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How do you find a good quality manager? This question causes headaches for many a company, partly because of the tight labor market. Finding the ideal quality manager is no easy task. How do you respond with your personnel policy?
The quality department in the food industry has traditionally focused on the process and ensuring food safety. The quality manager was the expert on food and production processes. Not surprisingly, it was mainly food technologists (and related graduates) who ended up in this position. Without that background, a quality manager position usually remained out of the picture. In the current labor market, it is increasingly difficult to find precisely these people and retain them for the organization. So how do you find a competent quality manager?
Before you actively search, it is a good idea to get an idea of the role the quality department has within the organization. Is the quality manager the controller or the ambassador? Does he look after the fact to see if everything was done correctly or does he look ahead by setting up policies and continuously improving processes? The more quality thinking is embedded in the management and culture of an organization, the more demands are placed on the manager.
Developments in the food industry, laws and regulations, labels and audits have made the job of quality manager more comprehensive: focusing not only on QA and QC, but also on the process and the chain. Moreover, several labels require more than registration and auditing. Supplier relations, training policy, safety culture, environment, sustainability, fraud, integrity: these are just a few aspects on which the quality manager of today must have a vision and policy. The job of quality manager today requires much more than just control and assurance of quality.
Knowledge of food technology alone is no longer sufficient. The job of quality manager requires not only process knowledge and skills, but also knowledge to correctly interpret laws and regulations and administrative accuracy to implement, maintain and control quality systems. It requires management skills to make policy, lead projects and manage teams for quality and improvement, and communication and social skills to successfully communicate all this internally and externally.
Once the role of quality within the organization is clear, you can determine what competencies the manager should have. Of course, the picture with the competencies of the ideal quality manager is not complete. Every organization will be able to remove or add points. Be sure to do so. It shows what the ideal quality manager in your organization must have.
When looking for a quality manager, it helps to remember that you don't find the ideal quality manager, you form them. In a tight labor market, you look ahead from a Human Resource Development perspective. How can you develop the desired competencies in (future) employees?
Once you know what the role of the quality function is and you have a competency profile, you can make choices. Do you specifically want someone with food knowledge or can someone come from another sector? Do you prefer someone technical or someone who can handle it well administratively and organizationally? The more you select for essential skills and the right attitudes, the easier it is to find people. So look for lateral entrants.
Look for someone - inside or outside - the organization who understands the processes. Who naturally has the quality glasses on? Who looks across departments? Who communicates pleasantly with people? If you look for a combination of skills and personal attributes, you will find a quality man or woman faster than by looking for someone with the (all) right prior knowledge.
Knowledge you can brush up on!
Within a medium-sized company with one product group, the quality manager was found in the person of the HR manager. Not the most obvious choice. But, this lady is administratively and organizationally strong, has a lot of experience with personnel management, health and safety and legislation. And she's been working there for years, so she knows the company and the process. With some additional courses in HACCP methodology and microbiology, she now has the wind firmly under her belt. She oversees and directs the quality policy. She obtains additional knowledge of the products and processes from product development, purchasing and the technical department. If necessary, external expertise is called in.
Another, larger company with more products and somewhat more complex processes found the quality manager in a former employee from the process industry. Someone with knowledge of chemistry and of industrial machinery and processes, technically proficient, but without knowledge of food and of quality systems. This man was trained well to know the products and processes. In terms of improvement processes in the lines, he has already added a lot. And with his prior chemical knowledge, he picked up microbiology and HACCP well. For quality systems, he took an additional course. Now he is closely involved in setting up new production lines, deals with supplier selection and is responsible for implementing various organization-wide improvement projects, including CSR.
These two examples show that with the right qualities and skills, even people without a food background can enter well as quality managers. And although they share the same job title, their workday looks very different. By analyzing what a quality manager in your organization needs (most), and then especially looking at people's competencies, you will come across good candidates. Through smart training programs where a lot happens in the workplace, you can then train them in the quality profession. Additional (digital) training courses and workshops offer plenty of opportunities to bring the missing knowledge up to standard.
First published by Heleen van Maanen on the VMT website, learning consultant Précon Consulting Group
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