Why ServSafe Manager?

Why ServSafe Manager?

During my time as a health inspector, I heard a slue of reasons why it was a burden to have staff go through the ServSafe Certified Food Protection Manager (CFPM) Program. Even as a health inspector, I empathized with the burdens of restaurant ownership, and I could see the truth in all that I was hearing.

Reasons to support why NOT to get your staff ServSafe Manager Certified:

(1)    Cost

(2)   Time

(3)   Staffing

(4)   Turnover

The gist of what I heard was that businesses, especially small businesses, struggle with meeting the requirement to have a Certified Food Protection Manager (CFPM) on staff.

What exactly do the regulations require?

(This is applicable to Montana, Idaho, and soon to be Washington. If you aren’t sure able your state send us a message here and we will help you figure it out!)

The CFPM requirement states that every retail food establishment must have at least one person on staff who has a CFPM certification. The regulations do not currently say that there must be one person onsite who has this certification, but it does say that there must be a Person in Charge (PIC) onsite during all operating hours. The way that I explain this in class is that if you have one person who has their ServSafe CFPM certification posted in a visible location and you have a PIC during all operating hours, the PIC doesn’t have to possess the certification themselves, but they need to be able to demonstrate knowledge of the facility.

Pro Tip: A good way to ensure that you meet this requirement during your health inspection is to share a policy with your staff that indicates who is in charge, especially under the circumstances that the general manager is absent. For example: If the food and beverage manager is onsite then they would be the person in charge, if they are absent then the assistant food and beverage manager would be the person in charge. You would outline the entire chain of command all the way to the newest member to ensure that staff knows definitively who is in charge at all times and is able to communicate that they are in charge in the event of a health inspection.

Back to the Pros and Cons of the Certification:

• Food establishment operators would tell me that the class was too expensive or more specifically that they would pay for their staff members to get the certification and then the staff members would move on and work elsewhere.

• In addition to the dollar amount of the classes, operators would tell me that they just didn’t have the time to send a staff member to an all-day training. This is likely the most legitimate of all of the concerns for being required to have this training. Businesses left and right are low on people, and it can be hard to lose a staff member for an entire day when you are already short staffed. I get this. I have on the other hand witnessed businesses close down for the day simply to get their staff certified and I have also seen very well run businesses continuously send multiple staff members to our trainings.

• My take home is that your mindset pertaining to the value of this training as well as your mindset of your facility and life as a whole is going to make a huge difference in your success.

I spoke with a restaurant owner recently who spoke with me frankly about the struggles of obtaining employees these days and how in the restaurant industry there are very few tangible benefits that you can offer new employees to not only get them to chose you as an employer initially, but also to get them to continue to chose you as an employer for years to come. Offering employees, the opportunity to obtain their ServSafe CFPM certification is a tangible benefit that you can offer employees that they can take with them as they progress in their careers. ServSafe CFPM certification are recognized nationally and are valid for five years. It may seem counter intuitive to send your newest, youngest dishwasher to an all-day food safety training, but in doing so you are not only investing in that employee, but you are also investing in your operation as a whole.

Even though the requirement only states that one staff member must have this certification, from our experience, the number of people who you chose to get their ServSafe CFPM certification directly correlates to the cohesiveness and the success of your operation. The more people you can value and get on the same page the better. As much as we want our employees to listen to us and do what we say, oftentimes it takes hearing the information from an outside source for the information to really take hold.

The nice thing about some of those other initial “cons” is that they really aren’t cons at all. For example, the cost of the class, which may seem steep at first, is like any other business expense, a completely tax-deductible investment in your facility. After your initial payment for the certification, you will end up with a tax deduction that in turn leaves you with educated, valued employees who each get a textbook to keep for reference after the class.

Besides pros and cons in the situation, I think a complete mindset switch to how we look at some of the regulatory requirements can benefit us in the long run. I have the benefit of working many years in the food industry as well as a decent number of years as a health inspector. If it weren’t for my experience as a health inspector, I don’t think I would have the insight or the mindset that I do today in regard to the importance of some of the things that can just seem like pointless, burdensome regulations. The benefit that you now have from stumbling upon this blog article is that you now know the person that can help you understand the regulations surrounding the business that you operate.

Whether you chose to follow our page or chose to attend one of our trainings with your employees, you now have access to someone who has experience with both sides of the industry and can help you to become an expert in all that you do.

Check out our class schedule by clicking here and/or check out our Member Area for exclusive training tools, ServSafe CFPM study information, and many more helpful resources to better your understanding of the food industry.  

Thanks for reading! Comment below with questions, comments, concerns, or just general thoughts. :)