Food Quality & Safety
  • Home
  • About
    Us
    • Food Quality & Safety‘s Mission
    • Contact Us
    • Authors
    • Manage Subscription
    • Advertise
    • Magazine Archive
    • Copyright
    • Privacy Policy
  • On the
    Farm
  • Safety & Sanitation
    • Environmental Monitoring
    • Hygiene
    • Pest Control
    • Clean In Place
    • Allergens
    • Sanitizing
    • Training
  • Quality
    • Authenticity
    • Textures & Flavors
    • Labeling
    • Shelf Life
    • Outsourcing
    • Auditing/Validation
    • Supplier Programs
  • Testing
    • Seafood
    • Dairy
    • Hormones/Antibiotics
    • Produce
    • Ingredients
    • Beverages
    • Meat & Poultry
    • Animal Food
  • In the
    Lab
    • Lab Software
    • Pathogen Control
    • Physical Properties
    • Contaminants
    • Measurement
    • Sampling
  • Manufacturing & Distribution
    • Information Technology
    • Plant Design
    • Foreign Object Control
    • Temperature/Humidity
    • Packaging
    • Transportation
    • Tracking & Traceability
  • Food Service & Retail
    • Cleaning & Sanitizing
    • Stock Management
    • Hygiene
    • Food Preparation
    • Allergens
    • Education
    • Temperature Monitoring
  • Regulatory
    • FSMA
    • Guidelines & Regulations
    • Recalls
  • Resources
    • Whitepaper
    • Webinars
    • Video
    • Events
    • Food Library
    • Jobs
  • FQ&S
    Award
  • Search

Attitudes and Aptitudes Essential in New Hires

December 6, 2013 • By Tim Donald

  • Tweet
Print-Friendly Version

You Might Also Like
  • How to Fit Training into Your Production Schedule: Part 1
  • Food Safety Preventive Controls Alliance
  • Food Processing: Keep It Clean
Explore This Issue
April/May 2013
Also By This Author
  • As Regulatory Oversight Grows, Career Development in Food Safety Shifts
ad goes here:advert-1
ADVERTISEMENT
SCROLL TO CONTINUE
Attitudes and Aptitudes Essential in Employee Selection

Pre-employment screening of job candidates is important to make certain that companies get the employees they want for food safety positions, according to experts in the fields of recruitment, evaluation, and resource development.

While candidates’ experience and abilities will always be central to their aptitude for a given position, experts emphasize that the potential employee’s attitudes, beliefs, and values can be equally important in determining whether a person has the “right fit” for a job.

ad goes here:advert-2
ADVERTISEMENT
SCROLL TO CONTINUE

“We look first of all for experience, and then we look at education secondarily, but we also try to get someone who understands the Costco culture,” says Craig Wilson, vice president for food safety and quality assurance at Costco Wholesale in Issaquah, Wash. “We have a dynamic operating culture at Costco, and we need to have somebody who will fit into that.”

Ascertaining the necessary skills, attitudes, and beliefs of candidates for food safety positions in the food industry often falls to recruitment or workforce development organizations. Food Quality & Safety spoke to several experts in these types of companies to explore what qualities are most important in finding the best candidates for these vital posts.

Determining Attitudes

Pre-employment screening is one part of a systematic approach to ensuring food safety, quality, and security, notes Preston Hicks, PhD, LPC, vice president of resource development and evaluation for the Global Food Protection Institute (GFPI) in Battle Creek, Mich. Training and education can provide a candidate with the skills necessary for a position, he says, but screening is key to determining whether that person has the correct intentions for use of those assets, as well as defining his or her unique learning path.

ad goes here:advert-3
ADVERTISEMENT
SCROLL TO CONTINUE

“At the front end, you try to ensure that the applicant has the sheer knowledge, skills, and abilities you need, or can fast acquire those. You try to create systems that provide quality training for that prospective employee before they even become an employee,” Dr. Hicks says. “But when you talk about screening in food safety, it comes down to the person’s intent. What does the person do with that knowledge, those attributes?”

Recruitment and workforce development firms have developed sophisticated software systems and testing regimens to help determine the attitudes of job candidates before food companies commit to hiring them for food safety positions, Dr. Hicks notes.

“These systems create a benefit for the company on the front end, so they don’t spend money on training and end up not getting a good return on their investment,” he says.

One such company is Educational Data Systems Inc. (EDSI), in Dearborn, Mich. EDSI performs candidate screening and recruiting initiatives for client companies in food and agriculture as well as other fields.

“We usually start with an assessment of what the customer’s needs are,” says Kenneth Mall, managing director for EDSI. “We try to define what kinds of skills the company is looking for, but also what type of person would be successful in their environment. When we start looking at candidates, we want to assess not only what skills they bring, but also their personality profile.”

To accomplish this, EDSI uses a range of tests, depending on the job and the company’s needs. The screening battery may include an aptitude assessment (Bennett or Ramsay), a basic math and reading level evaluation such as the Tests of Adult Basic Skills (TABE), and a predictive index to establish a personality profile.

William S. Maywood

“Generally, I like to see that the certification was updated within the candidate’s last position.”

—William S. Maywood,
owner, Careers in Sanitation

Predicting Behavior

Another firm involved in pre-employment screening is MuRF Systems, a consultancy in Amarillo, Texas, that assists companies with workplace relationship issues. Jody N. Holland, owner and president of MuRF Systems, says one of the aims of screening is to try to predict potential employees’ behavior before committing to a hire.

Pages: 1 2 3 | Single Page

Filed Under: Safety & Sanitation, Training Tagged With: Food, Food Quality, food quality and safety, Food Safety, hiring, new employees, pre-employment, Quality, Safety, TrainingIssue: April/May 2013

You Might Also Like:
  • How to Fit Training into Your Production Schedule: Part 1
  • Food Safety Preventive Controls Alliance
  • Food Processing: Keep It Clean
  • HACCP’s Effect on Mickey Mouse

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Current Issue

October/November 2019

  • Issue Articles »
  • Current Issue PDF »
  • Subscribe »
  • Follow Us:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn

Food Quality & Safety Blog  

Managing Change as a Food Safety Professional

… [Read More]

Previous posts »

Paid Partner Content

Avoiding Overwhelming Product Recall Costs

Innovative food safety inspection systems are being developed in Germany. Learn more about the latest technologies from Bizerba and benefit from our free guidelines ensuring consistent food production safety.

  • Recall News
  • Industry News
    • Cay Thi Queentrees Food USA Recalls Poultry Products
    • Padrino Foods, LLC Recalls Beef Tamales
    • Simmons Prepared Foods, Inc. Recalls Poultry Products
    • Rastelli Bros., Inc. Recalls Meat Products
    View more »
    • Researchers Uncover Science Behind Using UV Light to Disarm Pathogens
    • In Memoriam: Daniel Y. C. Fung, PhD
    • E. coli Illness Linked to Romaine Lettuce Expands
    • Salmonella Outbreak and Ground Beef Recall Stir Transparency Debate
    • FDA Extends Deadline for Supply-Chain Approval
    View more »

Polls

How interested is your company in cannabis testing for its food/beverage products?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...
  • Polls Archive

Whitepapers

  • Food Authenticity Testing with Agilent 6546 LC/Q-TOF and MassHunter Classifier

View More Whitepapers »

On-Demand Webinars

  • Reduce Non-Recyclable Materials
  • Why a Food Safety Culture Is Critical to Your Business

View More Webinars »

Food Quality & Safety (formerly Food Quality) is the established authority in delivering strategic and tactical approaches necessary for quality assurance, safety, and security in the food and beverage industry.

Advertise / Targeted list rental/3rd Party emails / Subscribe / Contact Us / Privacy Policy / Terms of Use

ASBPE Award Winner

Copyright © 2000–2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., a Wiley Company. All rights reserved. ISSN 2399-1399

Wiley

This site uses cookies: Find out more.