[Best Practices]

Seven Steps to Training Success

With the final installment of QA’s first year of Best Practices columns comes the final installment of preventive tips for the top four food safety problems of the food manufacturing industry, as identified by the Eastern Research Group study, under contract to FDA in conjunction with its GMP evaluation process. As folks like to do, I have saved the best (practice) for last:  94% of the experts polled in the study ranked Deficient Employee Training as a top safety problem based on frequency and severity.  Thus, we can expect that training issues affect the vast majority of food plants, at least to some degree.
The positive side is that these same experts had some concrete recommendations for preventive controls, which, when organized into a step-by-step process, form a solid seven-step foundation — and a few Quick Tips — for creating or upgrading to a strong training program. 

1. Create or assess your training
While some training standards apply to virtually all food manufacturing plants, each plant also will have unique characteristics and priorities. To identify your plant’s training needs:
• review plant assessments, such as audits, food safety reports and vulnerability assessment reports.
• create a training committee of employees from various areas, coordinated by training or operations management.
• request input from employees and your QA team. Have a suggestion box; provide survey forms at the end of every training session or program; hold discussion groups to review training issues.
 
2. Set the foundation
New employee/orientation training sets the groundwork for future training. While orientation need not — and generally can’t — cover all subjects, the emphasis and expectations put on the basic training at this juncture will communicate to your employees its importance in your plant.

3. Determine frequency of ongoing training PROGRAMS
It is always difficult to take an employee off the line to participate in training, but the general recommendation is that a plant hold quarterly refresher courses with short monthly updates or themed sessions and ongoing reinforcement (see Quick Tips).
4. Determine the learning
atmosphere/training type
Are you auditory, visual or kinesthetic? We all experience things in different ways, creating variances in best learning modes. Visual learners will prefer video or demonstration; auditory respond to classroom teaching; while those who are kinesthetic are hands-on learners. In addition, different subjects may be best represented through different methods. (Try teaching an employee to operate a machine without seeing the equipment!) Thus, it is best to implement a broad range and combination of methods to build on and reinforce one another. For example, start with an orientation video, classroom  training and job-appropriate seminars; reinforce these through self-guided computer courses, hands-on training and verbal instruction; then test with written, oral and/or hands-on analysis. (If applicable, you may also need to consider alternative languages in your training program.)

5. Set the subjects
Of course, all of the above points are moot if you are not training your employees on what they need to know. In addition to the areas identified through Step 1, consider adding training in any or all of the following, which were most often noted by the study experts as training-deficient areas: process control, pathogen monitoring, hand-washing, HACCP, GMPs, temperature control, monitoring equipment, hygiene, food safety risks, allergen control, cleaning and sanitation.

6. Get some help
If the steps are beginning to seem overwhelming, know that you don’t have to go it alone. There are a number of industry resources on which you can draw for assistance or actual instruction manuals, some of which are even cost-free. Check with: suppliers; insurance carriers; county and IFT extension programs; industry associations; FDA, USDA, NFPA, FPI websites and printed publications; and industry consultants and trainers.

7. Ensure results
The final results of your training will be dependent on the commitment of your management team, and the responsibility taken toward the program’s success. Be sure you:
• have and regularly update written policies for training.
• let employees know about required training as well as when and where any optional, upgrade or cross-training is available.
• document employee participation.
• test after each training for understanding and proficiency and periodically for retention.
• include managers in both training and testing.
• include training progress in each employee’s supervisory review.
• compensate employees for their achievements.
 
Although no program will completely eliminate plant accidents or safety issues, a well-designed, ongoing training plan will help to reduce incidents and make your plant a safer, more productive workplace.