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.

But I Don’t Have Time to Train!

These numbers highlight the glaring need for companies to create learning plans that help each employee receive both specific onboarding training and ongoing refresher training throughout the year. But many supervisors, and even frontline workers, feel overwhelmed by the responsibility: CRPP also found that 37% of workers and 43% supervisors say training is too complex and difficult to understand.

Fortunately, grants are an excellent way to fund the time and resources toward necessary training and invest in your most valuable assets — your employees. The key is knowing which grants are best for your company for and how to apply.

The Key to Getting Training Grants

Grants range from $25,000 to $2 million. However, the sheer volume of grants “out there” is overwhelming. There are 12,000 grants throughout US at the state and city level — even the county level! The trick, then, is identifying what’s available to your company specifically and which one you’re qualified for.

We recommend working with organizations, such as EIAG, who specialize in identifying the right grants for you and taking on the application process which can prove to be beneficial in the long run.

Preparation is Key

A little thought and organization is all you need, really. There are two key phases you will want to sort out ahead of time:

• What resources you will need to allocate. More specifically, who will be the point person for coordinating the application process and who from your team needs to be involved?
• What’s the process going to look like? What are the steps required to apply for a grant and if awarded, maintain grant dollars?

Benefits of Grants

Here’s some really good news: Most states in the U.S. — almost all, even at city level —encourage you to invest in training your workers. Why? Because training keeps employees employed either at their current job or by using their new skillsets to find a new job, both of which help keep unemployment rates down.

Most importantly, educated workers are safer and more productive. Better training leads to higher engagement, which leads to increased employee productivity, fewer safety incidents, and decreased absences – that definitely has a positive impact on your bottom line.

In addition, grants can support not just training but company growth, as there are incentives from purchasing new equipment to supporting the opening of a new facility.

Employee Training is the Key to Your Company’s Success

Go ahead and take that little bit of time to organize yourself and think about what funds are available to your organization. After all, if you’re going to participate in training, there’s no reason not to participate in a grant!

To find out more detailed information, check out our webinar “No Resources? No Time? Securing Government Grants for Training Is Easier Than You Think!”