Two Peas in a Pod: IT and Training

CHART recently announced a new partnership with the International Food and Beverage Technology Association (IFBTA). You may now be asking the question, “Why would CHART partner with a technology association?” Well, IT and Training go together like peanut butter and jelly, milk and cookies, and donuts and coffee of course! One of CHART’s tenets is to be a better business partner both inside and outside of our organizations. You need to develop avenues to proactively partner with others in significant new ways that increase your influence. This partnership will allow us to share resources, create a higher value for our members, enlarge our pool of subject matter experts, and help advance CHART within the hospitality industry.  

At FSTEC in Anaheim, Amir Durrani from Norm’s and I spoke on a panel to a group of food service IT leaders about the importance of partnering with their training and HR departments. The main speaking points were: 

1. What technologies are you currently using for Training and Human Resources and what are the major successes and challenges you have had? What are some of your new initiatives for this year?

2. How do you acquire and support the technology you use and who “owns” the system? 

3. How do you partner with IT, HR, and Training to accomplish your goals and what does that working relationship look like? 

Our big take away was that some of these leaders do not work with their training or HR departments. As leaders in our organizations we need to make sure that we have a seat at the table with IT. This will make people aware of your value and give them opportunities to use you as a resource. It’s important to be able to lean on them as your subject matter experts as you create and roll out projects. They can help you make decisions about how you can integrate and use new technology to better deliver your training initiatives. I highly suggest taking them out for donuts and coffee!