Understanding Remote Camps and the Purpose They Serve

Successfully managing remote camps in the energy and mining sectors requires a deep understanding of their purpose and how they operate. At their core, remote camps, lodges or villages are facilities designed to provide living accommodations and dining amenities for employees working at project sites that are far away from towns or cities. Remote camps are often used in the energy and mining sectors, where workers must reside close to their worksites for extended periods of time in areas difficult or impossible to access by car. Energy and mining companies either manage their worker camps in-house, or they hire a remote camp management company to do so. 

Remote camps provide a safe, comfortable place for employees to rest and relax after long shifts, while also tending to their essential needs while away from home, namely: catering and dining, laundry and cleaning, maintenance of the living quarters, and site security. 

Below are a few tips that energy and mining camps can implement to more successfully manage remote camps:

• Alignment of Priority Objectives Related to Camp Management

Energy and mining companies benefit greatly from coming together to agree upon what aspects of camp management are most critical to them, such as: achieving maximum occupancy of the camp at all times, ensuring rooms are turned over with minimal latency, tightly managing meal consumption and related billing for subcontractors, reducing food wastage, or all of the above, to name just a few sample objectives. Though by no means exhaustive, the aforementioned list paints a picture of the various ways in which camps can focus their efforts around the efficiencies that matter most to their organization. 

Companies delivering Remote Camp Services to their own employees, or their client’s employees as the case may be, should assess on a quarterly or bi-annual basis how they are tracking towards goals like those mentioned above. This will enable them to identify any areas needing improvement and take corrective action, if necessary. By ensuring they know what KPIs they are most focused on, energy and mining companies can more effectively manage their remote camp operations.

• Offering Best-in-Class Comfort to Camp Residents 

In order to ensure that guests feel comfortable when at camp, camp catering companies should strive to maintain a standard of basic amenities that matches or exceeds those offered by other camps in the region. This includes providing quality catering services with fresh and nutritious meals, ensuring cleanliness in all areas of the camp, and adhering to health and safety protocols. Companies should also focus on creating an inviting environment for guests by providing comfortable furniture and modern amenities such as Wi-Fi, a gym, and entertainment systems, when possible. Companies such as Civeo, ESS Compasss and Sodexo, for example, deliver remote camp catering services that focus on both operational efficiency and guest comfort. 

Given the nature of the labor pool that comprises the fly-in fly-out workforce, remote camp companies and companies operating their own worksite accommodations should consider the fact that oftentimes FIFO workers have been staffed at multiple remote projects. As such, workers often have experience residing at more than one remote camp during their tenure working at fly-in fly-out projects. The quality of the camp will to some degree dictate the overall employee experience for that worker, thus making it imperative that companies operating remote camps invest in amenities to make camp residents feel like the lodge is their home-away-from-home. 

• Enhancing Communication by Leveraging Cutting-Edge Technology

Streamlined internal communication is essential to the efficient management of any remote camp or lodge. Companies operating remote worksite accommodations should ensure the proper data is always flowing seamlessly between departments tasked to manage the day-to-day on-site, as well as to those at HQ facilitating or overseeing the operation from afar. 

Companies can ensure that essential data related to camp management is accessible in real- to near-real-time by implementing satellite communication software like that offered by Faitron Communication or Starlink. These companies' solutions are specifically designed to enhance connectivity in challenging environments like those typical of remote camps. 

To ensure data is routed where it needs to go within an organization, remote camp companies or companies operating their own accommodations can leverage camp management software designed to facilitate all aspects of the day-to-day at remote camps and villages. These softwares ensure departments overseeing operations such as reception, housekeeping, catering or billing are continually informed of the others’ activities. For example, housekeeping may leverage a system of this nature to update a room status to “vacant/clean”, which then enables the front desk to assign that room to a camp resident set to check in later that day. In turn, the kitchen is notified of that information automatically and can ensure meal preparations for the day will be sufficient given the number of workers coming in that day. 

• Harnessing the Power of Technology More Broadly

Technology designed for fly-in fly-out operations doesn’t merely facilitate communication within an organization, however. The deployment of software designed to facilitate remote camp management forms the backbone of the digital strategy for many remote camp service providers in the energy and mining sectors. The SmartLodge platform by Camps & Crew, for example, enables companies operating remote accommodations to drive towards various KPI’s, including: maximizing room utilization for camp operators, expediting check-ins and check-outs, speeding up the turnover of camp rooms by housekeeping, and facilitating emergency response, among various other benefits. Remote camp management software also offers powerful reporting, enabling companies to evaluate their successes with data and to study trends related to room bookings, camp occupancy, housekeeping, no-shows and go-shows, or staff productivity, among myriad other reports available in these systems. 

By taking advantage of the latest technology, energy, mining and remote camp companies can ensure that their remote camp operations run smoothly and efficiently while upholding a high standard of service and safety for guests. 

Seeking Ways to Optimize the Management of Your Remote Camp?

To help you achieve greater efficiency, speed in operational delivery, cost savings and improved workforce safety, Camps & Crew offers software designed specifically to streamline your remote camp management operations. With decades of experience working with camp catering companies, mining companies and energy companies, the platform offered by Camps & Crew can facilitate the day-to-day for camp operators large or small. Learn more about how Camps and Crew can facilitate operations at your remote worksite accommodations.