Background to role:
The vision of the Food team for our client is to contribute to feeding the world responsibly and sustainably through food@work program leadership and by building upon our client's ecosystem.
The mission of the Food program is to inspire and enable the Client community to thrive through food choices and experiences. The Food team at our client has developed a clearly defined strategy that puts a strong emphasis on collaboration, innovation, the Responsible Business framework, and Behavioral Economics.
Safety is a top priority of both Compass Group and our client, and this role exists to support the Food Operations team across EMEA.
Role Summary:
In this crucial role, you will be responsible for developing, implementing, and maintaining a comprehensive health and safety program for all our food operations within the EMEA region, utilising the best practices from Compass country HSE contacts and other regions.
You will ensure our food safety culture is industry-leading, partner with Compass Group Operations and in-country point of contacts to ensure that we consistently meet the highest standards of safety, whilst meeting our goals. As a key member of the Compass EMEA leadership team, you will play a vital role in safeguarding the well-being of our employees, ensuring the safety of our food offering, and minimising operational risks.
The great things you will be expected to do:
- Be an active member of the EMEA Regional Leadership team to lead the development, implementation, and maintenance of a comprehensive and consistent food safety and health and safety program across all EMEA food operations.
- Develop and oversee the implementation of global safety programs (food safety and physical safety) and processes to promote a culture of zero incidents.
- Ownership of the EMEA Allergen Control Plan, ensuring effective implementation across all sites, root-cause analysis of any incidents and continuous improvement initiatives around Allergen Management.
- Own the client relationships regarding the Health and Safety statistics and metrics in quarterly business reviews in regional and local meetings
- Oversee all aspects of food safety, including HACCP compliance, hazard analysis, risk assessments, and preventive controls to ensure the region delivers the Food Program within our agreed safety targets
- Ensure the delivery of regular audits and inspections of food operations to identify and address potential safety hazards.
- Own reporting and commentary for region HSE metrics against targets in Business Reviews
- Coordinate the sharing of ‘Spotlights’, learning opportunities and actions in EMEA huddles to management across region
- Develop and deliver food safety and health and safety training programs for employees at all levels alongside People Operations
- Oversee, review and support all investigations and reports on food safety incidents and workplace accidents, ensuring client reporting procedures are followed and adhered.
- Lead and facilitate the EMEA HSE community meetings to foster alignment, share updates and best practices
- Partner with Director of Operations and Head of Operations levels of the organisation to support delivery of focused action plans regarding Health and Safety regional strategy
- Health and Safety culture and Represent EMEA amongst the global account HSE community.
- Collaborate with account HSE leads in APAC and US to learn and bring back best practices on processes and safety culture
- Develop and maintain strong working relationships with Compass Group country HSE contacts, consulting with them as needed on regulatory changes and compliance, incidents, and investigations
- Stay up-to-date on and ensure compliance with local, regional and international food safety regulations and industry best practices
- Travel as necessary to EMEA sites to support the delivery of the above
Preferred Qualifications
- Minimum of 10 years of experience in a food safety and/or health and safety role within the food industry.
- Experience of working with Allergen Management procedures
- Experience across numerous European markets preferred, and knowledge of differing HSE cultures and legislation
- Proven experience in developing, implementing, and maintaining food safety and health and safety programs.
- Strong client presentation and stakeholder management skills
- In-depth knowledge of HACCP principles and best practices.
- Experience with conducting food safety audits and inspections.
- Excellent communication, interpersonal, and leadership skills.
- Ability to travel regionally as needed.
- Fluency in English and a working knowledge of additional European languages (a plus).
- Working knowledge of Google Sheets
- Ability to maintain confidentiality
- Ability to work in a fast paced, changing environment
Leadership behaviors (Compass internal values)
- Think fast, use technology - Find new/quicker ways of meeting goals, shows conviction in own judgement and decisions and responds quickly under pressure
- Openly share and co-create – Delegates tasks to develop others
- Passion for Quality – Takes personal responsibility for correcting customer service problems, consistently sets demanding performance expectations and sets priorities to maximise benefits
- Win through Teamwork – Pursues friendly relationships with colleagues, shares own knowledge and insight and displays a high level of energy and commitment to the organisation
- Embrace Diversity – Listens to others and values their contributions, receptive to new and builds on ideas and acts in ethical and socially responsible manner.
- Takes Responsibility and making the big calls – Uses the right influencing techniques to gain the necessary commitment and support from others, both internally and externally
