Using Goals and Objectives to Motivate
Welcome to your weekly food safety fix!
Last week we promised to continue with some more inspiring topics to carry you through to the New Year! For those of you who missed it, we highlighted the importance of our Quality Managers and Food Safety Team Leaders and their role as Master Motivators – click here if you would like to read the previous blog.
We’ve realised that a good challenge with a clear goal is the best way to motivate. Sure enough, money does get people moving along but nothing inspires us more than some good old-fashioned competition. Fortunately, most of the food safety management system standards today include a requirement relating to food safety objectives. This requirement provides the perfect framework to motivate staff to follow procedures, adhere to rules and contribute toward achieving goals.
Now is the perfect time of the year to start planning your 2021 objectives. By now you already have enough data to reflect on your 2020 performance and set some challenging, yet achievable goals for the year ahead. Goals direct each person’s attention and activity towards the task and everyone’s combined efforts to achieve the goal, increase the chance of being successful.
Remember, these objectives must be communicated – without communication, individuals will not know how they can contribute toward achieving these objectives and this usually leads to people being demotivated when unsatisfactory results are reported.
Our tip is to set up objectives in an easy-to-understand format and display them openly for all to see. Here’s an example:
| OBJECTIVE: To achieve FSSC 22000 Version 6 certification by end of October 2021 | |
| What will we do to achieve this objective? | An implementation project plan will be established. A stage 1 audit will be scheduled for April 2021. |
| What resources will be required? | Resources required by the implementation project plan will be documented as part of the plan and will include:
· Training · Structural upgrades · Time to review and update system documentation |
| Who will be responsible? | The project plan specifies staff who are responsible for individual tasks, but the Quality Manager will oversee the implementation process. |
| When will it be completed? | Due dates will be agreed and documented for each activity on the project plan. Our aim is to be certified by the end of October 2021. |
| How will we evaluate these results? | Monthly food safety team meetings will be held to track our progress and report on the status of the implementation project plan. |
Remember to share regular status updates on the progress of your objective so that staff can see what progress is being made. Use notice boards, newsletters, and regular meetings to communicate what still needs to be done and where things have fallen behind. Always provide feedback – positive or negative, staff deserve to be informed so that they can determine what actions can be taken to improve the result!
Finally, always celebrate your successes. A team that has achieved a remarkable goal will be motivated to work even harder to face the next challenge.
Stay tuned for next week’s blog where we will look at reward and recognition and how they motivate (or don’t).
In the meantime, pop over to our website for more information on all the kinds of food safety training courses we offer. Pop us a message via our webchat function and we’ll sort you out a.s.a.p. You are also more than welcome to e-mail us with your specific training needs. We can’t wait to hear from you!
From the Food Bites team.