Is Food Safety Training Just a Tick-Box Exercise in Practice?
If you look at how effective training actually is in changing peoples behaviours, it's frankly absolute bloody rubbish. Especially if you do it in a meeting room, power point slides on the screen...
Even if you test people afterwards, the likelihood they will comply is still poor.
I was reading a paper earlier where one of the best training interventions was formal training followed by 3-4 days of supervised training of c. 6 hours a day. This was where the person did the activity (related to food safety) and was corrected immediately if they made mistakes. This is the link to the one which actually worked well:
Blimey. I cannot honestly say I've ever done that. And I'm a realist. I know that in the real world if someone is put on a line to "buddy up" and have on the job training that one of two things will happen. The ops manager removes the resource because s/he has gaps elsewhere or the trainer and trainee agree to max out breaks.
So I look back to my two and a half decades of getting people to sign pieces of paper, even taking people through disciplinaries for not complying. I've done the communicating the "why". I've done visual reminders etc. But all along, was I just ticking a box knowing "I can claim to be duly diligent" yet probably knowing full well that a good proportion of the time it wouldn't be followed?
Thoughts?
I think it's a big box ticker, but a necessary one. In a perfect world it's part of a larger training plan. That perfect world has supervisors/managers reminding workers "Hey, you know you can't have that eyebrow stud in here uncovered; We just did training on that 2 months ago!" Or even progressive discipline if needed. I don't like to compare grown adults to children, but if you are teaching a child not to cross the street without looking both ways or to touch something hot it's going to take more than just telling them in a slide once a year. It takes constant reminders and progressive discipline if those reminders are ignored.
Edit: I have yet to live in that perfect world, but I keep hope alive
Let's go back to how we train children--because it's the same way you train any human
Repeat, repeat, repeat
Very few companies put enough stock in GOOD training, it's almost always just a tick box
I think it's a big box ticker, but a necessary one. In a perfect world it's part of a larger training plan. That perfect world has supervisors/managers reminding workers "Hey, you know you can't have that eyebrow stud in here uncovered; We just did training on that 2 months ago!" Or even progressive discipline if needed. I don't like to compare grown adults to children, but if you are teaching a child not to cross the street without looking both ways or to touch something hot it's going to take more than just telling them in a slide once a year. It takes constant reminders and progressive discipline if those reminders are ignored.
Edit: I have yet to live in that perfect world, but I keep hope alive
100% agree with this and bolded the two parts that I find most effective. It takes constant checking after training to reinforce, whether it's the QA Manager actually leaving their office to walk the floor and observe, or empowering QA techs to walk these production lines. Once when I was having issues with glove fm, I initiated random glove checks after we did a retraining on glove use and fm. I'd go to a line as if I was robbing the crew, "Hands up everyone! Glove check!" After a week of that, we no longer had issues with torn gloves and for at least a year later I can say employees were solid on reporting torn gloves (bringing me the gloves to show they were fully accounted for).
When I worked for smaller companies, we would incentivize production to hold this accountability. Promoting certain production workers to 'Line Leads' based on their knowledge of our equipment and aptitude for holding to training, they got a small bump in pay but were now accountable for making sure their crews followed the rules. Any way to enhance the employee's feeling that food safety is everyone's responsibility helps the trainings stick. We give you the tools, you do the job correctly, food stays safe and healthy.
I agree, if you want to get meta about it, how much of what we do is checking boxes? Correct labels, correct ingredients, correct procedures..?
That and determine what boxes need to be set up?
Let's go back to how we train children--because it's the same way you train any human
Repeat, repeat, repeat
Very few companies put enough stock in GOOD training, it's almost always just a tick box
At first sentence, I was afraid you were going to go here:
At first sentence, I was afraid you were going to go here:
Well........................................ let's just say I defer to HR, ALOT
Let's go back to how we train children--because it's the same way you train any human
Repeat, repeat, repeat
Very few companies put enough stock in GOOD training, it's almost always just a tick box
YES! And also just recognising good work. What do we do with kids? Say "well done" all the time. We nudge. We remind, we support. It's a very good point.
I agree, if you want to get meta about it, how much of what we do is checking boxes? Correct labels, correct ingredients, correct procedures..?
That and determine what boxes need to be set up?
It worries me because I know that AI is coming into this space both for direct checking but also for checking employee behaviour and... Hmm. Not sure how I feel about it. I think my problem is we have a sh** attitude as leaders to educating now. What makes anyone think we won't have a sh** attitude to AI and machine learning? I am also sure that a lot of what we do is tick box and not meaningful. But it's not meant to be... also beyond that, I think AI will just concentrate the worst of ourselves.
Ooh that got a bit deep.