In this modern era, it is surprising that training still needs to be ‘sold’ as an investment to both employees and management in the food industry.
A case in point occurred a few months back when I attended an industry event. I asked the local representative for a national brand about the type and frequency of training provided by their organisation. I was taken by surprise when told training is not provided at all, much to their dismay.
Common responses I’ve heard over the years from employees include “we are pressed for time” and training is viewed as a luxury that they just cannot afford. While business owners and managers view training as an expense they cannot afford.
If you are employed within a food business and thinking about training, it is important that this is carefully planned and you understand the importance of promoting it to all of the stakeholders in your business, inspiring them to support your program. Notifying people of a training event is important, but equally important is following up by promoting or selling it to them.
The key to selling your training idea is to develop a logically structured proposal as a vehicle for seeking management endorsement.
Management will want to know how training activities will enable it to achieve its current and future goals, including saving money!
In addition to the benefits of the training program, management will want to know how the training will be validated. This refers to results of the training and how they will be measured. Will there be a specific behaviour change in the employee? Or a performance improvement on the job? Success will be measured by how the actual outcome of the training program compares to the planned outcome.
A carefully considered strategy will need to be developed to promote the training with key decision makers within your food business.
The strategy or strategies you use to promote the training must be targeted to suit those attending. Whatever strategy you choose, the information you provide should include:
- details of the training activity
- the benefits to them of the training activity
- the expected outcomes of the training
A number of approaches may be required to convince both management and employees to undertake the training. The marketing has a number of phases, there is the awareness campaign of the training and then attention is given to promoting the advantages. In the end, you may need to sell the training to them.
Think ST Solutions offers you practical solutions at a management level and to your staff whether you operate in hospitals, aged care facilities, restaurants, hotels or the food industry generally. We specialise in developing useful tools to assist you in the areas of food safety, strategic planning, business management, risk and compliance training and easy to implement business consultancy solutions.