Outback Steakhouse - Essay Example

? Outback Steakhouse Outback Steakhouse Outback Steakhouse is a dining restaurant chain in Tampa, Florida. It has more than 1200 locations in more than twenty-two nations all over “Australia, North America, South America, Europe, and Asia.” It was established in 1988 and currently stands out to be one of the best chains of restaurants all over the world (Jackson and Randall, 2008). This paper seeks to assess how employee selection methods at Outback Steakhouse help it to have a competitive advantage. It also seeks to establish the importance of fit to the organization. Moreover, it seeks to evaluate the organization’s employee selection process and whether or not its selection methods are valid. The employee selection methods at Outback Steakhouse have, no doubt, given it a competitive advantage. It has made good use of some of the most effective intangible human resource factors, and these together with a wide knowledge in organization have helped it to have advantages over its competitors. The intangible factors also make it hard for Outback’s competitors to imitate its operations. Outback aims at maintaining its competitive advantage, especially through the use of its already established intangible factors, which are mostly employee-centered. It uses a precise process of employee selection for both its hourly and management employees, and this process is one of the things that have helped it to hire and retain the best employees. During the hiring process, Outback always assesses the qualifications of all applicants before selecting the most appropriate for the vacancies in question. This selection process keeps in mind Outback’s objectives, and such, the successful candidates are always those who have proven beyond doubt that they are ready to work within its vision and values, and also adhere to its organizational culture. These employees must be competent enough to work in teams, and be responsible and accountable (Jackson and Randall, 2008). To efficiently perform in a competitive business world, every player needs to understand that structural flexibility is very crucial for success (Vesey, 1991). This is what Outback seems to have understood so well. Outback Steakhouse employs personality test when recruiting new employees. This is majorly aimed at identifying those candidates who “adaptable, highly social and meticulous.” Thereafter, it keeps the records of all the successful candidates, which are later used to set the cutoff scores for hiring other employees in future. Only those who attain the set cutoff scores get hired, and as such Outback Steakhouse uses this opportunity to recruit only those applicants with characteristics almost similar to those of existing successful employees, a factor which has helped it maintain its competitive advantage. Moreover, its selection process has helped it to keep its employee turnover levels as low as possible. The low employee turnover is equally important as Outback Steakhouse maintains almost all the skills and talents it nurtures. The process is also very cost effective compared to other recruitment processes, since basing recruitment on the traits of established employees helps it to get simply the best employees (Jackson and Randall, 2008). Fit has proven to be very important for Outback Steakhouse. By matching the personal qualities of all potential employees to Outback Steakhouse’s culture and values, fit provides it with the most effective employees. It helps it to get the most appropriate hourly and management staff, that is, it helps in hiring the right staff. This fit is also relatively important in meeting the organizations objectives, as it ensures that the best employees are retained as they develop their careers within the organization. This not only leads to better performance but it also increases the loyalty of the employees, who are likely to be more committed to achieving the organizational goals (Jackson and Randall, 2008). Most restaurants in the US are reportedly doing badly partly because of their high rates of employee turnover, a factor that forces most restaurants to waste a lot of time in training new employees every time, but the employees most of whom leave almost immediately they are trained. The high levels of employee turnover characteristic of most of Outback Steakhouse’s competitors have made such competitors weaker. This is because such conditions have both direct and indirect negative consequences on an organization’s profits. The direct consequences may arise because of the much time and needed to locate and train employees. The indirect consequences may be pegged on poor performance due to inefficient staffing, especially when looking for those to replace workers that have left as well as when these new recruits are still undergoing training (Woods and Macaulay, 1989). This only shows the advantage Outback Steakhouse has over it competitors since it does not have to go through all these. Outback Steakhouse employee selection process is very rigorous. Employee selection is one of the most important tools of organizational control system. It is the process through which applicants are selected, depending on certain qualifications, to get jobs in an organization. An organization stands a great chance of earning a lot of benefits from an effective employee selection process. Selecting the most appropriate employees helps in improving the performance of an organization while at the same time boosting the effectiveness of other human resource practices. It includes recruiting relatively motivated staff, and those who are ready to go extra miles in achieving the organization’s objectives (Campbell, 2010). Outback Steakhouse seems to have understood this quite well, as it puts a lot of emphasis on selecting the most appropriate staff. Outback Steakhouse employs “organization-based fit” as it places more emphasis on personality and values as main tools for meeting its vision and mission. Outback Steakhouse requires that all its employees be responsibility for one another, and this is given precedence to everything else concerning employee relationships. In addition, employees need to be highly accountable, a factor that is emphasized in all job previews. After a close review of “job previews,” the candidates who are successful, so far, are given a form of orientation on the accepted behavior, all of which are closely tied to the organization’s vision. This is the point at which most candidates leave when they discover that they cannot live up to the organization’s accountability and expectation requirements. Those candidates who go past this stage fill an application aimed at determining if the said candidates are able to carry out their expected roles, which must be closely connected to the organization’s culture, and they have to be able to stay long in the organization. All the applicants have to give their personal information and any other information relevant to the job and position applied for, when filling up the forms (Jackson and Randall, 2008). The applicants then move to a stage where their “cognitive ability, personality, and judgment” are thoroughly assessed. The assessment is done based on the abilities of existing employees, especially those who have stayed in the organization for a relatively longer time. It is after this that the remaining candidates are invited for one-on-one interview to assess if they have the interests of the organization at heart, if they can work within teams, and if they are quick thinkers who can handle an emergency. The organization uses structured questions during the interview, mostly based on the qualities seen as most important for success of Outback Steakhouse. It is during the interview that the managers sell the organization, to the applicants, as a good place to work in (Jackson and Randall, 2008). Outback Steakhouse’s selection methods are not only unique but also very appropriate in attaining its vision and missions. An appropriate selection process has to capture Outback Steakhouse’s vision and how to attain it. The organization has clearly outlined the kind of selection processes that are most appropriate in bringing results to its table. The organization’s selection process is reliable. Reliability can come about when there is more than one way of attaining one result (Vallabhaneni, 2009). Outback Steakhouse’s selection method is not only rigorous, but it also uses different methods to come out with the most competent employees. The process is also valid since Outback Steakhouse bases its score cutoff on the performance of already existing employees, which gives realistic expectations. It has established a correlation between already successful employees and potential good performance. Even though its selection process may be costly for small enterprises, Outback Steakhouse stands to benefit since it is relatively large chain of restaurants. Finally, its employees seem to be happy with its selection system, and this can be explained by the low employee turnover rates in the organization (Jackson and Randall, 2008). It is majorly because of its employee selection processes that Outback Steakhouse has maintained its good performance in the competitive restaurant industry. These, coupled with good management-employee relationship, put Outback Steakhouse at a comfortable position to beat its competitors. And since it utilizes intangible human resource factors, its competitors can hardly imitate its employee selection processes. Outback Steakhouse has one of the most valid employee selection methods in the restaurant industry. References Campbell, D. (2010). Employee selection as a control system. Retrieved February 3, 2012 from from: . Jackson, Susan E., and Randall S. (2008). Managing Human Resources. Cengage Learning. Vallabhaneni, D. (2009). What’s Your MBA IQ?: A Manager’s Career Development Tool. John Wiley and Sons. Vesey, J. T. (1991). The new competitors: They think in terms of "speed-to-market. Academy of Management Executive 5 (2): pp. 25-27. Woods, R.H. & Macaulay, J.F. (1989). Rx for turnover: Retention programs that work. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 30 (1), 79-83.   Read More