening. Major new technological advances are being implemented to provide our units with a restaurant management system, which will ease the workload and reduce the amount of paperwork our on-site managers have to administer. The new systems being implemented include computerised accounting, billing, menu development and costing, and purchasing to name just a few.

The company is also reinforcing its mission and values with a new corporate programme being implemented, communication of which is, to me, a daunting task - how do you inform almost 55,000 people of the changes, new systems, etc?

The company has put a lot of thought and effort into ensuring its managers, fully understand the changes afoot. This is being done through training workshops, which have been designed to help us implement best practice across our units.

It is also that time of year when we have just passed our half-year, and a detailed budget forecast has to be prepared. So with my new deputy we will sit down and go through everything in fine detail to ensure we provide an accurate account of the financial performance of the different contracts and how we see them performing in the future.

With my largest contract, the Devon and Cornwall Constabulary HQ, the budgeting process is more involved than others as we provide catering, security and 25 other support services, and then there is the full catering service we provide at the six area stations. That is why the support of my deputy is crucial at this time of year.

So as you can see over the last six weeks I have certainly been kept busy and as the new initiatives are implemented we will be able to provide an unrivalled service to all our clients large or small.

Sara Carless is Sodexho's district manager for the Devon & Cornwall Constabulary

Next diary from Sara Carless: 13 June