Temporary Workers, Agencies and Training

I know a lot of food plants use temporary workers or agencies. Sometimes there is a rapid turnover in employees/workers coming from these agencies, like someone new everyday or every few days. In an ideal world it would be great to have the same temporary workers day after day but in reality they get sick and have appointments too, or just don't like the job.

How do you handle training, both food safety and job specific training? In your plant who is responsible for these training? Also, language barriers. How do you handle that?

We are a very small, low risk non-RTE food plant. I have translated training documents in 2 different languages.  Most can comprehend these. However, to do the food safety training, and health and safety training the way it should be done is a couple of hours.  Not to mention the  job specific training, which can be a few days depending on the product we are running that day. Our production staff is also our sanitation staff so we have to train them on proper sanitation procedures as well once production is done. Our regular full time employees are frustrated with the situation and I am trying to figure out what the cause of the frustration and they just keep blaming the agency.  I'm not sure that is the issue.  

I work in a plant that uses around 50-90 temporary employees and as you mentioned, it is hard to maintain the training records up to date. We created a training packet and give it to the agency. They are responsible to provide the training to any  employees that come to our plant.

Hello nlbrenn!

We also have a large number of temps (we call it the revolving door!)  One thing that we asked the temporary service to provide is an on-site instructor to manage the temporaries. They will do a short orientation (that we supplied the information for) before any temp can start working (this orientation will cover a short HACCP video, our basic GMPs, food safety and security highlights, Plant Safety (PPEs / Hazcom), and then they also take a quick tour. (If this on-site mgr is not available, we have the person that created the orientation program cover for them)

We started doing this so that people would have the chance to see what they were getting into, to hopefully have better retention with the temporaries, we also have this person manage the temps HR services/ time clock, etc...

Unfortunately (for you), all our employees speak english so there is no language barrier advice I can give you. Our employees complete the sanitation tasks as well. These tasks are covered with hands-on training. We try to put temporaries on lines that have more senior operators that can train as they are doing the jobs.

I know what it's like to deal with this issue as well.  At my previous company we had ~30-40 temp workers at a time but like Rains they all spoke English as a first language so we didn't have to deal with multiple languages.

We trained all of them temps coming in with our standard GMP, Food Defense, and Safety training.  It took about 2 hours and sometimes, if there were new temps expected on 2nd or 3rd shift, I'd have to come in and do it up to 3 times a day.  At one point I told the senior supervisor that this was getting ridiculous and that I'd only train the temps one day a week after some weeks of ~16-20 hours of training new temps in a week with the expectation that the on shift supervisor would give them basic GMP training before the presentation.  Then they wouldn't let them off the line for training and I had no backup from my manager who just expected me to spend all day training.  One of the major reason I decided to leave the company.  Food safety was mostly tongue in cheek with them.

It sucks trying to deal with hordes of temps they are a nightmare for training and, often, quality of work.  There was plenty of times I had company employees drag me down to the packing line because someone wouldn't remove their ear buds or they tucked their phone into their shirt shoulder so they could listen to music on the line and nobody, including the two line supervisors, would take care of it.  When the only person who cares about food safety is the Quality Coordinator it's time to move on.

I work in a plant that uses around 50-90 temporary employees and as you mentioned, it is hard to maintain the training records up to date. We created a training packet and give it to the agency. They are responsible to provide the training to any  employees that come to our plant.

Love this idea! I think I will be creating something with some of the basics.

Do you verify that they received that training from the agency?  either visually or by quiz or something?  

Love this idea! I think I will be creating something with some of the basics.

 

Do you verify that they received that training from the agency?  either visually or by quiz or something?  

We do get a Sign off sheet from the agency as a proof that the training took place.

I know what it's like to deal with this issue as well.  At my previous company we had ~30-40 temp workers at a time but like Rains they all spoke English as a first language so we didn't have to deal with multiple languages.

 

We trained all of them temps coming in with our standard GMP, Food Defense, and Safety training.  It took about 2 hours and sometimes, if there were new temps expected on 2nd or 3rd shift, I'd have to come in and do it up to 3 times a day.  At one point I told the senior supervisor that this was getting ridiculous and that I'd only train the temps one day a week after some weeks of ~16-20 hours of training new temps in a week with the expectation that the on shift supervisor would give them basic GMP training before the presentation.  Then they wouldn't let them off the line for training and I had no backup from my manager who just expected me to spend all day training.  One of the major reason I decided to leave the company.  Food safety was mostly tongue in cheek with them.

 

It sucks trying to deal with hordes of temps they are a nightmare for training and, often, quality of work.  There was plenty of times I had company employees drag me down to the packing line because someone wouldn't remove their ear buds or they tucked their phone into their shirt shoulder so they could listen to music on the line and nobody, including the two line supervisors, would take care of it.  When the only person who cares about food safety is the Quality Coordinator it's time to move on.

I can completely understand your frustration with that situation!

We are a small plant and usually only have about 4 temps, but they never seem to stick around long.  At this time of year (slow season) our shifts are usually very short (maybe 4 hours, 3 maybe 4 days a week) and we are on a just in time delivery mode as our product shelf life is only about 48 hours.  Often our production happens in the morning delivered to our customers for their production to start by 1:00pm that same day. So production time is of the essences, and most time we don't know until they are dropped off if we will have new workers for the day.  

My upper management team is on board with food safety, and listens to what I say/need however we have tried a few agencies and run into the similar issues.  Our Shift manger  on the other hand maybe my root cause, and finding someone to replace that person could, and has in the past, proven to be very difficult. 

I would suggest having a quiz as well as a GMP acknowledgement sign off.  Of course they could just tell them the answers but that way if they have no clue about GMPs at all you'll know that the temp company isn't doing their job.  We'd have people show up without boots, with earrings in, etc when our temp company was supposed to be informing them off all of that.

 nlbrenn

I agree with some of the posts here. Your best bet is to create an orientation packet that at best is done at the agency for two reasons: so it's not on your companies time; and if it's a high turn around the agency feels the pain not you on having to re-orientate multiple temps and hopefully your agency will become more selective on their selection for your plant.

As for language barrier, please remember that most GFSI schemes ask that your policies are understood by all. This means translating your trainings/policies/signs into the appropriate languages. There are threads on this site for that. You can also get help from your agency to do this for you. They're not free after all, and their goal is to supply you with workers and keep you happy.

I second RG3! We have an orientation package send to our agency. And we do the GMP acknowledgment sign off and quiz as well. Also we brush up  on GMP and Food defense as they come in.

We usually don't take temps who don't speak or understand English.

We take only those who can read and speak English.  We have a brief training we do as we prefer to make sure that there is clarity as to rules and expectations.  We can also answer questions the agency may not be able to.  

In California if you train a worker he can use that to claim that he is your employee not a temp, another reason to use the agency to do the training and verification.

I set up a powerpoint in english and spanish, and have it set to move slide every 15 sec or so.  When the temps arrive, the shift supervisor takes them to the conference room, they watch it, and then sign off on GMPs.  Then the supervisor takes them to their area and gives them task specific training.  Powerpoint video looks professional and it's easy ,esp with night shift when I'm not there to train.

nlbrenn - I tried to send you a message directly but it says you can't use the messaging system..

trusweets what is your email?  maybe we can discuss through email a little easier.

***email address removed***

Thank you!

we did the same thing, giving training orientation form to the agency before they assign any temp to the company and have them read(bilingual) and sign and understand the policy to be in conformance with the rules.

This is also the world that i live in about 1/3-1/2 of our staff is temps or temps to hire and the turn over is mind boggling.We do the initial training at the plant and it takes apx 2 hours to go through the basics with them. it also gives us the opportunity to make sure that they are clear on the policies and our expectations.  Fortunately for us English is the first language for our temps.

I completely  understand the frustration of your full time  staff.  Our production crew is also our sanitation crew and It is very hard to have them training new people all the time while doing there job.   It is very hard to keep moral up when you can not get ahead of the curve. 

Kevin

Wow!  I'm definitely in good company!  

We get temps in, too.  The agency gives them some brief GMP dress code information - don't wear jewelery, no perfume, etc.  When they get here, my QC techs train them on GMPs and Allergens.  I think it's really important (though tedious and time-consuming) that they get the training here.  I don't necessarily trust someone at a temp agency to communicate these topics effectively.

We also use a staffing agency for ~50 employees.  We provide the Agency with the basic information (GMPs, breaks, cell phones, etc.).  These subjects are covered before the employee's 1st day of work onsite.  We also have Orientation sessions throughout the year (beginning of the year/season, start up after a shut down).  These Orientation sessions are onsite, and a collaborative effort between the company and the staffing agency.  In addition, we also have company-wide trainings, which include quizzes (written by me) as an SQF verification step.  The Training Team is composed of myself (QA Mgr.), the HR Manager, and a representative from the staffing agency.  All our training materials and quizzes are in English and Spanish, as most production employees speak Spanish.

We also have this problem.. We are a seasonal company that hires for about 80 positions for 6 months out of the year. Our workers are almost 100% spanish speaking, which is a problem becuase I speak zero spanish, and our turn over rate is very, very high. We fixed our training problem by having someone on each shift be a designated training lead. The "orientation" training last about 2 hours and covers everything, with quizzes dispursed. She grades the quizzes on the spot and if someone gets less than 70% wrong she will go over the incorrectly answered concepts right then and there. She signs the quiz, and off they go on the floor. If for some reason we need that new person asap, they will recieve GMP training that day and will receive the other trainings the day after. 

Hello everyone,

I was wondering what sort of questions you would include on a service approval survey for temporary agency's. 

Thanks

Shanna