There’s a brand new lounge coaching facility in Atlanta — and we bought the primary look

New coaching facility in Atlanta

The Sodexo Stay workforce hopes the brand new coaching middle will assist encourage and educate managers and front-line workers alike. What may that imply for shoppers? Higher service and a extra premium expertise on the firm’s many lounges.

Sodexo Stay expects the middle to coach 2,000 workers within the first yr alone. Managers are then anticipated to coach hundreds extra workers at lounges world wide. The brand new facility, nearly a 15-minute drive from the bustling Atlanta airport, held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday night.

“This coaching middle is the subsequent section of the Sodexo Stay Academy, which continues to counterpoint the skillsets of the 40,000+ world workforce members who assist the group’s world portfolio,” per a Sodexo press launch asserting the opening.

It is all about workforce bonding and expertise constructing, with the hopes of enhancing customer support and worker retention on the firm’s work websites in airports (and different venues) worldwide.

The coaching middle will supply five-day coaching periods for managers, however ultimately front-line workers will have the ability to go to the middle for one to 2 days of in-person coaching.

“In an effort to elevate the general enterprise, we’ve got to begin with our leaders,” Arica Allen, a vp of hospitality and innovation for Sodexo’s world aviation group, mentioned. “This middle is a testomony to that.”

They’re calling it an “aviation academy,” and it’s arrange with a classroom for educating periods.

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The good function, although, could be the sensible lounge the corporate has set as much as prepare staff.

It features a residing room-type house with an enormous interactive display and a full bar with numerous seating areas.

Within the subsequent rooms, you will discover a espresso bar arrange together with a faux buffet and eating areas.

My favourite function was the busser robotic that was buzzing across the get together. I am beginning to see an increasing number of of those robots at resort eating places and lounges world wide.

These services are designed to present staff real-world alternatives to follow numerous customer support situations.

There’s additionally an connected culinary warehouse that providers Atlanta’s eight Delta Sky Golf equipment. That is the primary time Sodexo Stay has had its personal provide middle. It beforehand relied on provides bought from outdoors distributors to restock the lounges on the close by airport.

I requested Allen why the corporate invested a lot in worker coaching and what it’d imply for patrons.

“It has to imply an elevated buyer expertise. It has to imply we’re not simply within the service business; we’re within the hospitality business, which could be very emotional,” she mentioned. “It has to result in an elevated expertise for the visitor.”

She defined that company have been not simply in search of cheese cubes on a buffet — they need an elevated expertise.

Sodexo Stay can also be investing in 5 new full-time coaching and growth positions for its airport lounge portfolio. I look ahead to seeing how these investments in coaching change the tradition of Sodexo’s lounges world wide.

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