Make shift changes seamless

I know I’m getting old when I can compare a hospital stay with something in the produce aisle.

True stuff. I was in for a minor surgery, just long enough to appreciate the health providers out there more than I can say — especially caregivers and nurses, who are the backbone of hospitals.

The thing I noticed? The shift change.

When it was a smooth transition, it was like nothing was amiss; there was the same great attention and care. However, it was also noticeable the few times shift changes didn’t go as smoothly.

It got me thinking about other shift-change moments. As a hockey fan, when my favorite team has a sloppy shift change, bad things follow; the opposition gets the upper hand, penalties occur, and in an especially rough exchange on a shift change, the other team scores.

In the produce aisle, shift changes take place all day long — when the middle-shift clerks arrive to take over for the opening shift and when the closing-shift people arrive. The big two takeaways are thus: how well does the early shift do, so that the relief shift steps in seamlessly, and what is the viewpoint of the relief shift — that is, what kind of condition is the produce department in?

To your customers, produce aisle shift changes should not be noticeable. And this should never be an excuse expressed to a customer looking for help. “Oh, sorry the bananas (or ad items) are sold out. We just had a shift change.”

Never, never, never, ever should those words be muttered. Shift changes happen all the time. In numerous trades, in everyday happenings. Your customers should never bear the brunt of excuses.

How to best prevent this from becoming an excuse? Preparation.

We used to talk a lot about teamwork in the same sense of what good soldiers do in the throes of battle. We called it the “foxhole philosophy.”

That is to say, “I have your back. Just as I know that you have mine.”

Whenever a shift was winding down in the produce department, it wasn’t unusual to hear a clerk say something like, “I only have a couple hours left on my shift. I need to hustle so that I can leave my buddy in great shape for the evening rush.”

The same thing would occur during the closing shift. I’d overhear the closer say how he wanted to make sure the produce department was in great shape, so that when the opening guy came in the following morning, he would be off to a great start.

It’s like one hand washing the other.

There’s no greater pride seen when one shift relieves another, and incoming clerks see that there’s been extraordinary effort taken to ensure the shift change has happened with little drama, and that in the one-good-turn-deserves-another mentality, the positive effort can be paid forward, again and again.'
Armand Lobato works for the Idaho Potato Commission. His 40 years of experience in the produce business span a range of foodservice and retail positions.