The 2016 Global Food Safety Training Survey revealed an astounding 62% of food companies say that not all of their employees are following the right food safety protocols on the floor. However, 75% of those food companies agreed that employees would be more productive if their food safety program was consistently applied.
Have you ever wondered if your training methods are driving the right food safety behaviors and results? Once upon a time, the food industry’s approach to food safety focused on inspection results, facility design, microbiology, and illness outbreaks. The future of food safety, as outlined by BRC 7, now includes and emphasizes people and their behavior.
Need for benchmark data: How does my training programme compare to others on a global scale?
•4th Annual Global Survey by Campden BRI and Alchemy in partnership with BRC, SGS, SQF, TSI
•Sent to over 25,000 sites world-wide
Sent to over 25,000 food industry sites world-wide
Food company managers and executives around the world generally agree that effective employee training can have a direct impact on food safety and product quality. In fact, survey respondents noted that the top three benefits from effective training are: improved food safety culture, improved product quality, and fewer food safety incidents (Figure 1).
In a further effort to boost product quality and food safety, companies are covering a broad spectrum of food safety topics from allergens to sanitation (Figure 4).
GMPS, Personal Hygiene,
Sanitation/Cleaning
Food Safety Culture,
Recalls, Internal Auditing
How is it possible that despite the resources and commitment, 62% of companies have frontline employees who do not actually follow food safety practices?
Companies are devoting significant time to food safety training. About 74% of employees get four or more hours per year of training per year. For Supervisors/Managers, 52% get nine or more hours of training per year (Figure 3).
Food companies are increasingly driving food safety training across their supply chains by requiring their raw materials suppliers, service suppliers, and equipment suppliers to undergo food safety training (Figure 5). The caveat is that only 56% of companies are training temporary staff – leaving up
Tell me about the module you have developed
Consider how the way we work has changed in the last two decades. In 1986, when the youngest Baby Boomers entered the workforce, the percentage of knowledge necessary to retain in your mind to perform well on the job was about 75 percent (according to research by Robert Kelley). For the other 25 percent, you accessed documentation, usually by looking something up in a manual. In 2009, only about 10 percent of knowledge necessary to perform well on the job is retained — meaning a myriad of other sources must be relied upon. It’s no wonder that those who enter the workforce now have devised new tools and ways of working with each other to deal with the complexity, such as a query through Facebook to their trusted friends. (Even if it’s blocked on the company network, Millennials will connect via mobile devices when they are stuck on projects.)
A growing number of progressive companies are leveraging leading indicators like employee behaviors to ensure that their employees are not only retaining what they learned in the classroom, but also demonstrating correct behaviors and habits on the plant floor. Comprehensive verification of employee behaviors through plant floor observations, once thought to be too time consuming and impossible to manage, is now available through technology
Refresher training is an emerging area of research on modifying behaviors. Most people are familiar with the concept of “moving down the learning curve.” There is a corollary curve called “the forgetting curve” – the amount of training forgotten over time (Figure 12). According to Dr. Kohn, people forget 90% of their training within a week.
‘One and Done’ doesn’t get it done anymore!
Need ‘Rolling Thunder’
Extends learning onto the plant floor
Utilizes and engages the Supervisor
#1 driver of employee perception of a great workplace is a belief that ‘management cares for me as a person, not just an employee’. *
Provides reinforcement
Captures the outcome
Because it works!!
At Alchemy, we believe in unlocking the potential of your frontline workforce. Your employees are front and center every day, so they are your biggest asset in keeping your facility safe. We should be consistently teaching employees correct behavior, reinforcing that information through communications, and then coaching and observing employees on the production floor to ensure they are retaining what they have been taught. If your employees know what to look out for and they feel comfortable bringing their concerns to Supervisors or Managers, then they can help you prevent food fraud from occurring in the first place.
Consider how the way we work has changed in the last two decades. In 1986, when the youngest Baby Boomers entered the workforce, the percentage of knowledge necessary to retain in your mind to perform well on the job was about 75 percent (according to research by Robert Kelley). For the other 25 percent, you accessed documentation, usually by looking something up in a manual. In 2009, only about 10 percent of knowledge necessary to perform well on the job is retained — meaning a myriad of other sources must be relied upon. It’s no wonder that those who enter the workforce now have devised new tools and ways of working with each other to deal with the complexity, such as a query through Facebook to their trusted friends. (Even if it’s blocked on the company network, Millennials will connect via mobile devices when they are stuck on projects.)