In any business organization, staff members are usually encouraged to undergo training with a view to enhancing good quality output, mental alertness, and profitability. In the food industry, staff need to become more acquainted with job analysis, description, and specification.
This article treats the terms used in staff development in the food and service industry, emphasizing its relevance to agricultural product processing.
Importance of Staff Training in Food Service
‘Training’ is the systematic development of people. The general objectives of training are to:
- Increase the quantity and quality of output by improving employee skills.
- Reduce accidents.
- Increase the return to the employee in personal rewards, such as increased pay, recognition, and other benefits which the employee wants from the job.
- Make the operation more profitable by reducing the amount of equipment and material required to produce or sell in a given unit.
- Make it possible for the supervisor to spend less time correcting mistakes and more time in planning.
- Minimize turnover of staff because of inadequate skills.
- Improve morale and achieve a more satisfactory working environment.
- Enable new employees to meet their job requirements and enable experienced employees to accept transfers, adapt to new methods, increase efficiency, and adjust to changing needs.
- Encourage willingness, loyalty, interest, and the desire to excel.
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Key Terms in Staff Training for Food Service
1. Job Definition
All the tasks carried out by a particular employee in the completion of prescribed duties, within the setting of a particular working environment.
2. Job Analysis in Food Service
The process of examining a job to identify its component parts and the circumstances in which it is performed. This would normally require an examination of:
- The purpose of the job – what it exists for and what key results are expected from it.
- The setting of the job – the physical, organizational, and social conditions of the job.
- The main tasks that have to be performed in order to achieve the results – what the employee does.
- The resources or facilities available to the employee – what people, equipment, services, etc.
3. Job Description for Food Service Roles
A broad statement of the purpose, scope, duties, and responsibilities of a particular job. This would normally include the following:
- Job title
- Purpose and scope of job
- To whom responsible
- Place of work
- For whom responsible
- Main duties
- Main characteristics and working conditions
- Key performance measures
4. Task in Food Service Operations
An identifiable element of a job, by means of which a specific result is achieved.
5. Task Identification Process
The process of identifying and grouping the tasks that make up a job.
6. Task Analysis for Skill Development
The detailed and systematic examination of the skills used by an experienced worker in performing a task to the required standard.
7. Job Specification for Performance Standards
A detailed statement of the tasks involved in a job, the standards required, and the corresponding knowledge and skills involved.
8. Training Syllabus for Food Service
A statement of what a trainee needs to learn, based on the comparison between the job specification and his/her present knowledge and competence.
9. Training Program Outline
A broad outline of training that indicates the stages or sequence of the training and the time allowed for each part.
10. Training Manual for Food Service Standards
This is a guide for the training staff and trainees that specifies the points to be covered in training, standards to be achieved, methods of instruction to be used, equipment and materials required, forms and records to be kept, and any tests or targets which have to be achieved. These manuals are sometimes called ‘standards of performance manuals’.
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Benefits of Staff Training in Food Service
The various training methods for staff that can boost performance in the food and beverage industry have been highlighted.
A broad statement of the purpose, scope, duties, and responsibilities of a particular job includes the following: job title, purpose and scope of job, to whom responsible, place of work, for whom responsible, main duties, main characteristics and working conditions, key performance measures.
Among the reasons why staff development is necessary in a food service center are that it increases the quantity and quality of output by improving employee skills, reduces accidents, increases the return to the employee in personal rewards.
Such as increased pay, recognition, and other benefits which the employee wants from the job, makes the operation more profitable by reducing the amount of equipment and material required to produce or sell in a given unit, and makes it possible for the supervisor to spend less time correcting mistakes and more time in planning.
It also minimizes turnover of staff because of inadequate skills, improves morale and achieves a more satisfactory working environment, enables new employees to meet their job requirements and enables experienced employees to accept transfers, adapt to new methods, increase efficiency, and adjust to changing needs, and encourages willingness, loyalty, interest, and the desire to excel.
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