EFI Worker-Manager Collaboration (WMC) Team Training
EFI Worker-Manager Collaboration (WMC) Teams are central to earning EFI certification. An agricultural operation seeking EFI certification convenes farmworkers, managers and other staff in a WMC Team, which then receives customized training to build skills and assume its role ensuring compliance with the EFI Standards. After certification, the WMC Team engages the entire workforce in ongoing verification, providing customers and consumers with an added layer of assurance about worker and food safety.
Purpose
WMC Teams are tasked with the following to help cultivate an engaged workforce:
- Understanding the EFI Standards
- Identifying problems that affect compliance
- Proposing potential solutions
- Communicating with the broader workforce about EFI so everyone can share insight and ideas for complying with the standards.
Phase 1: WMC Team Assembly and Composition
Each EFI WMC Team is composed of 6–20 people, depending on the size of the agricultural operation. The team make-up should accurately reflect workforce demographics, balancing management and labor from all the different work functions of each agricultural operation, as well as gender and region.
Phase 2: WMC Team Training
WMC Team members receive a minimum of 32 hours of training from EFI’s workforce development facilitators on effective problem-solving processes, data gathering, communication and conflict resolution. The popular education model used in the training illustrates the human-centered design that EFI strives to bring to the entire agricultural operations.
Training Approach & Methodology
EFI’s approach recognizes that each person on the WMC Team brings a unique and valuable set of skills and experiences to the role.
EFI delivers participatory, multilingual trainings for participants with a wide range of cultural backgrounds, schooling and literacy levels, skill sets and life experiences. Every effort is made to adapt the training schedule to meet the needs of each farm operation.
Training Objectives and Content
Objective 1: Learn about the EFI Program and Standards
The training begins with activities to deepen understanding of EFI’s history, philosophy and vision, diverse stakeholders, and the importance of developing a collaborative approach to the standards.
Participants learn how EFI’s certification program works and begin to explore its comprehensive standards on labor-management cooperation, labor practices, food safety and processing and packing facilities. Finally, the team links their intent in pursuing the EFI Program to the standards.
Objective 2: Explore the purpose and structure of the WMC Team
The WMC Team is guided in understanding the intent of a representative WMC Team, its relationship with management and workers across processes and areas, and its key role in achieving and maintaining EFI certification through ongoing verification, collaboration and continuous improvement.
Participants acquire skills for organizing and conducting productive meetings that will continue throughout the duration of the EFI certification.
Objective 3: Strengthen skills in communication, and conflict resolution, and meeting coordination
The WMC Team explores concepts and methods of effective communication, including listening skills, consensus building, identifying common interests and addressing differences through respectful dialogue and problem-solving.
Objective 4: Strengthen problem-solving abilities
The WMC Team begins working on real issues related to the EFI Standards. Using a data-driven problem-solving cycle, the team identifies issues affecting compliance with the EFI standards, gathers and analyzes information and proposes viable alternatives that may be implemented to ensure compliance.
Participants acquire skills for group problem-solving and decision-making based on common interests and assessing effectiveness of solutions.
Objective 5: Teach Co-workers about the EFI Program and Standards
The WMC Team explores their role and design strategies for informing and training coworkers and engaging them in the shared task of ensuring compliance
Participants acquire effective techniques for communicating with coworkers about EFI.
Training Materials
EFI provides each team member with a training manual containing the complete curriculum, along with additional training materials and key EFI Program documents. These materials are available in English and Spanish.
Phase 3: Attestation and Certificates of Completion
Upon successful completion of the core WMC Team training, EFI will provide an Attestation which the employer and team will be required to present during audits as evidence of compliance with Labor Management Cooperation indicators. EFI will also provide an individual Certificate of Completion to each WMC Team training participant.
Phase 4: WMC Team Support and Follow-Up
EFI facilitators will work with the WMC Team on a process for ongoing support. This may include electronic communications with management and the team following the training. The employer may also schedule a follow-up visit for support and refresher training, which is designed around the needs and priorities of the WMC Team.
For a print-friendly version of WMC Team Training information, download our fact sheet.
