Food manufacturers have been warned that they will need to take a much more multi-cultural approach to the training and promotion of their shopfloor workers if they are to develop future line supervisors.
The warning came from Sue Patterson of labour supplier and recruitment specialist Horizon European. Speaking at a recent workshop for line managers responsible for multi-cultural workforces, she said the challenge was to overcome the communication barriers with foreign workers. "Unless we do this, we will miss out on the next generation of first level managers."
Patterson said today's food factory was a multi-cultural workplace and that the assessment methods used in the past to determine promotion or training opportunities were now out of date.
