Solving Issues In Food Service Management At ABC Long-Term Care Home, An Essay.

Upon completion of the case study assignment the student will be able to:

1. Evaluate a food service management case study.
2. Integrate and apply management concepts discussed in HNSC 3342 with personal work experiences and previous knowledge from other management prerequisite courses to create practical solutions.

Challenges Faced by ABC Long-Term Care Home Department

Working in the food service department comes with its own challenges especially when one is not qualified or lacks sufficient knowledge to manage all the activities that are run in the department ABC Long Term Care Home is the department that helps to provides residents with the assistance they need in terms of their daily activities. The major area for the department is that of the usage of toilets, bathing, dressing, and bathing. The department aims at giving quality services, maintaining its independence and providing the home like environment. Therefore, an exploration will be done showing all the activities that are run within the department, the issues that the department is facing, how to solve the issues and the practical ways to prevent the problems from occurring.

Long-Term Care Home faces a lot of issues as it runs the day to day to day activities. The department has 20 employees currently. Most of the dietary assistants use English as their second language. This makes it hard for them to write and read at the same. The department consists of different wings namely the food service supervisor and the foodservice director. The wing of foodservice director experiences a high turnover rate. However, the two departments face a lot of issues which need to be looked at into greater detail so as to enable a smooth running of the activities within the department. One of the problems is that of keeping and maintaining storeroom shelves. Dietary assistants have a problem of retrieving the products for cooks. They end up bringing wrong items that they are not asked for. At some point, they such for the ordered commodities and they cannot find it. Another problem is that of the storeroom (Vaclavik, 2014).A store where the items that are non-perishable are stored is much disorganized. This is due to the items not kept in the right place. Even some of the items are placed at a point where they are very close to the floor. The other problem is that of inventory. This is because storeroom inventory levels are incorrect. This problem mostly is on the expensive items such as canned food and tomatoes. Dietary assistants also have the problem of not following the procedures of handling the food in a safe way. There is also a problem of disrespect whereby the existing aides do not show respect to the incoming stuff. This is quite a challenge because it creates a lot of disputes and wrangles. The disrespect comes as a result of the assistance believing that they have more experience as compared to the incoming stuff which is very wrong. The other reason behind this is that of the position of the director becoming vacant all the time. Another problem is that of lateness. This has impacted greatly the stuff because some of the employees come late to work hence interrupting the routine which is to be followed greatly. The other problem is that of performance appraisal. This is conducted after every five years. This becomes a problem because the appraisal is taking so long hence some of the stuff feel less appreciated. The last problem is that of updating the handbook of the employees. The last time the book was updated was in the year of 2005 (Wanjiku, C 2017).

Practical Solutions to Food Service Challenges

For the department to operate smoothly, some practical measures should be put in place so as to solve the existing problems. One way of solving the problem is through training and equipping the dietary aides with the necessary skills of running storeroom shelves. The aides should be thought on how to maintain the shelves. The shelves also should be marked and labeled according to the products that are kept there. This will make it easier for the aides to access the products that they are asked for. The storeroom for perishable goods should be set aside. The storeroom should also be organized in such a manner that all the perishable goods are kept in one side where they can be seen and at the same time accessed easily. This will help the aides to access the products with ease (MELVIN KENNEDY, 2016).

Inventory levels for the storeroom should be corrected. This can be done through setting up of the centralized storekeeping mechanism. This will enable a better layout. It will also help to set up the control stores that are better in terms of product handling. Centralized store keeping will also help to economize the available space for storage hence saving the storage costs. Experts should also be appointed so as to help handle the storage problems within the storerooms. Continuous stock-taking should also be enabled (Varzakas, 2015).

The Foodservice Director should be somebody who has a long-term experience within the department. The hiring of the director should be done once and for all. Staying long in the department will enable the director to learn the activities of the department. It will also enable the director to learn the character and the reaction of all the employees within the department. The other practical measure which should be taken is that of setting up a timetable which will be followed by all the employees within the department. The timetable will help to prevent the issue of lateness hence enabling the smooth running of the activities within the department (Forte, 2014).The other measure which should be looked at into greater detail is that of decision making. All the employees should be involved in decision making. Not all the decisions should be made by the Foodservice Director alone. The Director should listen to all the views of the employees hence this will help to identify the areas of weakness within the department. There should be also the presence of the suggestion box where the employees will drop their suggestions for the betterment of the department

The other way of sorting out the problems within the department is through completing the performance appraisals of the employees regularly. This can be done at least after every three months. By doing that, some of the employees who their performance is good will be promoted (Wang, 2015). Through promotion, the employees will feel appreciated hence this will motivate them to work hard within their wings. The handbook of the employee should also be updated at least after every five months. This will help to track the records of all the workers and also monitor the activities of the department (Guerin, 2017).

Lastly, the problems within the department could be prevented if the top management could have put more interest in equipping the employees with the skills that are needed. The management could focus on training the workers on how to perform their roles within their departments. Also, the management could focus on providing the equipment that is needed for running of the day to day activities within the organization (Epstein, 2018).

References

Epstein, M. J. (2018). Making sustainability work: Best practices in managing and measuring corporate social, environmental and economic impacts. Routledge.

Forte, A. M., & Flores, M. A. (2014). Teacher collaboration and professional development in the workplace: A study of Portuguese teachers. European Journal of Teacher Education, 37(1), 91-105.

Guerin, L., & DelPo, A. (2017). Create Your Own Employee Handbook: A Legal & Practical Guide for Employers. Nolo.

MELVIN KENNEDY, J. O. N. A. T. H. A. N. (2016). STORING OF PERISHABLE FOOD INGREDIENTS AT YUFETO CATERING BANDUNG.

Vaclavik, V. A., & Christian, E. W. (2014). Food Preservation. In Essentials of food science (pp. 323-342). Springer, New York, NY.

Varzakas, T., & Tzia, C. (2015). Handbook of food processing: food safety, quality, and manufacturing processes. CRC Press.

Wanjiku, C. (2017). A Critical Review of the Literature on Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point.

Wang, M., Burlacu, G., Truxillo, D., James, K., & Yao, X. (2015). Age differences in feedback reactions: The roles of employee feedback orientation on social awareness and utility. Journal of Applied Psychology, 100(4), 129