How to get management on board with food system implementation?

Hi guys,

 

we busy implementing allergen management,paper work is done, but the problem is getting suport from management. how do we go about it to get management on board.

This was a hard area for me as well. We redid our entire food safety program since we moved from a kitchen operation to a food manufacturing facility. Initially, I had a lot of eye rolling and "we've done it this way 15 years and no one has died" comments. Handing management a policy and saying "do this" didn't work even if I explained it over and over again. When I started to explain why and put stories behind it, management started to listen more.

During our leadership meetings, I pushed why the allergen program was iimportant with pictures of people who either passed away or suffered serious health consequences (there's a lot of stories on the web). I tried to use as many stories as possible and I had the employees discuss family or friends who had allergies to foods. I think this really hit home for most of the employees and management.

I know this is the so called "soft" side of managing allergens but so far it has been the best way for me to get them to understand how our allergen program is extremely important. Regardless of how great the stories are I still walk around repeating this information and verifying we are doing the correct things. I guess it's a never ending battle. Good luck!

tx lots, will try and use the strategy