Color Coding Employees
Good Morning Everyone- Another question...I am implementing the entire QA program from the ground up as well as building the SQF program to get us certified. My question is, is it a requirement to have each department/positions in the company wear different distinguishing colors so that they can be identified easily? For example, safety team members would wear red frocks, line leads would wear blue, supervisors- orange, temporary employees -purple and quality- gold visitors-green. Currently do NOT have any color coding system. I have gone toe to toe with the owner as well as the operations managers about implementing this but have been out voted every time. Every other place i have worked has had a color system and i believe its a great idea especially since we have a lot of temp employees. If we can easily distinguish who is a line lead or supervisor or temp employees will know whom to ask for help or who they should listen too if they have questions. I also feel as though this gives a little incentive and recognition to our line leads and employees we depend on. SO... is it a requirement? If not, any suggestions on how i can win the argument with my superiors on this topic? Thanks in advance
Unless something has vastly changed with the new SQF edition, color coding employees is not a requirement.
If you've performed a risk analysis and found that color coding positions removes a hazard, AND you write this into your program, then yes it would be required of your facility, at least until you find another way to control that hazard and update the program.
But that's just "Do what you say. Say what you do..."'
I have never ever seen, worked for or visited a place with color coded outfits for employees. But, maybe in US it's a common thing. Of course, it would also depend on a company size: if there are hundreds of employees, permanent and temporary, management of different levels, external service providers, and other kinds of people, I can only imagine how hard it would be to distinguish one from another.
This is a lean business process and it's only done in companies that A) have deep pockets and B) are large enough so the investment is worth is
I will add however, that slaughter plants I have worked in were all colour coded, at is absolutely worth doing, right down to colour coded hairnets for the lead hands, and H&S folks
This is not an SQF requirement
My last job we had color coded hairnets to make it easier to find certain personnel on the floor faster( Quality was blue, production was white, etc..). It was actually helpful for the production workers when they wanted to track down a certain department faster and wasn't really that much more expensive. But that production floor had roughly 25 - 30 people at a time present, might not be so useful if you have, say, 10 people on the floor.
We only distinguish employees who are part of sanitation. They wear a red sleeve. Inexpensive. This is more done for the USDA than anyone. A part of our color-coded system (red is for inedible - red shovels vs white - edible).
Our maintenance and shipping/receiving wear different uniforms due to the nature of their jobs. I've worked at other facilities who distinguish people by the color of their hard hat. If it is a USDA facility - white hard hats are generally reserved for USDA inspectors.
We have three production lines in relatively close proximity to each other. One line is a dedicated allergen free line. Employees on each line wear a different color hairnet, that way it's pretty easy to see who is not where they are supposed to be.
Not a requirement under BRCGS, but one of our very large international customers loves the practice.
Marshall
It is a good practice and easily to identify the persons
We only use colour coding (RED coveralls) where employees work in high and critical hygiene zones. If they are seen outside of those areas in their captive uniforms you know there has been a breach and a break of protocols.
Everyone else has a standard uniform.
We utilize color coded uniforms as part of our food defense plan to easily identify if an employee is in an area that they shouldn't be in. We also have color coded bumpcaps within the production department to identify those that work in raw vs baked areas. Supervisors and leads also have a different color bump cap to more easily identify them.
At one of my past jobs all floor employees wore white lab jackets and managers and guests wore light blue. We did it so they would be aware when customers or auditors were on the floor without us having to go through and warn them. Now, if I could have gotten them to just FOLLOW GMPs in the first place this wouldn't have been a need, but since management support for food safety was non-existent I had to work with what I could.