If you’ve ever purchased a snack from a vending machine, chances are you’ve come in contact with Aramark Corp., a leading provider of managed services to business, educational, health care and recreational facilities. The company’s Refreshment Services Division has roughly 3,000 employees in North America and provides customers with beverages and snacks typically found in an employee break room. With more than 242,000 employees in 20 countries and several million customers worldwide, Aramark’s primary objective is to exceed customer expectations and grow the business by creating an environment where top talent wants to work.

Aramark’s Refreshment Services Division has noted thousands of dollars in profit gains, and even more dollars saved through cost reduction, by paying special attention to individualized development plans and a focused, strategically motivated workforce performance management methodology in tandem with well-crafted training modules and recruiting techniques. Perhaps more important, Aramark measures success by customers who recommend its services to others, as well as the growth of the company and employee satisfaction, said Tony Petrucci, vice president of human resources, Refreshment Services Division, Aramark. “We really focus in four key areas, what we call ‘one best team,’ which is how we develop the team to serve our customers. It’s a focus on new business, customer retention and base business, and we roll those four up into what we call Mission One.”

For example, Aramark’s Service Stars program has created a cultural change from a sales and operations focus to one of sales and service in order to meet the demands brought on by significant company growth. “It’s a cultural shift that was led by senior management but was developed by our front-line managers in combination with the HR training team,” Petrucci explained. “It also involves training, rewards, recognition, metrics, all the way down to the front-line service provider level, and over the last several years we’ve seen it improve our customer retention by over seven points. That equates to roughly $14 million a year in revenue. It’s something we’re real proud of that bubbled up from the field based on a business need, and it has been encapsulated in how we do business every day.”