Food Safety Culture
Helping factory employees understand how their roles impact food safety and making food safety more fun and engaging
Role
Program Manager
Team
Just me but with lots of stakeholder feedback
Timeline
Jun 2024 - Aug 2023
Project Type
Program Design
As a food safety and quality practitioner at a plant-based meat manufacturing plant, I found a creative way to approach improving effectiveness of our training program and overall food safety culture.
Food safety is not a generally fun topic to learn about. How might we make this critical domain knowledge for food manufacturing employees more fun and engaging?
research
I created and distributed an initial survey to understand 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.
How do employees currently feel about food safety in their roles?
Initial Survey Key Findings
People did not feel too confident about own knowledge
People did not feel empowered to speak up about issues
Suggestions for more bite sized training
Suggestions for more regular communication about food safety
Secondary Survey Key Findings
Improvement on feelings of knowledgeability of food safety
Improvement on feelings of empowerment to speak up about issues
Improvement of feelings of management commitment to food safety
Suggestions for more engaging activities
research
I created and distributed an initial survey to understand 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.
How do employees currently feel about food safety in their roles?
Initial Survey Key Findings
People did not feel too confident about own knowledge
People did not feel empowered to speak up about issues
Suggestions for more bite sized training
Suggestions for more regular communication about food safety
Secondary Survey Key Findings
Improvement on feelings of knowledgeability of food safety
Improvement on feelings of empowerment to speak up about issues
Improvement of feelings of management commitment to food safety
Suggestions for more engaging activities
Designing for Food Safety Culture
I pursued three key initiatives based on the survey and interview insights.
to Improve Employee Knowledge
Initiative 1: making digestible educational content
I overhauled the training program design based on survey feedback to make a serious and generally dry topic to be more fun and digestible.
Addition of topic of the week micro-lessons presented at kick-off meetings
Reformatted all content on learning management system with visual storytelling and interactive testing components
to Engage Employees
Initiative 2: gamifying Food safety week
This initiative was held during World Health Organization Food Safety Week.
I designed new characters to represent each core cross-functional team in manufacturing.
I created content emphasizing role of each team.
I planned daily interactive activities to engage the audience (including a naming contest for the mascot - the winner was "Señor Hamburguesa")
Initiative 3: The burger mascot
I designed a mascot to represent the factory’s values of high quality and safety standards and ultimately to drive emotional connection and engagement with employees.
The burger motif represents the company's brand and flagship product.
The burger character was drawn into a character with human features to represent an employee of the facility.
The addition of safety glasses and a hardhat represent personal protective equipment that keep employees safe in the workplace.
The design choice to make the character muscular was to represent the strength in the team to achieve this major accomplishment.
Designing for Food Safety Culture
I pursued three key initiatives based on the survey and interview insights.
to Improve Employee Knowledge
Initiative 1: making digestible educational content
I overhauled the training program design based on survey feedback to make a serious and generally dry topic to be more fun and digestible.
Addition of topic of the week micro-lessons presented at kick-off meetings
Reformatted all content on learning management system with visual storytelling and interactive testing components
to Engage Employees
Initiative 2: gamifying Food safety week
This initiative was held during World Health Organization Food Safety Week.
I designed new characters to represent each core cross-functional team in manufacturing.
I created content emphasizing role of each team.
I planned daily interactive activities to engage the audience (including a naming contest for the mascot - the winner was "Señor Hamburguesa")
Initiative 3: The burger mascot
I designed a mascot to represent the factory’s values of high quality and safety standards and ultimately to drive emotional connection and engagement with employees.
The burger motif represents the company's brand and flagship product.
The burger character was drawn into a character with human features to represent an employee of the facility.
The addition of safety glasses and a hardhat represent personal protective equipment that keep employees safe in the workplace.
The design choice to make the character muscular was to represent the strength in the team to achieve this major accomplishment.
Food Safety Week program
Food Safety Week Introduction
Daily Team Highlights
Daily Challenges throughout the Week
Food Safety Week program
Food Safety Week Introduction
Daily Team Highlights
Daily Challenges throughout the Week
Me and my colleagues in our color coded hard hats at the Impossible Foods burger factory
