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Food Safety Culture

Role

Program Manager

Team

Just me but with lots of stakeholder feedback

Timeline

Jun 2024 - Aug 2023

Project Type

Self Initiated Creative Project

Cartoon burger mascot artwork of the burger in various uniforms representing employees from different manufacturing teams

It all started when an employee fell asleep in front of me

…during employee onboarding, when I was explaining the importance of an x-ray machine in preventing choking hazards in food.

I knew then that the entire system needed to be overhauled.

This case study details one of the many improvement projects I initiated and injected fun and creativity into at the plant-based meat factory.

I one day decided to create a "food safety culture" campaign during the week of World Food Safety Day (World Health Organization).

"food safety culture" = how employees understand and feel about making food that does not make people sick or die when they eat it

so I initiated a creative yet methodical approach

After having spent extensive time on all the shifts around the clock and on the front lines of the operation, I got to know all of the factory staff quite well.

I came to understand the systems and workflows quite well and developed a knack of picking up on patterns and inefficiencies.

Of course per research best practices, I gathered some more concrete data to strengthen my project pitch.

I created and distributed an initial survey to understand the baseline of food safety culture and a secondary survey a year later to understand changes in food safety culture over time. I also conducted supplementary employee interviews to probe further.

so I initiated a creative yet methodical approach

After having spent extensive time on all the shifts around the clock and on the front lines of the operation, I got to know all of the factory staff quite well.

I came to understand the systems and workflows quite well and developed a knack of picking up on patterns and inefficiencies.

Of course per research best practices, I gathered some more concrete data to strengthen my project pitch.

key components of the campaign

1: digestible educational content

I further iterated on the training program design based on survey feedback to make a serious and generally dry topic to be more fun and digestible.

I added weekly micro-lessons presented at shift kick-off meetings.
Less jargon, more visual, less text, include humor, communicate big-picture impact

2: The mascot

I designed a mascot (a bit silly) to represent team values and drive emotional connection and engagement with employees.

Motifs:

Burger - company's brand and flagship product
Burger with human features - employees of the facility
Safety glasses and hardhat - personal protective equipment keeping employees safe in the workplace
Muscularity - the team's strength

Cartoon burger mascot that look like a muscular cheeseburger wearing safety glasses, a yellow hardhat, and is flexing one arm up and the other arm down.

3: gamifying

I created

New characters to represent each core cross-functional team
Content emphasizing role of each
Daily challenges (including a naming contest for the mascot which then employees voted on; "Señor Hamburguesa" was the winner - I supplied the winner and runner up with customized character design swag)