As a food processor, one of your top priorities is to produce the safest, highest quality products you possibly can. One of the most important drivers for achieving this goal is fostering the right culture amongst employees so you’re confident in what they’re doing when nobody’s watching. Doing a quick training isn’t enough, nor is posting signs as reminders around the plant. It’s often more complex than simple cause and effect. Here are some ideas that will help with fostering a food safety culture within your facility.
Educate
…employees need to not only understand what to do, but they need to understand why.
Many food processors don’t provide sufficient time for training to ensure that employees understand food safety principles. And time isn’t the only factor; the approach is also important. Employees need to not only understand what to do, but they need to understand why. The focus shouldn’t be on training, but on education.
It starts with clear expectations. Educating people about food safety means helping them understand what the “rules” are, such as GMP practices and operational practices on equipment. It also means helping them think critically by providing guiding principles, such as “Be vigilant for any potential sources of contamination. It’s our job to ensure that food remains pure and is not contaminated.” It’s important to communicate which items are most critical, and which are “nice to have” so that when faced with a choice employees can prioritize.
Remember that people learn in different ways, so use a variety of approaches. Integrate verbal communication, written reminders, and graphical communication. Videos can also be very effective.
Motivate
Once employees understand what do to, and they understand the why, it’s the leader’s job to make sure that they’re motivated to do it. In the same way people learn in different ways, they are also motivated in different ways. Take a variety of approaches to both communication and motivation so that you effectively reach everyone on your team.
Positive and negative reinforcement — “the carrot and the stick” involves both rewards and discipline. If you’re overlooking the rewards, the approach is imbalanced. Rewards can include public recognition, a gift card to Starbucks, or a bowl of fresh fruit in the break room for everyone.
The ethical appeal — Reminding team members that producing safe food is the right thing to do, and appealing to their sense of duty or honor.
Logic — It’s a great approach, because it just makes. For example, if we don’t produce safe food, we won’t be able to continue doing business.
Emotional appeal — This can be one of the most persuasive approaches. Testimonial videos from those affected by past outbreaks, or using arguments like “we want to produce food we would feed to our own families”, can be very powerful.
Evaluate
If you don’t measure and evaluate on an ongoing basis, you won’t have any idea what level compliance is at. Don’t wait for the annual audit to see how things are going.
Define: What are the “Key Performance Indicators” that are critical to your operation? Is food safety included?
Measure: Internal audits, in-plant observations, process measurements, defect monitoring, and customer complaints are all measurements that can be used.
Analyze: Look for trends, discuss as a team, understand what the data shows. Determine the root cause of any gaps or issues. It’s difficult to make meaningful improvements until you understand what needs to change.
Improve: Now that you understand what’s going on, make strategic, targeted changes designed to improve your processes and programs.
Control: This involves ongoing maintenance of the program. See “reinforce,” below.
Reinforce
A manager at a food plant walked out into the production area, and an employee stopped him. She pointed out that he had forgotten to put on a hair net. He thanked her, gave her a gift card, and told her to keep up the good work. The manager would periodically do something similar to reinforce food safety culture. Food safety starts at the top, and you need to establish a culture where employees hold each other accountable. Here are a few practical ideas.
Getting everyone involved through a team approach, direct feedback, or a suggestion box, can help foster involvement and helps avoid placing all the responsibility on one person.
Getting everyone involved through a team approach, direct feedback, or a suggestion box, can help foster involvement and helps avoid placing all the responsibility on one person.
Regular tailgate meetings with employees allows time for reminders about food safety principles and the opportunity to discuss with the team. You’ll find that given the opportunity, they will ask questions or make suggestions.
KPIs or metrics should be used on an ongoing basis to reinforce culture – particularly when rewards are involved. Share charts or graphs with employees, let them know what’s gone well, and where improvement may be needed.
Effective root cause analysis, beyond simply “the procedure wasn’t followed”, helps you to understand and improve the operation and helps reinforce values.
The ultimate goal is continual improvement of the operation. It’s a continual journey, and it starts today! Keep pushing forward as you face new challenges, and keep your team involved throughout the journey of food safety improvement.
