6 replies to this topic

[clairedaniellec]

Morning,

 

New here so please be gentle!

 

What are the most common frequency for staff engagement meetings?

 

We have an annual Management Review, daily management meetings where we discusses quality, non cons, production, environmental etc, however wee were wondering if the staff engagement (where worker representatives form all departments come to air any issues) can be held twice. a year? We used to do it quarterly, but there was a lack of content for the agenda.

 

What would people reccommend?

 

Thanks for your time :)

[GMO]

A very warm welcome!  You will find people pretty engaging and helpful here.  Even if we fall out occasionally (normally about something stupid like I'm interpreting things differently to EVERYONE else lol!)

 

Most common is pretty flexible a term.  I would say hold them as often as you can commit to acting on what is raised and, if you're finding that f all is raised in a quarterly meeting, that would worry me.  Especially in the UK.  As a Brit myself, I know that either people have A LOT to say or they've stopped raising things for a reason.

 

So personally, I'd stick with quarterly if that's your current frequency and if you're getting nothing, bring something to it.  A few open questions.  "What does it feel like to work in your area?  Do you feel supported?  What would make your job easier?" etc.  

 

And bring cake.  Everyone loooves the cake.

Also bear in mind as you're BRCGS certified, this could be part of your culture improvement plan (you still have that in packaging I'm pretty sure?)  Use the sessions as an opportunity to call out positive behaviours perhaps or note areas which might need to improve but have an honest chat, why aren't they good now?  

As for what I see in other plants?  As often as weekly, monthly is common, not at all is not uncommon either.  Weekly is probably too much.  Monthly is probably pretty good for most plants.  Not at all (or, sorry) once a year is not enough in my opinion.  Even if all you do is eat cake and have a chat.

[MDaleDDF]

Welcome!

No one size fits all answer to this.   Sounds to me like what you're doing is pretty good, yup.   We do a meeting the first work day of every month with the entire plant, but larger places that's probably difficult.   Other than that similar to you, annual MR, monthly HACCP, but we don't do daily for heads of depts, we do every Friday, but we can also do as needed really quickly here.

[G M]

...

What are the most common frequency for staff engagement meetings?

...We used to do it quarterly, but there was a lack of content for the agenda.

...

 

Somewhere between quarterly and monthly sounds about right.  Similar to personnel safety engagement you spend a lot of time reminding team members of little things they can do or watch out for.

 

Over the years we've had numerous continuous improvement initiatives to make these sorts of things weekly, but the complications of generating useful and engaging content that fits into a 5 minute pep talk usually limits it to a lower frequency.

[jfrey123]

Our company has the plants run monthly management meetings for various topics relating to food safety.  Then they hold quarterly HACCP team meetings, the crisis team meets once per year, and 1-2 times we audit our FSQMS against the SQF standard.  We use an outside contractor for OSHA/employee safety compliance, who instituted monthly meetings to start and has backed most of our sites down to quarterly once they started keeping on top of compliance.

[kfromNE]

Besides what is required by SQF - we do weekly management meetings - though they will get canceled if we are too busy. The different departments then let their employees know any relevant information. 

 

Quarterly meetings with all staff. We then say who the employee of the quarter is (parking spot, article of clothing with our logo on it and $100). Management also serves employees a free meal. 

[Jacqui]

Have you thought about changing the format of the meetings? e.g. having a meeting by plant area, line, etc.  This helps involve everyone in the work area including those who may not normally have a voice, but as they are the ones doing the job they can give great feedback and insight about what is working, what is not working and possible ideas for what might work better.  Even if they don't have solutions, they will feel involved and an important part of the system.

You could also use these meetings to review SOPs, paperwork, work out what is adding value and what does not add value. 

Reviewing every area in detail each year really helps to drive improvements and foster a positive food safety culture.

Like others have said, frequency really depends on the business but often monthly to quarterly is common.  It really should add value to the system so think about what works best for you.