Food manufacturing companies don’t have it easy: the smallest mistakes get magnified in the media, food laws become stricter by the minute, and the door seems to be constantly spinning with auditors coming in and out. Everything, from naming your product, to your ingredients list or a rant on social media can and will spark public debates. We listed the top challenges facing food manufacturing leaders, and what you can do to overcome them.

1. Constant Scrutiny

Any mistake food manufacturers make can have dire consequences for public health, these are products people put inside their bodies after all. Lives are on the line, so it stands to reason that regulations are tight and audits frequent. To ensure compliance, your employees need to be trained and certified. Make sure you’ve got a good system on hand that tracks permits, audits, and employee certifications, which then enables you to proactively train your employees when you see a skills gap somewhere. Employees who receive frequent training are also more likely to stay. Which brings us to…

2. Employee shortage and retention

There’s not much enthusiasm to join the industry, especially for young people. In food manufacturing, long shifts or changing hours are common. That combined with tight regulations creates a stressful work environment which may drive employees away or even cause burn-out. This is already an epidemic in this generation of workers, so it’s unlikely people just stepping into the workforce will choose a field with a higher risk of burn-out. So how do you attract and keep young employees?

Especially when trying to attract Generation Z, communicating in their language and on their platforms is key. They’re not interested in a twitter-feed from a brand with a faceless logo, they’re interested in people. They’re much more likely to apply for a job at a company if they’ve seen some personal social media feeds from key figures in that company (or better yet: their future boss) with content they like. Create your personal brand, and be memorable.

3. Tomorrow is unlikely to be like today

The key to managing change is to anticipate it. In a fast-paced environment like food manufacturing, reacting is no longer enough. Proactive actions based on anticipated change are necessary if you want to reduce risks and seize opportunities before they fly you by. Because of this, when hiring new employees it’s also better to hire those who have the soft skills to adapt to a changeable environment, rather than hard skills, because what exact skills will not need honing, improvement, and even complete retraining in the future? Employees who can adopt the skills you need as you go are more valuable than those who have the skills you need as you hire them, but are unable to evolve beyond that.

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Photo by Walter Otto on Unsplash