Jon’s a real ‘asset’ to Sodexo
Jonathan Beardmore is the compliance manager for Sodexo’s health and care business in the UK and Ireland, celebrating over ten years of service after starting out as an electrical engineer.
Jon’s role involves supporting the health and care sites where Sodexo operates in the UK, focusing on asset management to identify potential on-site issues before they become safety and compliance risks.
His work requires meticulous planning and a mature mind to ensure hospital environments are operated safely and smoothly. And at just 31 years old, Jon has gained vast experience during his Sodexo years thanks to the expertise he has leaned on in all areas of the business.
"We've got very talented people across the whole of Sodexo,” said Jon. “Some of the best engineers, porters, cleaners – the list goes on – and a professional network of people who are all passionate about what they do.
"I've learned so much and Sodexo has given me the confidence to push my career goals in a way that I wouldn't have imagined when I was a sixteen-year-old apprentice."
Confidence was an issue Jon admits he struggled with in his early life. His technical background stems from his love for making repairs. Jon’s father, who he describes as his biggest influence, was a car mechanic in his hometown of Stoke-on-Trent. Jon started out as an apprentice electrician at a local electrical engineering firm in 2007, straight after finishing school.
"The apprenticeship route doesn't get talked about as much as it should do,” said Jon. “There's some very good opportunities out there to get on-site experience."
Jon joined Sodexo in 2012 as an electrical engineer at Royal Stoke University Hospital and went on to hold several roles with the estates team on site, largely focused on planned preventative and reactive maintenance to ensure the hospital was operational and safe. In 2016, he became the statutory maintenance supervisor supporting a 52-week rolling programme for all departments of the private finance initiative (PFI) at the hospital. This involved them shutting for one week of the year so Jon and the team could carry out essential maintenance work in a controlled and safe manner.
In 2017, Jon won the PFM Team Member Award at the PFM Partnership Awards 2017 for his work at Royal Stoke University Hospital.
It was in 2018 when Jon made the step up to managerial level. He became a compliance manager in the newly formed compliance team for Sodexo’s health and care business, and had the opportunity to see - and play an active part in - how other health and care environments where Sodexo operated went about their business.
When the Covid-19 pandemic struck in 2020, Jon joined his Sodexo colleagues in the national effort of setting up testing centres – something he’d never done before - supporting the planning, deployment and go-live of the site at Coventry’s Ricoh Arena. Jon, his line manager, Lewis, and colleague Beth Robinson from Sodexo’s universities business were brought in as site leads working on a shift-based pattern
Jon’s line manager and head of governance and assurance for Sodexo’s UK and Ireland business, Lewis Palin, said: "Jon is a fantastic employee who continues to support Sodexo to evolve and grow. He has developed his technical expertise around asset management to become the segment SME in this area, has led the development of our segment asset management plan and has implemented a strategic process which senior technical managers in the industry would find challenging.
"Jon can evidence a wide range of management and leadership traits, and critically he has shown he can act ambidextrously in dynamic situations. This will enable Jon to develop further and support the business to grow in the face of an ever-changing service dimension."
Jon’s ultimate goal is to become a chartered engineer and get his chartered status. With Sodexo, Jon can achieve anything he wants.