How To Change Employee Behavior by Dave Schoen, Operations Manager |
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| Your Best Defense is Offense
Food Safety - it’s more than just preparation for a visit from the Health Department. It has become an industry buzzword and key component of branding for restaurants, gaming venues and hospitality complexes. No one disagrees that food service establishments have a responsibility to their customers to serve the safest food possible. However, restaurant employees need to know just what safe food is. It’s difficult to enforce corporate safety standards if employees do not understand their value and meaning. A good training program is critical to a foodservice establishment’s mission of keeping their customers and their brand, safe. |
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Here are three key features of an effective, value-added training approach.
First, the training materials and message must speak to the restaurant manager. Incorporating corporate standards, colors, language and processes into the training makes it meaningful and useful for more than just passing a certification exam - it helps managers integrate the ideas and theories they learn in class to the responsibilities of their actual jobs. Secondly, the training delivery needs to be appropriate, interesting and engaging for the staff, and address different learning styles. A quality training approach keeps the students’ attention by utilizing a variety of visual |
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aids, video, activities, discussion and written work. It also demands an instructor with the professionalism and demeanor to engage a class and make the materials work.
Finally, employees need to be trained and tracked on a consistent basis. In an industry where 400% annual turnover is not uncommon, staff training is no small undertaking. Training is most effective in protecting a brand if it is provided consistently and broadly across the organization. |
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