How to Change the Perception and the Results of Your Food Safety Program

Ensuring food safety is crucial for your business. Your customers rely on it, and if the food is unsafe, they may not come back due to poor taste or potential illness. This could also pose legal risks and damage your business further.

An effective food safety program plays a key role in customer satisfaction, bringing those customers back again and again. To ensure your food safety program gets the attention and respect it deserves, use the following strategies for improving assessment perception and outcomes.

Position as a Company-Wide Initiative

Having everyone embrace food safety assessments is the first step to cementing food safety in your operational culture and its role as an essential tool in your food safety management system. As such, position these assessments as a key company-wide initiative contributing to the business’s overall success. 

One strategy for doing this is to integrate assessments with strategic goals to enhance ROI and competitiveness. For instance, tie your food safety program to training, voice of customer, and other programs designed to drive improvement. By doing so, you could see three times the growth rate in same-store sales.  

Another strategy is to form an advisory council to ensure stakeholder voices are heard. Include members from the front line to the C-suite and customers, giving you perspectives from every angle. They can help identify pain points on assessments that drive improvement throughout the company.  

Announce and Narrate the Assessment

Announcing your assessment can bring together everyone across the company. When doing so, set the tone with a formal announcement. This demonstrates that your food safety program involves and affects everyone and reflects senior leadership’s commitment to creating a robust food safety culture.

For all food safety communications, be clear and transparent in your messaging. The focus of your assessment program should be a positive, engaging experience at the location level. The specialist conducting the assessment should engage with employees as they walk through the location, narrating the assessment to keep employees apprised of what they see. 

Here are a few tips for compelling storytelling in assessments:

• Use body language and make eye contact to engage others. 
• Vary your voice's volume, pitch, tone, and pace to create interest.
• Use metaphors and anecdotes to add depth to your assessment.  

Explain the Why and Acknowledge Successes

Explain the purpose of the assessment in your food safety program to enhance buy-in. Instill a growth mindset to encourage behavior change that leads to improvement. One way to do that is by connecting assessment goals to broader company objectives, such as boosting sales, increasing customer satisfaction scores, and reducing internal costs. 

Along the way, consistently provide an accurate picture of the location’s performance, highlighting successes in achieving milestones and pointing out opportunities for improvement. Positive reinforcement for continued excellence keeps employees engaged and boosts morale. 

Recognize and Celebrate Best Performers

Positive recognition of the right behaviors fosters a culture of excellence and gives employees ownership over the food safety program’s success. Rewarding those successes goes a long way in motivating employees to adhere to a food safety program and continue building a food safety culture that becomes a cultural value of the organization. 

Here are some suggestions for celebrating top performers:

• Present a certificate of excellence to a top performer each month 
• Reward top performers with an extra paid vacation day 
• Give a bonus to top performers who meet improvement goals 

Conclusion

Improving your assessment program is key to a successful food safety management system. Positioning your food safety program as a company-wide initiative shows that everyone has a role in the company’s success. Announcing and narrating assessments draw employees into the process so they become a part of the solution. Explaining the purpose of assessments educates employees on how they can contribute to improvements that benefit the entire company. Recognizing and rewarding top performers keeps them engaged and boosts morale, strengthening your company’s food safety culture. By doing so, you build a strong food safety program that gets results.    

For more ways to improve your food safety program, download 6 principles to a better audit program.