Team Building

Team building is a short term boost to employee enthusiasm and positive morale. A platform where all the employees are united and work towards a common goal like building relationships, social interactions within employees and organisational growth.

Properly planned team building activity helps the employees to develop into an organised team. It gives an opportunity to share their expectations on the accomplishments they want to achieve through the trust and support they receive from each other. Because of these team building activities employees are rejuvenated and with a new feeling they step forward to accomplish the targets set before them with much enthusiasm.

These activities have become a regular in the corporate world as they contribute to the overall success of the organisation.

It is well understood that successful team building creates effective and focused workforce.  What about the unsuccessful team building activities, a thorough evaluation within the management has to be made as to why they are unsuccessful. Management has to take an initiative to evaluate these areas for improvement:

MANAGEMENT EXPECTATIONS 

Clear communication on the strategic plans has to be made to the leaders. Is the information disseminated to the employees clearly or not? Purpose of these plans and the expectations from the employees has to be communicated clearly to achieve the desired results.

UNDERSTANDING

It is very important that the employees should understand that team building activities are important for an organisation and its employees to achieve its common goal that is the employee satisfaction and increase in productivity in turn the organisational growth.

EMPLOYEES COMMITMENT

Why should employees be committed towards accomplishing their team goal and what is the benefit they will receive from being committed.

 TEAM BUILDING RISKS 

Employee complaints on time and energy investment and loosing productive hours in these team building should be addressed on priority.

Enthusiastic activities should be organised in order to have excited participation from the employees.

Feed back and follow up on the team building activities to improvise on the existing activities holds the interest of the employees and encourages them to participate often with enthusiasm.

Food Safety Tips

JIC being one of the players in the catering industry; insists on maintaining strict standards as we cannot compromise on the health and safety of our clients at any cost. Strict food regulations in the UAE ensures in maintaining food safety up to the time the food reaches the consumer.

A few simple and routine actions can cut the likelihood of food poisoning drastically!

CLEANING  

Clean hands will decrease the possibility of food poisoning. It is advised that hands should be washed for 20 seconds with warm soapy water, dry hands for 20 seconds before starting to cook. All the utensils and the cutting boards should be washed with soap and warm water, dry thoroughly. The most important is to sanitize them to reduce the germs before handling different sorts of foods, particularly important when dealing with raw meats and vegetables.

CHILLING

As soon as you purchase meat, poultry, dairy, vegetables etc refrigerate it at or below 5ºC it. Cooked food should be stored in covered containers and either put in the fridge to cool, or frozen immediately. Frozen foods should be defrosted in the fridge or chiller at around 0 ºC to 5 ºC.  

STORING 

Cross contamination is one of the root causes for food borne diseases to spread. To avoid cross contamination keep raw and cooked foods separate when storing and preparing. Food should be stored in covered containers in the fridge and put raw meats and poultry in the bottom of the fridge so the juices don’t drip on the other food products and contaminate food on lower shelves.

COOKING 

Cook chicken minced or boned meat right through until they reach 75°C and hold in the same temperature for at least 2 minutes. Serve hot food steaming hot above 63ºC. Always follow cooking instructions on packaged foods.

SERVING

Food should be served at the right temperature, the perception of the taste decreases when the food is not served at the right temperature.

Following these simple steps will help you to have a safe and tasty food at all times.

Intranet portal

The intranet portal at JIC is a gateway that unifies access to all information and applications. It is a tool that helps to manage its data, applications, and information more easily. The portal allows in streamlining communication and collaboration across the organization.

At JIC it has become a success story in distributing  information to the employees. Launched  in January  2015, every employee has access by using his employee id and password.

The HR team provides the needed data regarding employee records, employee training schedule, best employee of the year, events and celebration pictures, and many more relevant and current information.

The ways in which the portal is of use can be seen in the following ways:

Information Dissemination

The intranet is the centralized location for all the updates of JIC happenings, activities, announcements, birthdays,  employee achievement etc.

Training

Details regarding planning, scheduling and delivery of training programs are supplied by the training department. Text, photos, slideshows, and videos are easy to find here. This has enabled the HR department to monitor completion of training courses, respond to questions, and assess learning.

Feedback Gathering

Using the portal it has become easy to gather employee feedback. Apart from gathering employee feedback,  the HR Department gets employee comments on documents and other content. Polls and surveys help HR collects employee opinions and input by analyzing the content, analysis of staff members’ status updates, and intranet comments.

Community Building

The portal also helps in team building among the employees by marking the birthdays and anniversaries, organize special events, and help employees know each other better. Posting photos and videos of JIC events also helps build the community  and camaraderie.

Recruitment

 The Recruitment process  has become easier with the intranet portal. Internal recruitment is served by announcing vacancies and accepting applications via the intranet. The HR department uses the intranet to find internal talent to fill vacancies.

Job Satisfaction

Work plays a major role in our lives. In our journey to be happy and productive, a strong understanding of one’s job and the sense of satisfaction is important. Dissatisfaction with the current job paves way to a negative influence on one’s life.

Job satisfaction can be influenced by the individual’s levels of motivation, which is a result of the quality of tasks assigned to him. The way in which the work is communicated to the employee and the overall environment plays a vital role.

Improving Job Satisfaction level among the employees:

Job satisfaction is most important for the career growth & performance of the employees, we at JIC evaluate employee satisfaction levels on a half yearly basis and have taken the following initiatives in order to improve employee job satisfaction of our employees.

Welfare activities

As a regular practice we engage employees in fun filled activities helping to de-stress from their routines. Various activities conducted as per the scheduled timelines help in providing much needed relief and rejuvenation. Enthusiastic participation from the employees coupled with the eagerness to innovate from the concerned department has contributed to the success of these activities.

 Work Place Environment

Work Place Environment is a major factor influencing employee job satisfaction. Providing an ideal atmosphere in terms of relationship, communication and cooperation between supervisors and the staff helps them to achieve greater efficiency, which leads to satisfied employees. Feedback channels are also in place in order to monitor the prevailing atmosphere.

Resources

We provide adequate resources to our employees, which enables a smooth workflow and also ensures that the employees do not face any constraint in fulfilling the assigned tasks. Employees are provided with the necessary training and support as per their job description. Evaluating the performance before and after the training helps in improving the grey areas, if any.

Reward & Recognition

Appreciating outstanding performers is a regular practice here; whereby the employees who excel in their roles and meet qualified parameters are suitably recognized and rewarded. This motivates other employees to perform better and get a chance to win the recognition.

Choosing the Best Supplier

Adhering to product specifications forms a critical aspect in the catering industry and the Procurement Department has a key role to play. From receipt till consumption the food / non food materials need close monitoring with an aim to match global standards of safety.  At JIC, we believe in doing the right things in the right way and this is reflected in our robust internal purchasing procedures.

Supplier Evaluation

The receipt of good quality, hygienically prepared foods and ingredients is essential to food safety. Therefore, suppliers must be assessed and approved in a systematic way. JIC follows a standard procedure involving audit, self – assessment questionnaire and a 3rd party food safety accreditation certificate or a mixture of all.

Approved Suppliers

Suppliers to JIC have to undergo a rigorous qualification process in order to become an Approved Supplier.  It is essential that there is a clear assessment trail and supplier traceability system in place, so that ingredients can be traced back to their origin if necessary. All suppliers must be able to demonstrate this procedure to JIC at any time.

Traceability

Suppliers must be able to demonstrate full product traceability from purchase through receipt of goods. Ensure product or packs are labeled and/or coded. The traceability must also include details of any rework. The supplier must be able to demonstrate that their traceability system is valid and reliable.

Receipt of goods

Goods have to be received as per the requirement made and these items should meet the specifications. Proper segregation and stacking of perishable and non-perishable food items is mandatory.

Allergens

Consideration should be given to adequate controls regarding raw materials and allergen management. Any allergen containing raw material or intermediate product must be suitably identified and segregated. It is a requirement that allergens are considered as part of the HACCP study.

Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate Social Responsibility at JIC is a continuous commitment to contribute to the environment, local community and society at large and also to improve the quality of life of our staff.

Aligning with our Statement on Business Conduct, we ensure that all matters of CSR are considered and supported in our operations, administrative matters and are consistent with JIC’s stakeholders’ best interests.

Our CSR Policy is built on the following areas that reflect existing and emerging global standards:

Business Ethics and Transparency

Our commitment to maintain the highest standards of integrity and corporate governance practices, in order to maintain excellence in our daily operations, encourages us to conduct our business with integrity and in an ethical manner.

Environment, Health & Humanity

Our primary focus of CSR is the safe environment where we live in. Our clean and green environment initiatives have won may accolades.

It was indeed an achievement to collect 171 units of blood in our blood donation campaign. It is one of the major successes in the CSR activity that we have initiated. Abu Dhabi Blood Bank appreciated and acknowledged this feat as the largest collection of units in one day campaigns held so far in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Our commitment to the society has helped to initiate contributions from our employees and the stakeholders. One of our major contributions is to the Syria Relief; we are very much delighted that we were helpful to the needy at the Syria Camps. It has become a regular practice for us to contribute to the local society (Red Crescent) who in turn helps the needy people.

However, we believe that setting an ideal example is the greatest benefit wherein we encourage other organisations to take up Social and Environmental causes. This has made JIC to become an inspiration to the community, leading to a more progressive perspective on leading one’s life or running a business.  

Relationship with our Stakeholders

We share an amiable and professional relationship with all our esteemed stakeholders. Meaningful engagement, transparency, honesty and mutual respect are the hallmarks of this partnership.

Employee Relations

We ensure that employees are treated fairly and with dignity while considering their goals and aspirations.

Fair labour practices are applied adhering to national and local laws of the countries where we operate. We are committed to provide equal opportunities in all aspects of employment and will not engage in or tolerate unlawful workplace conduct, including discrimination, intimidation, or harassment. 

Workplace safety training

It is essential to educate people about the work place safety, which helps in reducing work place accidents. If you are provided the required training you will remain focused and ensure that the work environment is safe and secure.  

Creating a workplace safety culture begins with a well-trained employees. We at JIC believe that knowledge can’t be ruined in a man, and Knowledge gained stays forever.  

“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” Very rightly said by Benjamin Franklin, this quote inspired us and has become the core factor to develop our Training strategy called “EDGE”.

EDGE is the JIC training methodology used to educate our employees on workplace safety and workplace safety culture.

To ensure that the training provided is understood at all levels of employees, we designed our training modules in a simple way. We use pictures and videos and cite on the job examples and make all sessions very lively and interactive. Apart from these training sessions the supervisors and the senior staff take initiative to guide their teams whenever required and encourage them to perform the tasks independently.

Through continuous training our employees are equipped with more knowledge and are using the same to perform seamlessly irrespective of the difficulties faced.

Through our effective training program we were able to establish a safety culture wherein our employees themselves promote safety procedures while being on the job and while being with the family.