Wednesday 9 April 2008

Food Safety Training - How to Cut Costs, Not Corners

We are often asked if we know of an approach to training that will help reduce costs and deliver training that sticks – the answer is simple, Training Games.

For training material to work, it has to be fun, exhilarating and engaging. The more engaging it is, the more memorable it becomes. The reason that training via a game format is so successful is that it achieves all of these things, delivering a training experience in an exciting, non threatening way.

The purpose of Food Safety Training is to embed the serious message of managing food safety in a way where people's health and welfare are paramount at all times, yet who says this cant be delivered in a fun way? In fact we believe there is no more effective method that to inject fun into the learning environment.

There are several versions of food safety training games available on the market. Most of them use question cards, however, the Food Safety Training Game from Gamethingy.com really stands out as taking a training game to a new level by being a complete board game experience that can be used as a complete training programme.

The Gamethingy.com Food Safety Training Game has been developed for food handlers and food managers of all levels. Participants using the Food Safety Training Game will get a deeper understanding of food contamination, its prevention, food poisoning, premises and equipment.

Gamethingy.com Food Safety Training Games help to recognise and prevent poor food hygiene and enables people to participate in discussion about how to make a positive change in their immediate working environment.

Every year millions of people in the UK suffer from food safety illnesses, with a bit more fun training it could be all so different.

A Trainers Take on Gamethingy Training Games

Finding the right diversity training materials is tough for all trainers. I am constantly looking for new and exciting ideas to keep my training fresh and alive. I was really surprised when I came across a website called gamethingy which sells a range of training board games.

I use the original game size for training small groups (6 and under) however I know that they sell much larger versions for over 6 people to play. The Diversity Training Game that I chose covers race, religion and belief, sexual orientation, age and disability.

The questions are a variety of simple yes and no answers, multi choice or straight forward question and answers. The best part of the game for me was the time2talk section which raises some great issues for group discussion. The trainees found the training game really fun to play and there was some lively debate.

Discussing diverse issues in a work environment is tough for most staff so being able to cover them this way was really helpful. We have a very diverse staff and one of the situations was: You overhear a colleague talking about another colleagues ‘odd religious habits’, what should you do? We had a number of devout Christians and Muslims in the group and it was great to hear them discussing issues they had faced at work and how that made them feel. Many of the trainees understood very little about the faiths and beliefs of the others within the group and the discussion helped them bond further as a team.

One of the sections of the game focuses on disability and although we do not have many disabled staff we do have lots of disabled customers. Again the questions stimulated debate and we discussed not only how we can work better as a team but also how we can help our customers enjoy spending time with us.

The original game was £99 and I can use it again and again. There were also blank question cards inside so I could add a couple of questions and scenarios which were important to the group.

Helen Payne - HR Trainer

Monday 7 April 2008

Customer Recommendation of Gamethingy Training Games

Below is a review we found of the Gamethingy.com training games website. We were so impressed we posted it here.

"Just found a great site for diversity training materials – gamethingy.com they not only sell training games but you can download free training stuff.

There is a great boardgame on their site for diversity training. I have never thought about using boardgames in this way for sensitive subjects like diversity and I was amazed at how the trainee’s loved playing it. It took real pressure off me as I could facilitate and they played for an hour and a half without checking the clock once.

It is great for inductions and for mop up training. There are questions on a number of diverse subjects like faith and belief, race, disability, age and sexual orientation. There were a number of scenarios for discussion that really made the groups think about their own behaviours and how their actions could cause offence to certain individuals within the organisation.

When one trainee read out the scenario: A colleague is always telling ‘rude’ jokes, you have asked them to stop as you find them offensive but they just ignore you, what should you do? Another in the group explained that had happened to them in another job. The team had a great discussion about what people find offensive and what other people see as quite acceptable.

I found the session quite challenging for all the trainees including myself. It really helped bond the teams and helped me raise subjects and real life scenarios in our organisation in a comfortable environment.

I was quite sceptical at first how the trainees would find playing a boardgame at a training session but from the reaction and feedback I will certainly now consider using some of the other training games available for dry subjects such as Health and Safety and Food Hygiene, it really has changed my view.

I also used some of the free downloads for ice breakers and energisers and found them to be fun and lively. We used the barriers to listening before playing the Diversity Training Game, which was helpful as we broke down barriers straight away.

I would certainly recommend training games."

Brandon Egley - Customer Service Operative