Management Commitment Part 1 of 2.

 

Part 1 of 2: How do you know you have management commitment?

 

Fine. You have GFSI audits. You get your scores (minor non-conformances

around 10-15). One of the non-conformance item that keeps coming up is Management Commitment. What is it / what does it look like / how do you know you have it or need to make it better?

 

Defined in SQF edition 7.2 The level of commitment, support, and leadership demonstrated by senior company and site management is fundamental to the effective implementation of an SQF food safety management system. Senior management must create the environment within the facility that encourages a pro-active attitude amongst staff towards food safety and (at Level 3) quality. It the further explains the need for the creation of a policy statement and what the responsibilities of the senior management are.  While this is good stuff, it does not tell us how to achieve said commitment.

 

How does the FSM know management commitment is lacking and how does it look?

 

The basic answer is the daily state of the facility. Unkept production area (like using equipment as coat hooks or corrugate stacking area), off hand comments that show disrespect to food safety (like go do your little tests or I don’t have time or your being a hypocrite by pointing this stuff out and not fixing it yourself), Feeling of isolation on the part of QA/QC staff, Lack of details (or missing pieces) on paperwork/audits.

 

Notice what I am not saying?

 

"we must produce numbers?!"

 

Production must occur and businesses need to grow.  Production needs to grow with food safety. What is Upper Management doing for food safety commitment? Firstly they hired you!, they give you support by agreeing to your safety measures, when financial resources are needed they are given, the Food Safety Policy statement is written and signed yearly. All this is great and needed. 

 

Two items not listed include upper management doing the same things that the employees are doing. Sure you have gone to your boss (VP / Director / or upper management title) and told him they were seen without a hairnet, with their smock open, or watch on and this cannot occur. You were even treated respectfully when you had this talk. The point is, you had to have this talk. Until the upper management and owners do exactly what the employees do, their commitment is not there on a personal level. The front line managers and staff will see this and say - if they don’t care why should I!  In short, upper management not only needs to walk the walk and talk the talk -- they have to do it all the time (especially when they think no one is looking).

 

The second need is for management to make a plan. It is wonderful that upper management says "Food Safety is what we are about" or "we will be audit ready all the time". But, how do you get there? There needs to be a plan with short and long term, tangible goals. They need to consider what a Food Safety system should look like in the real world of a food processing facility and why food safety is important. Each goal on that plan must be measurable with something like a KPI that can be shared.

 

Part 2 - Middle / front line management commitment and what "the plan" could look like.