Kuna Foodservice – A case study in employee safety

Kuna Foodservice started out in 1918 as a small family-owned butcher shop in south St. Louis. Its focus on customer service, attention to detail, and quality products paid rewards in customer loyalty and steady growth. Kuna remains true to its founding values honed over a century of operations—attention to detail, dedication to quality, and a commitment to its employees, the company’s most important asset.

KUNA FOODSERVICE AT A GLANCE

• Family-owned
• Established in 1918
• 200+ employees
• Serves businesses and municipalities throughout the Midwest

Several years ago, after adding the role of safety manager to its ranks, Kuna was in the market for a new learning management system (LMS) to work in conjunction with its recently launched warehouse safety program. This new program was centered on safety training for its warehouse and transportation teams, which, combined, make up roughly two-thirds of Kuna’s workforce.

CHALLENGES

• Build an impactful safety training program from the ground up.
• Find diverse, relevant safety training content.
• Streamline the training administration process.
• Facilitate training for employees at all levels of the organization.

SOLUTION

“We saw a night and day difference in warehouse safety.” said Eric Hintz, Safety Manager for Kuna.

The TrainingToday® LMS and its Workplace Safety library fit the bill. The LMS and its interactive courses gave Hintz, and his predecessor before him, the agility needed to effectively train employees on key safety topic areas.

Focused on increasing a workforces’ awareness of general safety practices, the Worker Safety library covers the full gamut of workplace safety. Courses cover both emergency situations like first aid, fire extinguishers, exit routes, and active shooters and everyday situations like eye protection; home safety; defensive driving; and preventing and responding to slips, trips, and falls.

“I like the format of the training and the questions asked throughout the training,” said Hintz. “I’m impressed with how updated the courses are.”

Because of the Workplace Safety library’s wide array of course content, Hintz has the flexibility to drill down to training at the employee, department, and company levels. “What training an employee and department received really depends on their individual needs,” said Hintz.

Training at the Employee Level

Sometimes, this is the first safety training a new employee has ever had in his or her professional career. Hintz shared that one employee remarked after receiving fire extinguisher safety training: “I’ve never learned this much about fire extinguishers before.” This extra step to thoroughly train its workforce on safety standards and industry best practices is a realization of Kuna’s commitment to employee safety.

Training at the Team Level

As needs arise, it’s an easy lift for Hintz to get a group of warehouse employees together and knock out refresher training. Repeated course topics for the warehouse teams include forklift training, hazard communication, and bloodborne pathogens training.
Group trainers not only serve to train employees but also promote team discussions. These sessions enable teams to discuss the topic at hand and open the floor for questions around the safety topic. To ensure understanding, quizzes are handed out to attendees after the course, and answers are reviewed as a group.

Training at the Company Level

At the start of the 2020 pandemic, Hintz led a companywide training program on “Acute Respiratory Illness Pandemics: Prevention and Response.” This course focused on training learners how to prepare for and address a pandemic, identify different types of viruses and their symptoms, and prevent the spread of infection in the workplace. The course’s timeliness and relevant subject matter helped Kuna institute safety measures that kept its employees safe.

RESULTS

Over the last 2 years, Kuna has made huge strides in reaching its safety program goals, thanks, in part, to TrainingToday.
“If I didn’t have TrainingToday it would take me five days to come up with and prepare for training. With TrainingToday I have programs ready to go with training handouts printed beforehand,” said Hintz.

Hintz, in conjunction with senior management and backed by the full weight of the organization, continues to fine-tune Kuna’s safety program. “Everyone needs to be on the same page, working toward aligned safety goals,” noted Hintz.

TrainingToday, with its timely, relevant course content, is helping Kuna realize its safety program goals one training session at a time.
 
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