Director, Food & Nutrition Services

Description:
Holds managers accountable for ensuring the completion of cleaning/sanitary logs and revises and aligns company standards to meet regulatory and compliance guidelines; plans the selection of vendor that will support the long-term needs of the or organization and ensures vendor contracts are in place, establishes vendor performance metrics, and drives practices to ensure service delivery is safe, sanitary, supports patient satisfaction, and is compliant with vendor agreements and regulatory standards; provides strategic direction and signs off on procurement budgets, and directing the strategic planning and continuous improvement of procurement, inventory management, labeling, storage, utilization, and recall of perishable and nonperishable food items; ensures a clear understanding across teams on protocols used to assemble patient meal trays and deliver/cater of food; coordinates with leaders across departments to support workplans to ensure food supply, delivery, and services are efficiently maintained during times of crisis or emergency; and reviews reported patient responses to quality control survey questions and integrates knowledge across businesses related to quality metrics to align initiatives that improve food service operations and the patient care experience.

• Prepares individuals for growth opportunities and advancement; builds internal collaborative networks for self and others. Solicits and acts on performance feedback; drives collaboration to set goals and provide open feedback and coaching to foster performance improvement. Demonstrates continuous learning; oversees the recruitment, selection, and development of talent; ensures performance management guidelines and expectations to achieve business needs. Stays up to date with organizational best practices, processes, benchmarks, and industry trends; shares best practices within and across teams. Motivates and empowers teams; maintains a highly skilled and engaged workforce by aligning resource plans with business objectives. Provides guidance when difficult decisions need to be made; creates opportunities for expanded scope of decision making and impact.


• Oversees the operation of multiple units within a department by identifying member and operational needs; ensures the management of work assignment completion; translates business strategy into actionable business requirements; ensures products and/or services meet member requirements and expectations while aligning with organizational strategies. Gains cross-functional support for business plans and priorities; assumes responsibility for decision making; sets standards, measures progress, and fosters resolution of escalated issues. Communicates goals and objectives; analyzes resources, costs, and forecasts and incorporates them into business plans; prioritizes and distributes resources. Removes obstacles that impact performance; guides performance and develops contingency plans accordingly; ensures teams accomplish business objectives.


• Contributes to sanitation and maintenance of food services work areas and equipment by: revising and establishing companys standards for cleaning and sanitizing procedures, and working with senior directors or above on future budget needs for new equipment or related expenditures are maintained.
• Contributes to sanitation and maintenance of food services work areas and equipment by: establishing long-terms needs and aligning relationships with vendors to ensure vendor contracts are in place; implementing standards to ensure vendors are providing services consistent with vendor agreements, regulatory compliance standards; and establishing vendor metrics to ensure service delivery is compliant, safe, sanitary, and supports patient satisfaction.
• Contributes to food procurement, storage, and distribution by: directing planning for inventory needs across the company, reviewing inventory usage, and providing strategic direction for and signing off on procurement budgets; setting strategic direction and planning/forecasting for stock levels, sufficient inventory, and makes considerations such as budget and quality of foods; and driving the use of best practice strategies and procedures for labeling and storage of perishable items to align with company standards and regulatory requirements, within procurement budget.
• Contributes to food recall management by: establishing strategies to return food that has been recalled or is at risk of contamination; and refining communication plans to patients and staff about ongoing updates or actions being taken resolve food recall issues.
• Contributes to meal planning, preparation, and production by: directing the strategic planning and continuous improvement of menu items to meet patient/customer needs, and setting standards for how teams are processing meals according to a variety of recipes and/or production schedules, and advising and signing off on budgets as needed; driving state-of-the art solutions to ensure food is prepared in a safe manner, according to food preparation standards, and is safe for patients; and ensuring a clear understanding across teams on protocols used to assemble patient meal trays and cafeteria and/or catering services, and directing the planning of resources so that team members can cater food items according to scheduled mealtimes.
• Contributes to emergency planning by: coordinating with leadership across other departments to support workplans that ensure food supply, delivery, and services are efficiently maintained during times of crisis or emergency.
• Serves customers and patients by: driving open communication and collaboration across teams to develop innovative solutions that increase customer/patient satisfaction and advising senior management on the resolution of service recovery issues; ensuring operational and strategic plans are in place so that unit based teams are able to support food service and delivery operations and help the business unit deliver quality care; reviewing reported patient responses to quality control survey questions, establishing cohesive strategies used by others to submit quality control reporting, and integrating knowledge of metrics to assess quality control and quality performance across businesses to align on strategy; driving state-of-the-art efforts to reduce critical control points to acceptable levels and improve the care experience; and participating in interdisciplinary teams that review customer/patient concerns, ensuring that each is addressed/resolved.