Leadership in Food and Product Safety

Leadership and management within the field of food and product safety is a key challenge that many organisations have faced for several years. Back in 2019, a Food and Drink Sector Council report found a number of different gaps across the supply chain where sector-specific, technical skills were required. However, management and leadership skills were commonly identified as both a training and recruitment gap across the sector.

Now, BRCGS, LGC ASSURE’s consumer safety brand, has launched a dedicated learning and development programme for future leaders in food and product safety.

Industry leaders explore the impact of key skills gaps

The initiative kicked off with a webinar featuring industry leaders, who came together to explore the concept of leadership in product safety to help establish the customer context of the training programme.

BRCGS were joined by Bizhan Pourkomailian, Global Director of Restaurant & Distribution Food Safety at McDonald’s; John Spink, Assistant Professor in the Department of Supply Chain Management at Michigan State University; and Dave Buffham, Team and Leadership development coach at MPI Learning.

Together, they discussed the gaps in leadership, management and professional skills within the industry, why the gaps exist and the impact of that on organisational capability and culture. They also explored what we can do as individuals to close the skills gaps – to enhance leadership and management practices throughout the industry.

World-class content and individual performance coaching

The first Leadership Essentials programme runs from the end of January 2022 until the end of March 2022.

With the key objective of ‘developing the food and product safety leaders of tomorrow’, the training sets out to meet known industry needs with the specific skills required of future food and product safety professionals.

Delivered in conjunction with training partner MPI, the new leadership skills course sets out to deliver:

• World-class leadership content tailored to the specific needs of industry professionals, featuring practical examples that are relevant to the challenges they face.

• A strong emphasis on raising self-awareness and interpersonal skills and how to demonstrate individuals’ unique leadership brands.

• Understanding of individuals’ strengths, their impact and what it takes to be at their best.

• How to transcend future leaders’ technical skills with clear, impactful communication and to build great relationships with all stakeholders and team members.

• Shared, cross-organisational learning and how to create a pinpoint focus on performance improvement and continual learning.

The course spans a series of 5 weekly 3-hour virtual sessions, followed by a 1-hour individual performance coaching session and the submission of an assignment.

A tailored training opportunity, with plenty of future potential

BRCGS intends to use this first programme to measure market appetite for subsequent learning and development solutions covering leadership, management, business and non-technical skills. It will also trial a potential partnership model, which could enable the BRCGS Academy to take the next step in global training and recognition.

Register your interest if you would like to learn more and understand how this programme can support your personal development as well as your organisation’s learning objectives.