Food Safety Training for the Next Generation
There are things in the restaurant and hospitality industry that must remain constant: food safety is one of those things. Above all else, we should be concerned with customer safety and maintain best practices for upholding health, wellness and safety for staff and guests alike.
That said, there are some things in the restaurant and hospitality industry that may shift over time. Sometimes, best practices adjust in accordance with new standards and research. And it is also important to consider a new audience—both customer and employee—and how communication and training should adjust to be relevant and understood.
For the quick-serve industry in 2022, with employees across multiple generations, this means updating training methods to ensure that food safety rules are understood and followed. According to Nation’s Restaurant News (NRN) a new Food Safety Symposium is looking to modernize training tools to keep food safety standards high for all generations of staff.
“Multi-generational restaurant workforces require varying instruction, with more movement toward emphasizing the “why” of training, according to operators at the recent 16th annual Nation’s Restaurant News Food Safety Symposium,” the article reads. These updates make consideration for restaurants like Noodles & Co., who have employees across four generations, or restaurants who hire younger first-time workers.
Most importantly, panelists at the symposium confirmed that, listing rules and facts isn’t enough for training purposes for younger generations. “Providing for the ‘why’ is so much more important now than it was in the past,” says Jason Evans, dean of the college of food innovation and technology at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, R.I. In addition, it is useful to make this information accessible across multiple platforms, with video and audio components that can be revisited.
“We used to think that only adults learn best with video, however this has pivoted to become the norm for all generations of learners,” notes Richard Weil, principal and owner of National Restaurant Consultants. “The combined power of video and audio accelerates the learning curves, as well as information retention.”
It is crucial to keep your restaurant’s food safety practices up to not only regulations but the high standards consumers expect and demand. Be sure to ensure your employees are properly trained. National Restaurant Consultants are experts in hiring and training staff, and we can help you implement training tools to create the safest and best environment for your customers and your workforce.