How can food truck vendors operate their mobile food business to minimize chances of illegal actions? They must manage it in a way that uses a preventive legal management system. They must minimize the risk of litigation against their food truck, rather than operate in a way that exposes their operation to legal actions. Today we’ll discuss the STEM system to help vendors act preventative before they run into trouble.

The STEM System For Preventive Legal Management

Everyday, food truck owners make decisions about hiring, firing, and providing benefits to employees. A vendor may also approve a catering event contract. These decisions may seem independent but have something in common, legal implications.

With each decision, a food truck vendor must be fair, but operate within the law. If they don’t do that and a lawsuit results, the courts may hold them liable. The need for preventive legal management becomes even more important when they recognize that many lawsuits have something in common, a poorly trained employee.

Injuries and resulting financial, physical, or mental damages often result from the improper training of a food truck staff member. Your staff may ignore a task (fail to clean up a cooking spill) or engage in a prohibited activity (such as sexual harassment of a co-worker or customer). The increase in lawsuits is not caused solely by employees.

The legal system itself, including some attorneys, have also created problems. Food truck owners cannot delegate training responsibilities.When an employee makes a mistake, it is often the result of ownership error. For example, the wrong person may have been hired, job duties may not be effectively communicated, the employee may have been improperly trained, or the employee may not be effectively supervised or motivated.

Motivating Your Food Truck Employees

To create a motivating environment, vendors first establish trust and respect. Food truck owners must make a commitment to employees, must follow through, and must be willing to accept responsibility for mistakes. Vendors must set an example. If you ask your employees to be on time, you must be on time. If you expect employees to pay for food and beverages, then you must also pay for these items.

You need to communicate your vision and plans to those who are expected to attain that vision. The ability to communicate s critical to your success. Today’s culturally diverse workforce requires a variety of motivating techniques. Different people are motivated by different things. Money is an example. To some, it is a strong motivating factor. For others, they may prefer more time off instead of added pay.

Food truck owners must know their employees to determine what best motivates them as individuals and as a team. The goal of STEM is to reduce employee mistakes. By continually encouraging and rewarding good performance, vendors can create an environment to help reduce employee mistakes. Even though a goal is unattained, individual or group efforts should still be praised. Try to catch your employees doing something right instead of trying to catch them doing something wrong.

RELATED: The Complete Human Resources Guide For Food Trucks

Implementing The STEM System Can Reduce Legal Problems

A system called STEM ( Selecting, Teaching, Educating, and Managing) helps reduce employee errors and omissions leading to litigation and liability.

• Selecting. Vendors can reduce litigation risks by selecting the right employees. Don’t hire just anyone. Staff must be selected based on specific job qualifications, written job specifications, and information based on a background check of the candidate. These are important factors in hiring a service window attendant, line cook or food truck manager.
• Teaching. Food truck owners must develop proper teaching methods for their employees.
• Educating. Effective food truck vendors are continuously educating themselves to ensure they know the principles and procedures in which employees must be trained.
• Managing. Managing the right way reduces chances for mistakes and litigation. Management involves several activities. Motivating is really what STEM is about. Create a supportive work environment to gain the trust and respect of employees. When they do, they will be motivated to do their best work, this will help avoid errors that result in a lawsuit.

The Bottom Line

The greatest challenge facing food truck vendors is to provide great food and improve the quality services in the face of diminishing resources. A major part of this challenge is the prevention of financial losses from litigation. These losses may be in the form of legal fees and insurance premiums.

These losses reduce the resources available for providing your customers with a great meal and quality service. Adding the STEM system into your management strategy will help to the prevent financial losses ahead of time.

So do you use the STEM system or something similar? Share your thoughts on preventive legal management on social media. Facebook | Twitter

Disclaimer:  This article is intended to be a general resource only and is not intended to be nor does it constitute legal advice.