Leverage technology to address staff shortages PARTNERSHIPS ADVERTORIAL CONTENT FROM TRENDING INDUSTRY LEADERS The ongoing K-12 nutrition staff shortage surfaced as a top concern in the new 2023 K-12 Nutrition Survey Report , a study commissioned and published by LINQ. 52% of respondents agreed that staff shortages hurt their ability to operate efficiently. by Mike Borges, President of State & Nutrition Solutions, LINQ
While K-12 nutrition staffing challenges aren’t new, and they’ll likely persist, there’s room for optimism. Taking proactive steps now to address staffing and improve operational efficiency can alleviate the effects. Crucially, that means examining more than recruiting, hiring, and retention. Manual processes significantly impact operational efficiency, amplifying staff shortage challenges The LINQ report also finds that over 70% of districts still conduct manual back-office tasks. Less than a quarter say they’re partially or fully automated. For districts with less than 1,000 students enrolled, 48% report their back office operates with all or mostly manual processes. Giving food service leaders and employees tools to complete their tasks faster, quickly deliver accurate reporting, and make data-driven decisions can save countless hours. That makes efficiency improvements a strong lever for addressing a staff shortage. Technology has proven to drive efficiency, particularly through real-time integration and communication found with Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) software platforms. Productivity gains are realized through timely data access, seamless automation, and scalable collaboration and flexibility. Most importantly, real-time integration facilitates better customer
experiences by enabling faster response times and personalized interactions. Modern technology can automate traditionally tedious tasks Managing inventory and production records can be some of the most time-consuming tasks for K-12 nutrition teams. Doing it all by hand, with clipboards, pencils, and manually updated spreadsheets, drags down efficiency. This holds back staff from completing more impactful tasks like menu planning, program promotion, and scratch cooking. While accurate inventory and production records are fundamental to school food service, they hamper success when completing them dominates staff members’ already busy schedules. Even districts already using software to track inventory and sales often run into the same problem of reconciling records. If systems aren’t fully integrated, it still falls on staff members to ensure all data is manually updated and accurate. A modern, integrated K-12 nutrition system automates inventory and production record updates. By bringing together front-of-house (FOH) and back-of-house (BOH) systems as a single solution, point-of-sale (POS) data can immediately feed into inventory records as each sale is made. That means real-time data without consuming a second of staff member
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