As ARAMARK Corp., the Philadelphia-based contractor responsible for the University's major dining operations, prepares for a probable vote of confidence or no confidence before the Duke Student Government Senate tonight, the food service provider claims to have made strides recently to improve its employee training and relations.
However, many Duke Dining employees say they consider staff morale mediocre at best and say they are not even aware of the training options ARAMARK claims it now provides.
David Randolph, ARAMARK's resident district manager, explained that the latest training initiative is two-fold--to provide employees with greater job-specific direction and general professional development prepares them for promotions. He added that he has received positive feedback thus far from employees at ARAMARK's eateries, which include the Great Hall and the Marketplace.
Randolph credited both the ARAMARK team and several staff members for taking the initiative to implement better communication and incentive strategies--including a program called Bringing Employees Together, various reward systems and safety awareness games. He said these programs would facilitate a rise in employee morale as staff members learned more about their jobs and improved their communication with management.
"The list goes on and on for what we're trying to do to bridge the gap between the employees and the management," he said. "In some ways, we've come a long way, and in others we have a ways to go. We're not proud of exactly where we are today, but we're proud of what we've accomplished."
Employees, on the other hand, tell a different story. Although ARAMARK manages all of the functions of its eateries, from training to food preparation, its employees officially work for Duke Dining. Many of those employees said they were not aware of any training programs currently in place, despite the fact that ARAMARK had promised to expand its staff development practices.
"I didn't know they had [a training program,]" said William Minor, a utility worker who has worked for Duke Dining for the past 19 years. "I'd heard about it, but I haven't seen it."
Other employees echoed Minor's sentiments, noting that they were aware of ARAMARK's promise to provide more extensive training but that they had yet to see the fruits of those labors.
"I'd like to see a lot more management training, for other people to move up toward management positions," said Carl Merritt, who works in the Great Hall. He noted that often chefs' time and energy are spent educating less experienced, part-time staff and that he would like to see more training overall.
Another of the concerns employees voiced was that training was sporadic and covered basic skills instead of areas that they were interested in exploring further. Sandy Johnson, another employee in the Great Hall, said she wished there were more training than the five-hour sessions held "every once in a while."
"[There was] a little something on East Campus, but not much [training] at all," she said. "It was for the equipment, for the different types of new food that we're having, new rules and stuff. [I'd like] to learn about the vegetarian food."
Randolph, however, maintains that his company's extensive training programs have already been initiated, with moderate success. The difficulty, he said, lies not in the lack of training availability but in the lack of awareness that training is going on.
"Some of the employees that are struggling may have some concerns with [the training program], and others that are doing very well say it's a great program," he said. "We ran through that a year ago and I pulled out a matrix and then they realized 'Oh, that was training, yeah.' So they go to the program, but if it wasn't in a classroom where they were tested... they feel that [it] wasn't training. We need to make sure they understand, 'That was training.'"
Although employees across the board commented on the lack of training, they disagreed about the root of the problem. Few were willing to go beyond criticizing "the management" in their concerns, but employee Milton Summerville was quick to place the blame squarely on the workers' union, Local 77, for the "weak leadership within the union." Local 77 officials could not be reached for comment.
"They haven't really been fighting for a mandatory training," Summerville said. "The strongest thing we have in our contract dealing with training is a 'letter of understanding.' When ARAMARK leaves, then what about the training?"
Beyond the issue of training, another concern among dining staff was employee morale. Both sides of the issue are in agreement that communication between employees and management plays a large role in fostering this morale, but again perceptions differ as to how far efforts have gone to ameliorate the problem.
"On a scale of one to 10, staff morale, I would give it maybe a three," Minor said, "because we talk with management and try and get things done, and it always seems like management tries to keep things going on between the employees, you know, the bickering between employees."
"The biggest thing I think they should do is follow through on the promises that they make," he continued. "[Some things] may be small to them, when they've got all this paperwork and all these millions of dollars to worry about, but for me it's my job, so it's important to me."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.