Athlones breda goes the extra mile

Athlone’s Breda McElroy was among 100 workers honoured for their dedication in the 2015 GEM Awards, (Going the Extra Mile), presented late last week by ISS, a major provider of outsourced business services.  
GEM Awards recognise the valuable contribution of employees involved in business supports such as cleaning, catering, security, M&E, pest control and property services.
Breda works as a cleaning operative for ISS in various Athlone based sites, including two Paddy Power shops and Russell Brennan Keane. She works alongside her husband Sean, a retired army man and according to management, they make a great team. Breda is described as bubbly, outgoing and a friend to all she meets. She is reliable, dependable and a great worker with a fantastic work ethic. She never refuses to cover to anyone and never complains, even if she is called at short notice or she has to travel outside Athlone. Breda is described by management as an asset to any team and someone who always goes the extra mile for ISS.
Member of the winning Irish Ladies Rugby Team and Women’s and Girls Rugby Development Executive, Nora Stapleton, who introduced this year’s GEM Awards presentation for ISS, said that the people who work in maintaining premises and providing essential support services are generally the unsung heroes of the workplace, whose efficiency can sometimes go unnoticed, but without whom the business could not function.
“Jobs like the cleaning, catering and security and maintenance are essential in the modern world, and it is exceptional to see a company like ISS pay tribute to these valuable employees in this way,” Nora said at the gala awards presentation.
The award-winners work in many of the country’s leading businesses and healthcare and education facilities, Abbott Vascular, Amgen, Bon Secours, UHG, Irish Rail, UCD and UCC, HP, CITI group, Premier Inn Hotels, Houses of the Oireachtas (Leinster House) and many more.  
Award nominations are made by the client businesses in conjunction with work supervisors, and this year over one hundred ISS workers were honoured out of over 3,500 people who work for the out-sourcing company.
Presenting the awards at a gala event in the Dunboyne Castle Hotel, Dunboyne, Co. Meath, ISS managing director Eric Doyle said that the award winners play a crucial role in creating effective, efficient, safe and secure environments for our client organisations which differentiates ISS in the marketplace.
“Irish businesses and organisations rely on efficient delivery of non-core services to compete effectively in their sector, whether that is manufacturing, life sciences, healthcare and education within both the private and public sector. ISS are keen to recognise people behind the people who support the growth and development of the Irish services industry by supplying highly trained, efficient personnel who add tremendous value to the workplace, and always go that extra mile,” Eric Doyle said, paying tribute to the hundred plus ISS GEM award-winners.