Has Your Food & Beverage Company Adjusted To The New Remote Workforce Model?

December 6, 2021 in Career and Job Search Tips, HR Best Practices

 

 

In August 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic quarantine, Kinsa shared a blog about maintaining your company culture while operating with a remote workforce. Well, now it seems that the remote workforce model is here to stay for many disciplines in the food and beverage industry. 

Have you made the proper adjustments within your organization?

Of course, there remain food and beverage operations that must bring employees onsite daily to make food (manufacturers and restaurants) or sell food (grocery and convenience stores), but for roles that do not require this type of face-to-face, hands-on interaction with your product or customer, companies must consider a fully remote or at least a hybrid remote work option to remain competitive in attracting top talent to their organization.

Which roles must you consider a remote work option for in your remote workforce model?


1) Sales

This is an easy one.  Remote sales employees have been common for years.  They’re already traveling on a regular basis to visit your customers, so it’s ideal to have them living and traveling from locations nearest those customers.

Have them come to your corporate office once a quarter or semi-annually to visit with key leaders, sample new products, receive training, and interact with their colleagues.

2) Marketing

Traditionally your marketing team likely sat in the office together and met regularly in the conference room to review new products, campaign plans, etc.  Now those meetings can take place virtually over video conference, everyone has the technology now and knows how to use it.

Consider allowing these creative minds the peace and tranquility of working from a home office without interruptions from passersby a few days a week (or every day). Focus on project completion and milestone dates rather than observation of daily activity.

3) Supply Chain and Procurement

Another role that typically came to your facility daily pre-pandemic, is likely the buyer, logistics coordinator, and senior supply chain leader.  But if they’re not walking around the warehouse or production plant on an hourly schedule or supervising the work of others who must be onsite, consider the hybrid remote work option that allows them to coordinate with suppliers and vendors online, utilizing your software tools to maintain orders and efficiencies.

If you need them to visit the facility weekly or monthly to put eyes on product or inventory, that’s fine. But consider the work-life balance you can offer a supply chain employee, which will give your company an edge in recruitment if you can cut out a one-hour commute before and after work each day. You may find that the employee is even willing to work an extra hour or two from their home during that previous commute time!

4) Accounting and Finance

Your number crunchers are likely sitting at a desk, looking at a computer screen most of the productive hours of their day.  You can retain these employees for your company and make it very difficult to lure them away by allowing them to option to do this from a home office multiple days a week or month.

They may need to be present at a weekly staff meeting in the conference room, or monthly close procedures, but the day-to-day is easily handled in a remote work setting for financial professionals, as long as you have a strong security system in place for your company records.

5) Information Technology

Speaking of security, from your Chief Information Officer to your help desk responders, the information technology professionals have been supporting your operations from a remote desk site likely for years.  With the ability to log into another employee’s computer or laptop to troubleshoot errors or approve software installations, IT is a function that can offer a fully remote work option to attract and retain these key employees.

Yes, a few team members need to be willing to travel to various sites to observe and update hardware, but the majority of the information technology functions are easily conducted from a laptop with a strong internet connection anywhere in the world.


Remember in your remote workforce model, company culture doesn’t exist only in an office.

The world has changed in recent months, and remote work will be a big part of the food and beverage industry going forward for those who work in roles like those mentioned above. A successful company will go the extra mile to ensure that a positive, engaging culture that existed on-site continues as its employees are spread out in this new remote or hybrid work environment.

 

Kinsa Group has been a trusted ally for the food and beverage industry for 35 years and continues to provide remote recruiting support daily across North America. Contact us today for more information on how we can work together to attract top talent – remote or onsite – to your company.

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