Pandemic-proof commuting like Sodexo

About Sodexo

With over 470,000 employees, Sodexo is one of the largest employers in the world. Sodexo are market leaders in catering, employee benefits and facilities management.

Understanding Sodexo's Problem

At the outset of the global pandemic Sodexo Czech Republic recognized that the world of work was about to change forever.

Sodexo realized that in the long-term workplaces would be much more flexible. Having fixed ownership of parking simply didn't make sense if staff were going to be working from home a few days a week.

Prior to the pandemic, Sodexo had two parking lots.

One car park had a fixed parking allocation. This meant that certain staff were assigned particular spaces indefinitely. Sometimes if an employee was not using a parking space, they would let their colleagues know. However, by and large there was a large amount of space going to waste in this car park.

The other car park was flexible and motorists could book a space using shared calendars. This was causing a lot of issues as disputes would regularly emerge about who booked a space first and who needed a space more.

“The most important thing for Sodexo was that the system needed to be very simple for the end users. We had a strong preference for Wayleadr based on it's superior mobile app offering.”
- Pavel Vavrinek, Head of Key Accounts, Sodexo Czech Republic

How Wayleadr Solved The Problem

Sodexo created an internal group to pilot innovations which would improve workplace experiences.

Before they went to the market to source a solution, they developed a clear brief of what functionality they needed.

Having researched the market, Sodexo selected Wayleadr as the stand-out solution. Sodexo rolled out Wayleadr with a focus on flexibility, allocation and availability.

Flexibility was introduced to allow staff to book space before 1pm on the day prior to needing the space. This was a key change which means the parking lot is now more responsive to flexible working patterns.

Prioritization was still given to certain senior staff. Yet, employees can check on the day to see if any last minute spaces have popped up. This ensures a robust and transparent allocation while maximising availability.

One standout for Sodexo was Wayleadr’s ability to change in real-time. Having prepared extensively for launch, at the last minute senior management decided they wanted to change the configuration. Sodexo were very impressed at how seamlessly this could be done, with the click of a button.

A final key piece of the puzzle for Sodexo was being able to access both real-time and historical data on parking usage. Prior to Wayleadr, all decisions about the car park were being made anecdotally. Wayleadr gives Sodexo the information needed to make key decisions about their car park moving forward.

“The results were amazing, within our first month of using Wayleadr. We were getting exactly the results we needed. All the feedback was that the solution was perfect.”
- Pavel Vavrinek, Head of Key Accounts, Sodexo Czech Republic

Key Benefits

• Wayleadr gave staff certainty around parking as they returned to the workplace during the pandemic.

• Sodexo were able to broaden the pool of people with access to the company car park which increased employee satisfaction & safety.

• Empty parking spaces in the employee car park became very rare, ensuring assets were being maximized in a flexible manner.

• Increased communication with employees around parking is leading to quicker journeys, less congestion near the office and less external parking spend for staff.