Food Safety First

Trainers share their ideas for food safety training when turnover runs high.

During periods of high turnover, how can you ensure that new employees receive thorough food-safety training?

For many operators, employee turnover is as much a part of the foodservice business as, well, food and service. But even though the faces change, an operation's dedication to food safety must remain high. The following tips address how to tackle training in a high-turnover environment:

Introduce food safety on Day 1. By making food safety courses part of new employees' orientation training, Circus Circus Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas, has one goal in mind: to underscore the importance of proper food handling, sanitation and hygiene. "We want to emphasize to every new hire how seriously we take food safety here," says Tasha Adams, chef secretary and ServSafe¨ trainer.

Adams explains that because new people generally are hired as steady extrasÑfilling in for employees who are ill or on vacationÑclass time does not conflict with work. "We can offer them some extra hours to come in and take the class, and hopefully get them motivated and interested in their new job," she says.

Circus Circus, which employs about 1,100 food and beverage employees in 11 restaurants, implemented ServSafe last August. To permit training of existing employees as well as new hires, Adams currently conducts a four-hour class once a week. Once all current staff members have been trained, courses will be offered monthly.

Post visual reminders. Adams backs up food safety principles by posting news items and food-safety tips in a prominent location within the food and beverage areas. Every week, the local newspaper publishes a health department report about which local restaurants have been inspected, and how they did, she says. "I put those reports up, highlighting things that could pertain to people here, like failure to wash hands properly, or cold food not being cold enough. Those visual reminders are especially effective with new employees."

Turn to technology. At Seed Restaurant Group Inc., Lexington, Ky., which operates Fazoli's Restaurants, new employees are trained using Bravo II, the company's CD-ROM in-house training program. Food safety is integrated into several of the program's 10 training modules. "We don't teach hourlies food safety as a subject by itself; instead, it's presented as a standard part of procedures throughout the front and back of the house," says Kathy Watkins, group president of training. Within the orientation portion, Fazoli's has several computer pages on safe practices and general hygiene; how to wash hands, etc. As new employees proceed into the various food-preparation modules, those food safety and sanitation topics are covered again in more depth.

Maintain comprehensive records. A database of all employees, showing their training status, can be an invaluable aid, especially during times of high turnover. Both Adams and Watkins maintain such systems. "With a self-paced program such as ours, we could really run into trouble if we didn't track new employees' progress," says Watkins. "But our program includes a database that logs all employees' scores as they proceed through training. Everything is carefully tracked and documented."