13 replies to this topic

[Pizza&Sandwich]

If you answered yes, please explain how you handle temporary/seasonal employees. Experience required prior to starting the job, training, etc.

[Mark H]

If you answered yes, please explain how you handle temporary/seasonal employees. Experience required prior to starting the job, training, etc.

We use the same on-boarding orientation as we conduct for full time associates. Food Safety and Defense, Whse Safety, the whole nine yards.

MH

[DocGra]

We only take temps from an approved agency who gets them through an external hygiene course before introducting them to us. They get a visit here to see if they like the job (gives us a chance to see if we like them too!)

We put them in a difficult position; if they don't fit or do something silly, we ask the agency to take them away. We don't employ them - we employ the agency. It's the agency's responsibilty to look after their employment - so they are careful who they introduce here. We explain all this up front and are fair and reasonable - but it is difficult for temps - they really have to be 'super-careful' - but of course, that's what we want.

Once here, we treat them as if they were permanant staff but not authorised to work unsupervised.

They go through the same Hygiene Induction process (minimum 3 hrs and a validation test before the go into the factory), I do all the inductions (lucky me!) and ask all the questions (well - I get them to ask each other questions at the end of the 3hr induction - saves me from thinking of too many questions!) - so the weaker folks stand out quickly

They only do stuff they've been specifically trained to do and only under strict supervision.


They don't get involved in QA

We also throw down a challenge - 'work well and we may consider full-time employment' - it just adds to their focus to work well.



It's worked well for us over the years - about a 1/3 of our current staff have gone though the 'extended interview' - and we have some really good folks.



Our BRC auditor approved of our approach last year (BRC5), hope he's as kind this year!

Hope this helps ...



Cheers,



Graham

[Marshenko]

Oops. Suppose I should've searched for this before posting my topic...

[Rosemary4]

Yes, we use agency temps - just from one agency. They tend to be mainly from Eastern Europe. The agency tests their communication and numeracy prior to placement. We expect the agency to take each candidate through our hygiene rules and regulations and this is signed by both the employee and agency staff. A copy is placed in our file for reference.


When the worker starts they are given an induction and the training starts, on different machines (packaging) and different products. This gives us an opportunity to see if they 'will make the grade'. If we see potential permanent employees then we bring them in regularly. If we don't see a good work ethic then they don't come back. Most of our permanent workers have been employed following a minimum of 12 weeks with an agency - at least you can 'try before you buy'!

Sometimes they are even keener than permanent staff as they ideaaly want a permanent role.

[Bert Beekmans]

We have a temp agency inhouse. We tell them what level of education we need, they select candidates.
All of them have to go to our basic training modules first (e.g. hygiene and food safety) if they will work in 'critcical' workplaces.

[AC2018]

We use temp agencies from our approved contract service provider list. Then, we do new hire training for each employee that starts. This will include GMP and allergen training as well as general warehouse safety. If the employee is working while we have other regular training scheduled then they are always apart of that as well and their records are saved in a separate training folder for temporary workers. 

[GMO]

We use one agency, based on site with coordinators. The team have to be trained, they have to have a minimum standard of English... But as everyone on this thread would admit, we all have problems. Due to Brexit (grr) fewer of the best staff from Eastern Europe are coming to the UK due to not feeling as welcome and the exchange rate. Now the average agency employee has much worse English language skills and motivation.

Hey these guys have better English than my Romanian but if I had a choice, I wouldn't employ temporary labour at all. You just get the worst of the worst nowadays. The best people from inside or outside the UK are obviously going to be in permanent jobs.

The problem is the retailers and their wildly inaccurate forecasting. If we needed less flexibility in our supply chains, we wouldn't need so much temporary labour and the risk that brings to business (not just food safety, health and safety and ethical too.)

[LachelleOMP]

We only use the temp agency for accounting purposes (ex: running payroll, work comp insurance, etc).  We do the same onboarding/training as we do with our full time employees.

[Iswarya]

The same induction training that goes for full time employees. It covers all topics. Further extra care and observation is put upon those temporary staff.

If you answered yes, please explain how you handle temporary/seasonal employees. Experience required prior to starting the job, training, etc.

[jalex194021]

We have the same orientation for our seasonal employee's as we would give a full time employee.

[zoelawton]

I want to say: "handled in the same way as all employees" (you know, interview, induction, training, etc. etc etc.)

 

In reality:  "Your mums cousins sister has a dog? Great, he's employed." No interview, no induction, no training. 

[PQAManager]

We use temporary staffing agencies for the busy season.  Some get hired on full time and stay on through the slow season.  We do all general training via PowerPoint for both temp and full time employees upon hire(GMPs, SQF basics, Food Fraud Basics, HACCP basics...).  All SQF training is done yearly with different trainings every month on same yearly schedule.  So if an employee has been here a year they have had complete training.  We usually do our cross-training in the slow season.  All lines have long-time full-time employees supervising the temps.  We have safety and quality culture champions that make sure all quality and safety standards are being followed.  We usually give an employee 3 months before we let them go or keep them and give them usually a $1 raise.  If a temp is put in a position that requires HAZMAT training we provide in-house.  We also train temps for forklifts if there job requires.  If a temp is going to be doing a position that involves CCPs they will have in-house basic HACCP principles training.  Even though the SQF training is done yearly on same month every year, we will still train temps if their job requires that training.  We are a small company with 24 full time employees and usually go up to 39 employees in the busy season.

[MOHAMMED ZAMEERUDDIN]

We give them basic training of GMP & GHP.