CJ Freshway, Nurturing Foodservice Experts Through Customized Training

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] CJ Freshway, a food ingredient distribution and group catering specialist under CJ Group, is establishing a customized training system to enhance the capabilities of food service professionals and is significantly improving their treatment.

CJ Freshway announced on the 21st that, as it hires more than 100 new nutritionists and cooks annually, it plans to introduce a new training system and personnel policies starting next year to continuously motivate their growth.

Before fully establishing the training system, CJ Freshway redefined future competency models by job role, reflecting the changed business environment and market trends. The future competencies now include not only basic food and nutrition knowledge but also newly added skills such as social networking service (SNS) marketing, accounting management, and service design abilities required for higher-level roles as store managers.

Based on the updated competency model, a customized Individual Development Plan (IDP) was also established. Moving away from the previous training system that operated common education by rank and years of service, employees can now use an internal training system to assess their current competency levels and strengths and weaknesses through diagnostic tools. Based on this, curated training programs tailored to their level are provided.

For example, if a nutritionist’s competency diagnosis shows excellent menu planning skills but lacks accounting knowledge, accounting and finance-related training will be recommended to support their learning. Through this optimized training system, employees can proactively set their self-development direction and systematically acquire the competencies necessary to become food service experts.

The personnel system for professionals such as nutritionists and cooks will also be revamped. New professional hires next year will undergo a six-month internship period and be hired as full-time employees based on evaluation. The starting annual salary for full-time employees has been raised by up to 22% compared to before, setting it at the highest level in the industry. Various welfare benefits such as CJ Group employee discounts and support for leisure and cultural activities will be provided.

A CJ Freshway official said, “We have made a large-scale effort to establish a customized training system and improve treatment to provide a foundation for employees to gain motivation through self-growth and become top experts in their fields. We will continue to make active investments to nurture the best talents in the industry.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.