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New technologies provide simple answers to age-old handwashing issues.
The Pay:
A performance-rewarding pay package is THE answer to solving the industry’s appalling handwashing compliance rates. New technologies provide measurement standards and serve as performance monitoring tools.
Identify and implement a monthly incentive level worth working for. Here is a sample where an entry level employee’s job performance can earn him or her up to $1,200 per year.
The Payoff:
Note the point where the incentive kicked in for the research outlined below. Handwash rates were stuck. They had reached the training ceiling but line management’s involvement quickly changed all that. The incentive was the realization that their pay and career path could be affected by non-compliance. Operations was the key in achieving the restaurant’s goal.
Restaurateurs, their handwashing trainers and the heads of Operations exhibit a noticeable quake of concern when Jim Mann, Founder of the Handwashing For Life Institute, lays out this observation and prediction: “Handwash training is nearly worthless without setting standards and implementing an incentive program that either rewards compliance with a bonus component or is clearly tied to paychecks via the performance review process.”
Jim continues, “If you are not willing to do this for entry-level food handlers and wait staff, you are wasting time and endangering your brand.” He went on to point out that “… the team’s performance is also a good indicator of the supervisor’s leadership skill, a key factor in career advancement considerations.”
Handwashing performance measurement makes a bonus payment program feasible and meaningful. Wireless data-gathering technologies connect staff behavior with their managers and fill a void in food safety reporting monitored in the C-Suites.
The same is true for keeping high-touch surfaces TouchReady®. Standards are set using ATP and cleaning frequency is verified using the MarX system.
