SQF Training Requirements Explained: Building an Effective, Site-Wide Training Program

Kristie Grzywinski: Hello, good morning, good afternoon, and welcome to today's webinar on SQF training requirements. I am Kristie Grzywinski, a technical director here at SQFI, and I am here today with Harmeet Kaur, director of training and consulting with Kiwa ASI. Over the next hour, we're going to dive deep into building effective sitewide training programs that not only meet SQF requirements, but actually work in real-world food manufacturing environments. whether you're a line operator, supervisor, quality manager, or senior leader, this session is designed to give you practical tools and strategies you can implement right away. Before we begin, we're going to make this interactive and we'll have a couple of discussion questions and polls along the way. So a as well be sure to use the chat and at the end Harmeet will address those questions but go ahead and chat them in along the way. All right let's go ahead and get started.

Next slide. please take a moment to review the antitrust statement provided to you here on the screen. conversations even though they may be in chat regarding price fixing, boycotting, trade restrictions or other violations of antitrust law are to be avoided. And if you see that the conversation is heading in that direction or if Harmeet or I notice that, we'll speak up and you please do the same. So without further ado, next slide. Let me hand it over to today's presenter, Harmeet Kaur. Take it away.

Harmeet Kaur: Thank you Kristie. Thank you SQF for this opportunity. Hi everyone. Good afternoon, good morning wherever you guys are joining us from. I'm Harmeet Kaur. I'm director of training and consulting with Kiwa ASI. I've been in industry for about more than 18 years and I am really excited for this session with you guys. A little bit about Ki. ASI now is QI. We offer a full suit of safety and quality solutions to support your organization's efforts to maintain and only the highest product safety and quality standard. ASI became part of Kiwa, which is an international TIC company in 2023 and as of this week we are actually officially rebranded to become Kiwa ASI. So even though we have a new name, new logo, our dedication to our customer service remains the same. We still stand behind our slogan which we make certification easy and with us with training and consulting department we also say we make trainings easy. so all of the industries we service and offerings are listed on the screen here and if you guys want to learn more about us please visit our website asifood.com.

So this is what we're going to cover today. We will start by understanding specific SQF training requirements in the code. What is mandatory? what auditors are looking for. We will also walk through how to develop your sitewide training plan that actually fits your facility, your workforce, your production schedule. We will also talk about conducting a training needs assessment, building competency based programs and critical importance of documentation. And we have also built in two interactive discussion questions here. we because we want to hear from you about what are the challenges you guys are facing. and then we will wrap up with our best practices, resources available to you guys and plenty of time for Q&A. So, let's dive in. let's start with why. Why does training matter so much? Here's the reality. Your workforce is your first line of defense in food safety. Not your just equipment, not your just technology, not even your HACCP plan. It's your people. So, well-trained line operator can catch foreign material contamination before it leaves the line.

Your trained maintenance technician knows how to use food-grade lubricants. Your trained supervisor knows when to stop production, when to investigate. So training is isn't just a checking box for your audit. It is a critical investment in protecting your consumers. Of course, protecting your brand. as you all know, one recall can cost million of dollars and destroy your consumer trust and obviously put people's lives at risk. So good training reduces your product defects and rework cost. It prevents contamination incidents and it empowers your line operator right to identify problems, stop them before it before the crisis becomes they become crisis. So it creates accountability at every level it builds confidence in your workforce and of course when people know what they're doing and why it matters it they take ownership in terms of food safety.

As you all know, element SQF module 2 element 2.9 outlines our comprehensive training expectations in the SQF Code which talks about documented employee training program with the competency methods instructions available in relevant languages, refresher training requirements, training records, comp training and competency verification. So these requirements applies to everyone in your facility from production floor to the corporate. So let's break down who needs the training. The answer is very simple, everyone. But let's be specific. On floor on production floor, we are talking about line operators, your packers, your machine operators, forklift drivers, material handlers and yes, your temporary and seasonal workers as well. Okay, these are the people touching your product, operating your equipment and making decisions every minute of the shift. Your support functions need training as well. Your maintenance technicians, sanitation crew, warehouse personnel, receiving and shipping staff. So, think about it. Maintenance brings tools and parts to production areas.

Sanitation crews responsible for allergen cleaning and warehouse staff handle finished products. So, they all need to understand their role in terms of food safety. Then we have management. We have oversight supervisors, we have shifts leads who are verifying that training is being applied, QA teams, plan managers and of course senior leadership. So and then we have visitors and your contractors. sometimes your boss might bring a team from overseas or maybe in-house team from hey let's take a plan tour. We need to make sure they are trained before they show up on the facility, inside the production floor. They need to follow your GMP, of course, your policies. Outside maintenance, meaning third party maintenance, you might contract with them. They need as well training. some companies do have a third party sanitation crew, which comes in, let's say, on the on the night shift to come and clean. your third party pest technician, they come maybe twice a month. They might come once a week, right?

So they also need to know what is your GMP, what's your program, your procedures they need to follow before they show up. Right? So the key message is every person who enters your facility plays a role in terms of food safety. That means every person needs appropriate training. Food safety culture doesn't exist just in one department. It has to permeate your entire organization. So what do people need to be trained? This is a very common questions that we also get when we're doing SQF trainings that what training do I have to provide to my own employees right to my in-house facility. So let's talk about essential topics. GMP or good manufacturing practices are foundational. This is personal hygiene, proper handwashing techniques, your appropriate clothing, jewelry restrictions, reporting illness. So this it seems basic but it's very critical. your HACCP principles. Your team needs to understand CCPs or critical control points on their specific line. What are they monitoring? Why are they monitoring? What are the critical limits? What happens if something goes wrong?

Allergen management. If you are dealing with allergens, it is huge as cross contact prevention, proper changeover procedures, cleaning verification. So one mistake here could put someone in the hospital. your equipment operation, proper use, cleaning and maintenance. How do you even properly dissemble and clean the fillers, right? What is your sanitary design? Are you considering your sanitary design when you're doing maintenance? Your sanitation procedures both your preop and operational your sanitation all crew needs to know more than just spray and wipe. They need to understand the concentrations of right of cleaning agent of your sanitizer. How does it work? food defense awareness, recognizing and reporting your suspicious activities if your employees need to your employees need to be your ear and eyes. And here one we don't talk about enough is helping every employee understand their role in food safety. So how does that job do every day impact the final product? When they understand that connection behavior changes. So finally reporting and your communication.

When do you escalate a concern? What do you tell? Who do you tell? And how do we document it? Right? Documentation something that most of us struggle issues does happen. We talk about verbally but we never really document. Right? So that is another thing that we how do we document? We need to teach our employees what are the forms if they're available, right? Or who do who do they reach when they have to report something. let's talk about specifically about your SQF practitioner because this role has unique requirements as elements two 114 and 2115 outline the qualifications so your SQF practitioner must have training right and there are minimum requirements defined in the codes glossary also right they need a solid understanding of your SQF code and how to implement it and they need experience in food safety management Right. So SQF I strongly recommend in implementing SQF system course which are available through all licensed training centers.

ASIA is a licensed training center as well and this is a comprehensive course that walks through you implementing and maintaining your SQF system. here's what why this matters because your SQF practitioner is your pretty much your go resource go-to resource right for food safety questions. So if you this person need to be highly trained, highly competent and empowered to make decisions. So invest in this person's training and development and give them the tools and authority that they need to succeed. certain roles in your facility require specialized training beyond the basics. So there's another one where we're going to deep dive into internal auditors need training in audit procedures and effective questioning techniques. They need to understand the SQF Code requirements thoroughly. They can't just audit what they don't understand. Right? So they need to understand why they're doing the audit, what information they're going to gather, how to do even report writing and what is the purpose of internal audits, right?

How is it really helping your facility, your site and what benefits are you getting from internal audits? Remember, it's not a fault finding, it's a fact-finding exercise, right? then is a crisis management team needs training through mock recalls exercises and business continuity planning. So, hope is not a strategy. You need to practice these scenarios before they happen. in the years of training one company one mentioned that on Friday 5:00 p.m. they had a crisis situation. Everybody was planning to go home already by that time and nobody was really ready to do this on Friday 5:00 p.m. or imagine on Saturday for example.

So again that's why I think mock recalls does help us a lot right we need to practice these scenarios before they happen so it's much more calm and we can work in a team maintenance personnel need specialized training on food grade lubricants and materials they need to know what is the difference between food grade non-food grade lubricants right where they can use it how they store it where they store it sanitary design principles and of course lockout/tagout procedures for of course for the safety of your employees as well and maintenance can be major source of contamination if not done correctly. they should pick up their tools right when they are done with the job they need to inform probably sanitation and QA or production like hey we are done so these appropriate departments can step in and they do the right thing and which sanitation right sanitation crew needs training on chemical safety proper dilution follow your master sanitation schedule the schedule is typically is done there but the problem is nobody's really sometime they're not following it Allergen cleaning verification.

So sanitation is one of the most critical food safety functions I'm sure as you all know. So we need more specific training to the sanitation crew. And of course please don't forget your contract workers, your temporary staff. Just because they are not your regular employees doesn't mean they don't need training. GMP's facility specific food safety rules apply to everyone including them. SQF Code is very clear that these specialized roles require specialized training. So make sure you guys are addressing these needs. I cannot stress enough especially temporary staff agency staff right or sometimes you might have a in a for a certain period let's say 3 months only four months only right even they are working only for 3 months because let's say during harvest they are only working from August till December we still have to treat them as just like one of your employees and we need to provide them the training just like your regular employee because again they could be the reason why you have contamination or other issues at your site. So, how do you actually build a training program?

Step one is conducting a training needs assessment. This is where you evaluate what you have identified the gap. So, start by looking at training need by role, right? Training needs, what does a line operator need to know versus maintenance technician versus a supervisor, right? Don't make the mistake of one-size-fits-all training. Look at by your shift. Also, are your night shift employees getting the same training as the day shift often they are not and that's the gap auditors will find. evaluate your by language. Walk your production floor. What languages do they you hear? Do you do your training material match your workforce? Right? So, experience consider experience level as well. A new hire needs different training than someone who's been with you guys for more than 10 years, right? But don't assume veterans know everything. They might have learned workarounds. They aren't even food safe, right? So review your audit findings. What issues keep coming up? those are your training opportunities. And finally, look at your production changes.

Every time you bring a new equipment, launch a new product, change a process. That's this is where you have to do the training. So this assessment doesn't have to be very complicated, but it does need to be thorough. Walk the floor, talk to your supervisors, review your records, and be honest about where the gaps are. Step two is once your needs, you now you're going to develop your training tailored training plan. And I want to emphasize here tailored because this has to work for your own environment, right? So let's talk about new hire training first. So day one should be which we typically orientation right they're busy with the HR they're understanding the facility safety GMP a tour so they understand the flow of your operations then move into the job specific training with the hands-on demonstration not just by watching a video but actually doing a task with a trainer besides them shadowing experienced employees is incredibly valuable right because but make sure you're pairing them with someone who does it the right way.

This is where I have noticed all my years in the food industry that day one yay with HR, day two they are with the supervisor and day three they are on their own and sometime they're just learning from the others and that's not the again remember just taking a box or signing on a training log doesn't mean they are fully trained right so this is why the critical part competency verification before they work independently comes in don't just assume they are ready verify it and you can verify it obviously by showing asking them could you please show me right demonstrate for example hey how do you how does this metal detector function for example right so you're asking questions from that job around that job so you get in pretty good idea okay they understand now right rather than just signing off on a log and they are ready to go and one month later they are like I don't know when I was trained right so for ongoing training what use what works in the your manufacturing environment of course originate distribution also packaging pre-shift meetings toolbox talks are perfect for reinforcing your key concepts so annual refreshers I'm sure you all do annual refreshers on the GMPS and food safety keep skills sharp just in time training when they're making a process or product change ensure everyone is prepared and of course my favorite is cross trainining builds flexibility in your workforce while reinforcing your food safety principles.

The key is to make this training fit to your operation and not just disrupting your operation. Right? So short, frequent practical training sessions work better than a long classroom days that take people off the floor. And again in my experience, I think when you're having somebody sit for 8 hours or 6 hours, half of the time they're there intent attention is probably max 10 minutes, max 30 minutes. I think after that the brain just shuts off. So sometime topic of a month or every Monday you guys can come up in it small topics. Hey today we're going to review GMP or today we're going to do h handwashing. It does sound very simple. I'm sure you all have experienced once in a while that employees are still bypassing hand washing even though they know they must wash their hands before going to production.

So I think small topics does go long rather than having them sitting for all day and they're they're really they're mentally not there physically there and I think it doesn't really help anybody also let's talk about the competencies I know we talk about competency throughout the code also but what does that even mean when it comes to training where is where a lot of facilities struggle here where exactly each role needs to be able to do so for line operator They need to be able to recognize product defects in foreign material. Can they spot a metal fragment for example? Right? Do they know what an allergen cross contact look like? What they need to execute proper startup and shutdown procedures. So they're often where contamination happens. So they need to know how to monitor for example CCPs, right? And critically they need to know when to stop the line. So do they have the authority and confidence to do that? Supervisors have a different set of competencies. They need to verify operator competency. How do they know someone is ready to work alone?

They need to respond to deviations and nonconformances effectively. So they need to conduct effective pre-shift meetings that actually reinforce food safety not just go through the motion and they need to reinforce GMP's food safety culture every single day. So managers need to ensure adequate training resources are available. They monitor training effectiveness. Is it actually working? They support continuous improvement. And most importantly, they lead by example. If manager doesn't follow the GMP, why would anyone else? And I'm sure you have seen throughout your career. Christ is also smiling. So I'm sure that managers sometime or upper management, senior management feels like GMP doesn't apply to them. Yet everybody, everyone has to follow the GMP, right? So here's a principle to remember. Competency equals knowledge plus skills plus ability on the production floor. And all three components are very necessary. So again it starts from our senior management.

But at each level whether it's a line operator floor level, whether it's a supervisor manager, you should be able to figure out what does that competency mean, what it looks like, and we need to design our again in-house training to make sure it fits, at each level. Now what are the effective ways of training delivery right? Initial training has three component which is you are doing a new hire orientation which we talk about cover food safety GMPS your specific facility related then job specific training is hands-on where practice with your actual equipment the task they will be doing and verification before independent work observe them test them make sure they actually do it before they're on their own I have met many companies and they said we have actually a week program where they have to be supervised at least for a week before they we tell them to be on their own. You may have two weeks depending on your of course their position. You guys come up with a timeline.

Make sure you guys are following and before that you do a verification which will give you the confidence of think they're get ready to go on their own rather than just having a one day half day and then you just leave them. That's obviously not going to help, right? Ongoing training keeps your skills sharp. So, pre-shift meetings, safety topic of the month. It could be, food safety topic. again, in my in my experience, we used to do like, every Monday 5 minutes before the shift starts, we will do a food safety topic of the week. So you can do weekly, you can do monthly also where you just not really taking a heavy topic but something very small is you're refreshing right refreshing your employees every at the start of the shift to reinforce a key topic like I said handwashing everybody knows but somehow once in a while you will see somebody bypassing handwashing right so annual refresher training on the GMP's food safety is a minimum requirement that doesn't mean you guys cannot do it more often like I said every month, every six month, every even week if that allows you.

So training on your process or product changes need to happen before the change, not after. And then of course cross training opportunities not only build flexibility but also reinforce the why behind your procedures. and for verification, direct observations of course on the floor is a gold standard. Watch them do the task. written demonstrations, show me how you would handle this situation, right? Written on verbal knowledge check for the GMP and food safety concept and of course supervisor signing off on the competency and that is documented and dated, right? The biggest mistake I see in facilities is that they do training but they never verify it actually worked. So please don't make that mistake.

Like I said, signing up on a log doesn't it looks good for the auditors yet that yes we have trained our employees but in reality what did they learn from that training is it even going anywhere is it even imple implemented and it's actually working right so please make sure you do verification after the fact when you did the training in appropriate languages is a really big absolutely critical because instruction instructions must be available in languages understood by your workforce. Right? So, I can be very blunt. If you are a multilingual production floor and you're only training in English, you're setting up yourself up for failure and putting consumers and at risk. I majority of my work experience is from California. We always had a Hispanic population working which is of course Spanish is their first language. and the we never do did the training in English. We always tried to translate our procedures and even on our forms in Spanish because it was much easier for our employees to follow and that is what we this is what we are trying to mention here.

There are practical solutions that work at your site. Translate your key documents, your job aids. Focus on the critical ones. For example, allergen, CCP proced monitoring, cleaning procedure, right? pictures. Use your you visual SOPs with your pictures and minimal text. A picture of proper handwashing technique works in any language, right? So provide bilingual trainers or interpreters. If you can't do this full-time, bring them for critical training sessions. So I remember when I was working in the manufacturing I had requested could we have a Spanish trainer bilingual trainer because majority of our employees are Spanish speakers so we would like to have a Spanish instructor so we had a full day session with the Spanish instructor because it does make sense to understand in the same language where they're comfortable post multilingual signage throughout your facility for example handwashing right allergen control zone your CCPs critical control points you guys can video based trainings with subtitles. You guys can record it once, use it repeatedly, right?

So, confirm understanding through your demonstration, not just by verbal response. Have them show you, not just tell you what they understand. And leverage technology, of course, translation apps, right now AI, Christy and I was just talking about AI a minute ago. So, translation apps can help you with quick and onport communications. And here's the bottom line, understanding is critical. So, language barriers can and do lead to food safety failure. This isn't an optional, this is an essential. this is a poll question for us. What is the biggest training challenge you guys face at your facility? Is it a language barrier, high turnover, shift coverage, or something else? So, please take a moment and take a poll for us. All right. Poll results are back and I'm seeing it says high turnover. Okay. The first one and then it says something else.

Can you guys write in the chat box maybe what is that something else that you guys feel like was the biggest challenge of course high turnover right now especially when you're working in environment which requires seasonal operations culture okay very good culture is the issue why we have we are feeling that very good lack of process getting people to care tracking our training creating updating our trainings okay seasonal employees so sort of turnaround related yes I have been I have dealt with seasonal employees. They are there for one week and they're gone next week and then you got to start over with the new employee.

So that is a something that I think industry fail over a lot especially when you are dealing with the temporary employee agency employees. immature training program culture is another one again supervisors not leading by example getting people to follow GMPS. one day temp employee yep updating training everyone does something different job small businesses leadership support so thanks for sHarmitng again these are the real challenges and I want you to know that you are not alone many facilities pretty much they are facing the pretty much the same issues and let's keep these in mind as we continue through the presentation because some of the solutions we'll discuss might address exactly what you're facing so let's move on with thank you again for the poll training records and documentation because if it's not documented, it didn't happen. I'm sure you guys have heard this over and over. This is especially true during your audits.

So, here's what you need to maintain a training program outline that includes your competency required for each role and the method you will use to train and verify. So, attendance records and these need to include who was trained, right? what they were trained on, when did it happen, trainer signature, and of course your competency verification results. Not just they attended the training, but they actually can perform the task, right? So, training skill register for all employees showing what trainings they have completed, refresher, training schedule, completion records. You guys can of course make an Excel matrix also, right? training matrix with all the topics and list of your employees and of course training effectiveness evaluations. So some best practices are keep records for the duration of the employment versus plus your retention period. Use electronic systems if you have LMS systems for easier tracking. They can of course send you automatic reminders when refresher training is due. make rest records accessible for your audits.

You don't have to be scrambling of course during in order to find the records. update your skill register whenever employees change role. I know documentation can feel like a button. We've been there and done and there but it serves two purposes. One, it proves compliance during the audits as you all know. And the two is very important. It help you to manage your training program. So you can see at a glance who needs refresher training, who's qualified for specific task and where you have the gaps. So I think if you keep that register or maybe it could be an excel sheet or matrix that will also help you and of course your documentation will help you as well. Verifying training effectiveness. How do training actually worked? There are many methods that work on your floor. Direct observation actually watch the employee perform the task correctly in the real world work conditions. Practice demonstrations. Show me how would you handle a CCP deviation. Right? Verbal knowledge check. Ask questions while they're doing a task to confirm they understand why and not just how. Written quizzes.

I'm sure many facilities do have written quizzes for GMP. They do a food safety knowledge checks. supervisors sign off with the documented verification of competency. What should you verify? Can you can they perform the task correctly and safely? Right. so do they understand why it's important? Not just the procedure but the food safety reason behind it. Can they identify when something is wrong? And do they know when to notify there when there's a problem? So here's a critical point I want to emphasize. Attendance at training does not equal competency. As like I mentioned, just because you are right there physically doesn't mean they're listening. They're actively paying attention. Right? So again, attendance at training doesn't equal competency. I can't tell how many facilities I have seen have a perfect attendance records, but they just can't demonstrate anyone can actually do the job correctly. So don't fall into that trap. Please verify, verify, verify, which is the last thing and we kind of like right after training, we get the training logs, we put in our binders and bye-bye.

So do the verification whether it's a week later, a day later. and I used to do this trick after the trainings I would randomly go on the floor ask random questions and pretty much just like hey how you doing why you're filling this form like what is this right what does it even mean so they understand why I'm filling the form and not just because supervisor gave me to fill the form I'm just filling the form and that's it so they need to know why they're filling the form what food safety impact it might have right that's the level of training you guys need to So not just the surface level. there's another discussion question we have. How do you verify the training is actually working and what methods have you found most effective for confirming your team really gets it? So if you guys want to write in a chat box that'll be great. How do you measure your competency and how do your supervisor even know when someone is ready to work independently? What role do line operators play in training audit? Okay.

So you're saying you measure okay on the job verification having a de having the demonstrate the task or skill. I will have one quiz site observation quiz discussion with employee internal audit. Okay. So most of you guys are saying demonstrations right? meeting every Friday. Okay. We have program. All right. Great. So you do measure competency and again how do also I want to throw it here. How do your supervisor know when someone is ready to work and what role do line operators play in the peer training? All these things h help a lot training interviews questions of course make the ask questions to make the group participate. five question quiz that goes over critical information direct observation. So that is actually a great way to verify that training is actually effective and it's working. training's role in food safety culture. As food safety culture has been a huge topic and food safety culture is something that we are all working every day. We work towards culture. So what role training is playing in terms of that culture? What does what does good training create? Right?

It creates a line operator who feel empowered to stop production when they see a problem. Not afraid, not hesitant, right? But confident when they have the authority and responsibility to act. it creates supervisor who coach and reinforce rather than just correcting the mistakes, right? So it creates managers who prioritize food safety over production pressure even when there's a hard decision and it creates a team that takes pride in producing safe quality food. So what are the signs of a strong food safety culture? Employees reporting issues without fear of punishment, right? They know that reporting a problem is a good thing, not something that they will get them in trouble, right? Food safety is a part of every conversation, not just quality meetings. Everyone from senior management to new hire follow the same rules, no exceptions, no shortcuts and continuous improvement is obviously expected and celebrated. Right?

So here's what I want you guys to remember that training doesn't create culture alone. culture requires leadership, commitment, system, accountability but you absolutely cannot have a strong culture without effective training. So it is the foundation. Training builds the awareness. Training builds creates the ownership and it establishes accountability at all levels of your organization. So it's training does play a ma major role in terms of your food safety culture. common training pitfalls to avoid. So learn from other mistakes so you don't have to make them yourself. Watch and learn without verification. This is not a training strategy. Hope is not a training strategy. So you need a structured training with verification. Right? training only in English on a multilingual floor. So I cannot emphasize again this enough that this is a recipe for a misunderstanding and a disaster. It did had happened with me when I was working in the manufacturing. Our employees were bilingual or u the trainer was not bilingual.

He was just translating and the translation got misunderstood and it didn't work out. And when I was doing internal audit, we had many gaps. Not just employees knew how to do the job but I think the trainer wasn't really clear enough and he wasn't using the appropriate tool to translate and make sure that Spanish employees does understand in Spanish and not in English and we had a huge gap right there. one time training with no refresher. So people forget of course we all forget process changes. You guys can't assume that you gave me a training in a year or six months ago and I will still remember it. Right? That's why I think continuous reminders are great. again topic of the month will be great way to remind our employees. Visuals of course right u pictures does play a major role also in that skills decays without practices and reinforcement.

So annual refreshers are the minimum classroom only training you guys can need trainings on hands-on you can't train you can't learn to clean a filler by watching a PowerPoint so once they go through that maybe do a hands-on training go to the floor and treating all employees the same. A new hire needs different training than a 20 year old veteran right a line operator needs different training than a supervisor. So tailor your approach please t make what that means is basically understand your audience and change it right do not just think like oh this presentation will work at every level no documentation if it's not written down it didn't happen so this will come back to you bite to you during an audit so please make sure you document and here's a big one focusing on compliance instead of competency Again, check the box training doesn't change behavior. you need training that actually build the skills and change how people work. And if you're making any of these mistakes, now it's time to fix them. So, what are the best practices for success? Make training practical and hands-on.

Train on the again actual equipment. Use real examples practice scenarios. Leverage your experienced employees. Prepare new hire with the strong performant performers. Create training and mentor program. Recognize teaching excellence. Use short and frequent training sessions. 10 15 minute pre-shift meetings. Monthly safety talk. Quick refreshers during your changeovers. Engage all level of management. So your senior leadership participant participate lead training. Make training a leadership expectation. And of course celebrate milestones. Continuously improvement. Review training after incidents. Ask employees what would help. Update when your process changes. And please treat your employees the same. Again, we are all adults. We are different. we have different ways of learning. and please keep in mind your cultural differences can also make a big impact, right?

So you're you need to change your approach how you are training somebody's from different culture and make sure that we are treating them the same with respect right as different cultures are working they come up they may have habits right so we have to change the habits to fit your culture and that's how we have to treat our employees with respect and make sure we respect their culture and training plays a major role there of course HR is involved. You guys are involved in that. we have training resources. SQFI license training centers are there. They we for example training center. We do in-person training boards courses offered by us.

Then there are SQF guidance documents available which are free training available at sqfi.com website. then there's implementing SQF training courses essential SQF for SQF practitioners and QA team and there are specialized modules also available on food defense food fraud internal audits there's a QR code that Kristie has mentioned with the SQF so if you use that you will see all this information available to you guys so what are the key takeaways for your facility as we wrap up let's review the key takeaways I want you guys to Remember training is everyone's job not just the QA or the food safety department. So please make sure that from the floor to the executive office it's not just quality department responsibility. Everyone has a role. Hands- on practical training work best in the your environment. Get people on the floor on the equipment doing the actual task. Language accessibility is not optional. It is critical for your food safety. So if your workforce doesn't understand the training, training is worthless, right?

Focus on competency, not just the attendance. verify that employees can actually do the job, not just the sat through the class. Documentation, prove your compliance. So maintain thorough training records. Make them easily accessible. make trainings ongoing. Refresh your training. Keep skills sharp and standards high. So this is not just one and done. And finally, build culture through the training. Empower your employees who understand their role in food safety and which are your best assets. So before we move on to QA, let me leave with this thought. Training is an investment not an expense. I'm sure everybody from time to time we get this kind of hurdle that oh we don't have budget for training. maybe later maybe in Q2, maybe in Q4. but the cost of poor training can result into recalls, injuries, loss production, your damaged reputation, right? Your brand reputation which is far exceeds the cost of doing it right. we're going to have a Q&A also in a second. And before we go there, thank you all for participating today with us.

For more resources and information, please visit our website asifood.com. If you have follow-up question, please don't hesitate to reach out. Also if you guys have two minutes to spare please take our poll. If you scan our QR code this is about few questions about your experience with training and SQ certification. So if you guys use your phones camera and if you scan our QR code that'll be great. And also I want to mention one more thing. We are doing our upcoming free webinars which are focused on SQF updates. And if you guys are interested in learning more, please visit our website or you guys can also scan this QR code. There are six webinars happening this year and one of the webinar was this one. and if you attend two and four or entire you will get 30% 50% off throughout our courses. So please do visit us and also stay safe, keep building that food safety culture. we will also see you at SPF unites. we are at going to be at booth 14. So please stop by booth 14. We're also sponsoring happy hour on Wednesday evening.

So we are really hoping to meet you guys there in SQF Unites 2026. So Kristie, yeah.

Kristie Grzywinski: I'll just do this last slide and then we'll start taking your questions and thank you for putting your questions in the chat. I'll do this slide real fast. So, it less than three weeks away. It's less than a than a two weeks away as a matter of fact. So, I hope that you will be joining at SQF Unites. I saw one question already about edition 10. We will not be diving into edition 10 here, but we will be diving into edition 10 at SQF Unites. So, every session is designed to address those changes that you're going to see in Edition 10. We'll be in St. Louis at the beautiful Union Station Hotel. So, look at that picture in the center. the hotel is the former Union Station and it's just this majestic hotel. We already have over 700 people registered and lots of resources and lots of opportunities to learn from each other. So anyway, please come join us. There is the link right there and you can find it on our website. Okay. and the session agenda is on the website.

So one of the topics I'm going to be talking about that session that I am hosting is about the implementation of S SQF edition 10. So anyway, I can go on forever, but I do want to thank and I'm going to give you a little clappy clap. Here we go. I'm going to give her thank you so much. I saw a little clappy claps and thumbs up and hearts. Harmeet, what a great session. So, if you don't know, I introduced myself and I gave you my title, but I didn't really tell the audience what I do. I'm responsible for the SQF training programs and Harmeet did I was taking notes like crazy. You can't see. such a good session. Such a good session. You like hit the nail on the head on everything, Har. So, so many what? Go ahead and go to the Q&A slide or I guess we can move this up here. I'm just going to say right from the very first slide, like to me, I wrote down what you said and I'm like everything goes back to that and that your where did it go? Your employees are your first line of defense and they are you can have the best food safety plan. Mhm.

If you do not have the support, the execution by the employees all is all is for not right. And I loved that statement from the start, Harmeet, is that your employees are your first line of defense. Talk a little bit more about that.

Harmeet Kaur: Well, employees are working all day there, they understand the machines, they understand the floor, right?

I think especially when you talk to the employees who are very close to the machine. if there's a small change a small slight change in the machine even just the audio they know something is wrong right so I think employees especially floor level employees we tend to not to engage them much and I think information stays with supervisor level or lead level but the minute you go to the floor level I think they are the first line of defense in terms of they will tell you hey something is off something is wrong right so the more empowerment we give them the more opportunities will arise and they will open and they will share there what are the issues going on or how can we even improve things right so I think when we talk about empowerment when employees I always give this example in many companies only QA can put product on hold and in the second shift and the third shift we don't have active QA there so that means who is going to put on hold I think that if you talk about culture why don't you just give everybody body. Hey, anybody can put on hold. Yeah. Right.

So that is empowering our employees so that hey so they understand hey if something is wrong if something's off they can put on product on hold and when first shift comes in they can dig into that they can look into that right that is also creating a positive culture where we are not holding employees for doing something when they know something is off right or wrong in that manner non-conforming product right so I think that's why it starts with the employees it ends with the employees plays a major role here and if you don't pay attention, give them the right resources, you can have a great HACCP plan and you can have all this documentation looking good and you are passing the again I think the intention is not to just pass the audit with flying colors the intention is here how are we improving how are we what kind of culture we have right and how can we make it better yeah

Kristie Grzywinski: I absolutely love that statement because that's your justification for finding the time and the money to support training, right? Is the food safety plan is not just a document. It has to be executed by the employees and if they're not doing it correctly then it's just it's just a futile effort. So to me that right off the and empowering those employees through your food safety culture to take ownership in the safety of the product is such a good thing looking at some so one of the things that I think is so significant so there were some questions in the chat about documentation of training Mhm. And yes, the documentation is important. So 2.9.2.3 outlines what needs to be in that document. But there's one important thing there that you talked a lot about Harmeet and that is the verification of the competency.

Yes, you can write this in a record. this can be a record but it is un the training isn't done unless the individual is competent. so tell me a little bit more about that and what are you expecting to see in a training record of a like let's say there is an official a date on a calendar a training event. How do you want to see that in a training record in your training log?

Harmeet Kaur: So in the training log as we typically have list of participants their name their signature who to who to who did the class date or sometimes people have time also and then of course what is the topic of the skills right so that's a typical log that we have in the training but verification of a competency what I have done in the past I had a separate quiz designed for the competency alone and it's a basically verbal quiz written Then also on the job observation meaning going with them on the floor and doing an observation and then I'm signing off.

Okay, they're competent meaning that's how you verify the competency or if you don't have a quiz verbal right for example Kristie so what did you learn from this right how do you do this again why are you doing this so that also gives you I always say it's a knowledge assessment right you go out there you're basically checking does your employee even understand why they're doing things and if they are able to demonstrate you can have a log say what that such and such person is competent in this at this position at this job right so u I think there are many ways to document it's it documenting it's up to how you guys feel you want to do it on the log or separate log like I said I did a just the sanitation crew separate competency test or check because sanitation department needs separate than what I have in the for example maintenance department right so my questions are designed towards what is a sanitation what is the why do we have to check the concentration of a sanitizer for example right how do we how long do we have to keep sanitizer on the lines on a product contact surface right is it a 10-minute is it a 15 minute right where is where are the SDS so I think my competency exams or my questions were designed per department looking at their skills and what they have done and then I said okay what yes they are competent another example I can give you my CCP was metal detector so metal detector operator I'm asking questions.

If metal detectors doesn't function, what would you do if it fails the test? Right. Right. And if they're saying, I'm going to stop the line. I'm going to tell my supervisor. That's more than enough. But at least they know we're going to stop the line. Right. And not just continuously keep going and after the fact, oops. all right guys, we have to keep it I don't know how much I mean pounds of product on hold, right? For that. So I think if you want to be make it easy but try to be smart also look at your audience look at their level right of information provide that and then design your questions per their as per their job requirements and the jobs that they're doing. It's not again all fit scenario. You just can't give same quiz to everybody and they probably don't even deal with that. Right.

Kristie Grzywinski: Right. Right. I think there is so much tied up into the documentation of the training events that we lose sight of the goal of training and the training is to establish competency. So I just wanted to share something. So large part of my job is doing the auditor training. So training the individuals that will be the certification auditors. There is something that we teach them over and over again and we do also use this in the site training. The auditor uses three means to collect objective evidence. So to verify training, they're going to be looking for records. They're going to be conducting interviews and they're going to be making observations. Don't get hung up on the record. You still have two more things that you need to do and that is records. You've got your training log. You need to be sure that your line employees, all your employees are able to what Harmeet was just talking about, describe their job, explain what they do relative to their role. And the other thing the auditor is going to do is observe your employees.

You said you did this training and you say may even said that they were competent. somebody signed off on it, but the auditor is going to observe this is this the SOP. This is what you say they're supposed to do. They're not doing this. So, where's the gap? So, just keep that in mind. Don't get hung up on the records because you need to make sure that they are competent. So, so signing off on a record is not establishing competency. It does not put the rubber stamp that the training is complete.

Harmeet Kaur: I also want to mention something to this Kristie that please do not do this ma mistake.

Do not let your HR do food safety training, sanitation training. right that is not the right department for doing this training and I have seen many companies they have this big room and the HR is teaching them sanitation and I'm like where is the sh subject matter experts here and they are not in terms of specialist sanitation you're dealing with the allergens so please make sure your department right these this the supervisor management is actually involved in the training and HR is not the suitable department for specific that topic right so of course you guys can divide by topic what is HR okay to be doing and HR should not be doing so that will also make a difference who is provider right it's provider meaning trainer is competent right yeah they can be competent in their own subjects but that doesn't mean they're competent or competent or they're experts subject matter experts in sanitation for example right well that's a very good point are the trainers is properly trained. if you need that them to train on X, Y, and Z, make sure that you've trained them on X, Y, and Z. it's kind of a an interesting catch 22.

Are the trainers properly trained? so I mean, sure, you could have them do the sanitation or you could have the, a prop, you could have them come in and do the sand, but are they properly trained to show it? it is an interesting catch 22. Just make sure they are competent.

Harmeet Kaur: Yes, exactly. Especially environmental monitoring program for example. I'll give you another one. If your technician doesn't know how to handle the swabs, no wonder you're getting negative or probably positive all the time because the way they're handling the swab and that happened to me right in front of me and I questioned the site right away. I said, "Is he trained?" And they said, "No." Then why is he doing it? Yeah, exactly.

Kristie Grzywinski: And doing that swab that you can you can do an on the job kind of quick training showing them how to do that. Well, maybe before they give them the swab and now you're wasting that swab. So that's right. Yeah. Well, we are right at the top of the hour. I could talk training all day every day. I do see that there were a number of questions that came in. you can reach out to Harmeet, you can reach out to me. So, if you don't know how to spell Kristie Grzywinski, you can always use training sqfi.com and we can address your questions or pass them on to whoever is most appropriate. Yeah, I could I should have put my training there. Put yours back up there, Harmeet, though, cuz Okay, you're the star of the show and you did such a good presentation. Thank you. Thank Oh, thanks for putting that in there. Koo put it in the in the chat there. training at sqfi.com. I just want to thank you one more time, Harmeet, for an excellent presentation. I want to thank all of you for joining and attending and hopefully we will see you at SQF Unites. Otherwise, keep on keeping on. Thank you.

Have a great day.

Harmeet Kaur: Yes. Thank you. Thank you Kristie. Thank you K and thank you SQF for giving this opportunity guys. So again looking forward to see you guys in St. Louis, Missouri next month at SQF Unites conference. Please reach us out and again please don't forget to visit our website for our webinar series happening. It's all free and bunch of great information coming to you guys. So thank you again.