Intertek Alchemy is proud to welcome Paul Reynish as the new company president. Reynish is no stranger to the food industry nor the demands and challenges global companies face today.

What can you do to protect your workers from an active shooter event? In addition to partnering with local law enforcement, employers have a duty to care for and protect their employees. Processes and procedures are needed to help identify and prevent acts of violence in the workplace and to save lives when one does occur.

As America continues the shift to more of a service economy, manufacturing companies have dealt with numerous challenges, and among the most consistent is labor shortages. This problem will only worsen as a key generation of workers retires. In response, many manufacturers are capturing and digitizing knowledge of experienced workers before they walk out the door.

If you’re drowning in a sea of paper-based SOPs and work instructions, you’re not alone.

Today, employees spend an inordinate amount of time searching for information to do their jobs. Even if they find it, chances are good the information is outdated or doesn’t apply to a specific task. Now’s a good time to shred your old paper habits and go completely

digital. Here's how. 

On his full first day of public office, President Joe Biden issued a flurry of executive orders affecting a broad range of issues, including how U.S. companies protect workers against exposure to COVID-19. As a result, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued new guidance on Jan. 29, 2021 for workplace safety around the pandemic, which could become part of an Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) by March 15^th.

In a previous blog, we discussed the most common challenges and roadblocks to developing workplace safety programs, as revealed by Intertek Alchemy’s first annual State of Workplace Safety Training report.

Workplace safety training remains a top priority for manufacturing companies that understand the importance of keeping their employees safe and protecting their bottom line.

Intertek Alchemy has just released its first State of the Workplace Safety Training report, looking at the most significant challenges companies face when developing and implementing safety training programs, and shedding light on best practices that help make training more effective.

As part of this extensive study, we surveyed more than 1,100 professionals in EH&S, HR, operations, and plant supervisors representing more than 4,400 worksite facilities. We partnered with an outside agency to help conduct the survey and independently validate the findings.

Every day, 20 million US and Canadian frontline food workers grow, process, distribute, cook, and serve the food eaten by millions of people. These frontline workers can — and do —  make individual decisions that impact food and workplace safety, product quality, and operations.

Despite the importance of frontline workers, there’s limited research to help understand their motivations, attitudes, and perceptions about the workplace. To remedy this, the Center of Research and Public Policy (CRPP) conducted a survey to identify any perception gaps between frontline workers and those in corporate leadership roles. They found that new frontline workers start their jobs without the confidence that they really know the proper procedures.

This lack of confidence, coupled with workers making their own individual decisions, often results in unplanned downtime and injury. This has dangerous implications! It’s also expensive  —  each year, the cost of injuries runs companies $161 billion dollars.

We’re excited to announce that Alchemy has won a spot on the highly coveted Austin American-Statesman Top Workplaces list for the fourth year in a row! The Statesman chooses the best places to work in Austin based on data from anonymous surveys sent to current employees at eligible companies. With 140 Alchemists at our Austin headquarters (and 300 total across U.S. and Canada), Alchemy competed in the medium-sized company category.

Everyone is familiar with the old expression, “Don’t just stand there, do something.” The original context of the saying was very likely an admonition to help a person in distress—to toss a line to a drowning man, for instance, rather than watch him go under—but over time it has come to be used by leaders in all fields to express a preference for action over inaction.

With the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour now likely to hold steady for the foreseeable future, retailers might be tempted to breathe a collective sigh of relief regarding the impact of compensation on their bottom lines. But 29 states have implemented, or are in the process of implementing, minimum wage standards higher than the federal rate.

Based on his 30+ years of experience in the food industry, expert consultant Jeff Chilton has developed a holistic approach to continuous performance improvement called the Total Operational Performance System (TOPS). TOPS is an integrated management system that helps food organizations optimize performance throughout the entire company with the goal of achieving operational excellence. How? By prioritizing food and workplace safety, quality, yield, and productivity — in that order.

This article authored by Jeff Moores, Sr. Director of Communications.

While driving to a meeting the other day, I was toggling through Sirius when I stumbled across the classic ‘70s song “Signs” by Five Man Electrical Band. For those that don’t know, it has a really catchy chorus that goes something like this:

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign
Blockin' out the scenery, breakin' my mind
Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign?

Hearing those lyrics inspired me to think about how digital signage helps food companies to communicate “do this, don’t do that” to their workers. Now, I realize this song has nothing to do with digital signage — it’s more of a commentary around social rules — but it directed my thinking to how those lyrics relate to our industry. Whether you’re managing a restaurant, a retail grocery store, or a food production floor, digital signage grabs attention and creates engaging, memorable experiences for your employees.

This article authored by Jeff Moores, Sr. Director of Communications.

You are a manager and you care about the people that you lead.  You’ve invested a significant amount of money annually to train your employees but when an accident happens you wonder why they didn’t do what they were trained to do.  Then you start thinking, “I showed them the proper way to do this. Why did they cut corners?” That’s a good question, but you may not like the answer.