Does your community continue to pursue improvement and efficiency?

When regulations introduced meal options for residents in senior living communities, it brought changes many thought were going to be costly and difficult to adapt. It has actually proved quite the opposite. Handwritten food orders that were often misread and produced mistakes, waste, and dissatisfaction from the diners were now clearly printed menu selection options. Efficiency increased while waste, cost, and mistakes were decreased. It became much easier to track allergies and special diets keeping the safety of the resident foremost in mind. Food servers found they could spend that extra minute or two conversing with the resident.

Chefs have faced the test of keeping the menu interesting while facing the change in dining services. It has been vital for the food serving team that begins in the kitchen to keep their team skills mastered in their training sessions. Kind Dining® emphasizes the importance of always carrying the team spirit. In these days of COVID-19, it is the food serving teamwork that is the lifeline of any senior community. When food service protocols are in place and followed your food servers will be providing a pleasant dining experience even though the communal dining room is closed. While stress may be in other parts of the community, mealtimes need to show none of it. Team spirit reigns from the kitchen through the halls to the individual rooms being serviced during this pandemic period.  

Kind Dining® advises to set standards above those required by regulations and you will always be moving forward, improving your community. Training for new food servers and freshening up training for all food servers keeps your community with a forward-thinking mindset. Consistent training communicates expectations and reminds staff of the community’s values. It is also for the benefit of the food servers to be reminded that their skills and attitudes are to increase their cultural service, confidence, and personal value.  When your leaders become coaches through Kind Dining® your staff will be able to adapt easier to build that determination that works for them. 

When the permanence of change is sought, it comes from within. That is where the strength is located.  Intentional focus on education, trust, and respect for residents, other staff, administration, and other food-serving teammates comes from proper training that changes the way your food serving staff think.

That is the heart of the matter.

Our B♥ Kind® Tip: Do you tell your food servers that you admire their style and efficiency?

 

About Cindy Heilman

Cindy is the founder and owner of Kind Dining®, which she began in 2006. She’s traveled across the country and Canada working with and training senior living communities that want to create an exceptional dining experience for their residents and staff. In addition, she certifies select professionals in her Kind Dining® philosophy and provides tools, now in an eLearning format, that make learning stick and help people put insights into action. As a result of her work, clients often share their staff has a new sense of purpose, get along better and keep their focus and energy on what matters most. In fact, she wrote a book, Hospitality for Boomers on how to attract residents and keep good team members. In her free time, she enjoys walking Oregon trails and cheering on her favorite soccer teams, the Portland Thorns and Timbers.

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