Want to know the recipe for success in our Food and Nutrition Services (FANS) Department?
- Relationships
- Connecting with others
- Helping each other grow
We call it our secret sauce.
“Everybody has a story, and once you can learn someone’s story behind their background, it gives you the opportunity to manage them in a way they understand,” says CeCe Wedel, a FANS supervisor.
It’s this approach that led to statewide recognition last week. Our FANS Department accepted the Kansas Hospital Association’s Workforce Strategy Award. This award, according to KHA, shines the light on a team of employees, providers, or volunteers who have made a significant contribution to the wellbeing, retention, or recruitment of health care workers at a facility.
The Life Launch program gives individuals the opportunity to learn new job skills and develop their strengths, whether they choose to use them at NMC Health or they choose to pursue another path.
For many, it’s their first job. Our FANS leadership helps to plant the seed and help them grow. Oftentimes, they begin in the dish room and work their way up to being trained ambassadors. Isaiah is one such individual. For him, it’s all about serving the patients.
“I enjoy this job because I really like making people happy,” he says. “When I deliver the trays to the patients, when I see their smiling faces, I know that I’m doing something right.”
FANS leadership know they’re doing something right, too.
“They know that we care about them, not just for the position, not just to get the task done,” says Randy Davis, FANS director. “We care about them as people and we build relationships that lead to retention.”
While it can be a challenge to find people who want to continue working in food service, it’s this culture of encouragement and investing in others that makes us who we are.
For Isaiah, it’s why he’s choosing to stay.
“I really enjoy this,” he says. “I really don’t see myself being anywhere else.”
