Lessons Learned From The 2014 Global Food Safety Training Survey

The Second Annual Global Food Safety Training survey released in January 2014 was developed to help food processors and manufacturers compare and benchmark their training protocols and implementation against other national and global firms. The survey, sent to more than 25,000 sites worldwide, examined all facets of the industry including such categories as types of training, budget, activities, deficiencies, regulatory compliance and measurement of competence. The survey also inquired about quantity and quality of training compared with the previous year including audits and satisfaction levels.

Additionally, the survey focused on the importance of measurement, specifically how the value of training and its outcomes were measured, how companies identify whether training has been understood and, perhaps most important, the measurement of “sustained positive food safety behaviors” through coaching. The latter inquiry marked a change from the 2013 survey, which did not ask respondents about behavioral coaching and limited its questions to measuring of the value of training.

It is the growing recognition of employee behavior and the role of coaching to influence that behavior that merits greater consideration towards achieving the food safety culture sought by every manufacturer and processor. This study explains the survey’s findings, the potential issues they reveal and how increasing use of behavioral coaching specifically through recently developed technologies can help alleviate risks through greater workforce awareness of on-the-job safety.