Food Safety Team Working from Home?

It might seem to be an overwhelming task to imagine what can be moved to online, but in today's circumstances with Covid19 outbreak on the rise, we are forced to take this into consideration a bit. Certain things will always be recorded in a facility and it might be difficult to transition to virtual work, however, it is entirely possible to move your entire operation to online.

This is not near a complete list of things, but here is a list of 5 things to consider:

1. NEEDS:  Production paperwork usually needs recorded in real time, so that might not be able to be moved to a virtual system, but there are software solutions that can record real-time data. What makes sense to make accessible to your team through a share system and/or what must be manually recorded? Can manually recorded things being scanned into the share system as well? 
2. PCQI SIGN OFFS:  If you are trying to maneuver quickly, it might be best to focus on things shorter term that you can move to online including PCQI sign offs. All of the paperwork that is related to the Preventive Controls plan (and/or HACCP related) needs to be signed off from your PCQI. This person can work remotely and review paperwork online. This is a simple adjustment. All of that paperwork can be scanned and put into a share system of some sort accessible away from work. 
3. GOALS (LONG-TERM VS. SHORT-TERM): If you are looking longer term, it is suggested to research software systems that are compatible to blockchain platforms that are being currently designed. For more details on this, check out our 10 Things to Consider Before Leaping On the Blockchain blog from 2019. This has a lot of detail in it of things to consider before taking that giant leap. 
4. SUPPLIER DATA: Supplier compliance related documents and management can be 100% done virtually with the exception of receiving. This is one we know for sure, supplier compliance can be done virtually as we do it for our clients. If you have never navigated this before, read our What We Can Do For You  blog from March 9th, 2020 to learn how we help our clients. 
5. COMMUNICATION: Finally, it is important to stay in constant communication with your team. In our October 2019 blog, Tips for Your Success With Us, we cover ways that we see success with our clients, but this is also critical when you move aspects of your business online. In general, people want to do the right thing, so helping them succeed and be loyal and committed to your processes includes the key to accountability. The best way we've seen to do this is to have transparency and communication, so that you can build that final accountability factor into your processes. Trust your team and trust your leadership with them.