Pizza Hut Trainee Operations Manager 12 month plan - Essay Example

?Pizza Hut Trainee Operations Manager 12 month plan Introduction Pizza Hut is a chain of restaurants and franchise that sells different types of pizza such as salad, side dishes, pork fillings, cheddar cheese, sausages, beef, buffalo wings and breadsticks. It was established in 1958 and is headquartered in Kansas. The company has more than 6,000 outlets in the US alone and operates in more than 90 countries across the world. Over the past years, the company has attained customer loyalty due to relentless innovation, high quality product and excellent customer service. The mission of Pizza Hut is to provide courteous services. The company offers a safe working environment, rewarding careers that have both growth and development opportunities (Mishra 2009). The operations manager will be tasked with ensuring all the activities of the outlet operations manager designate will be required to meet the customer expectations through ensuring all activities related to the preparation and serving of prepared foods meet the established standards. The operations manager must be able to achieve high customer satisfaction, meet the sales and profitability goals and also ensure high motivated workforce (Storey 2007). The manager will also be expected to coach the subordinates and ensure the health and safety procedures are followed in the workplace (Blyton and Turnbull 1992). Job advertising Job title: operations manager designate Reporting to: General Manager Company: Pizza Hut Industry: Restaurant chain Salary: Negotiable Role: The jobholder will oversee the day to day operations of the restaurant and work closely with stakeholders in order to ensure high quality services, excellent customer service and innovative dining concept for the target market. The operations manager must have hands on skills in order to effective meet the performance benchmarks and ensure continuous improvement in operations. Job responsibilities Manage day to day operations including ordering of stock, portion allocations, procurement of raw materials and ensure accountability of utilization of the stocks. Prepare daily, weekly, monthly and annual operation reports including the staff plans, stock control plans and sales reports. Ensuring that the restaurant meet key performance indicators such as sales level, profitability and cost control indicators. Work closely with the management in planning advertising and marketing plans for the restaurant. Work with subordinates such as chefs to plan menus that are popular with loyal customers. Ensure that all the subordinates follow and adhere to Pizza Hut health and safety standards and policies in the workplace. Manage and direct teams in order to ensure the efficient flow of work processes and activities in the company. Handle customer complaints in a timely manager and deals with suppliers to ensure no stock outs in the company. Train, develop, and motivate the subordinates towards attainment of the performance targets. Supervision of employee shifts such as kitchen staff, waiting staff, food preparation staff and cleaning staff. perform any other duties as assigned by the General Manager. Qualifications and experience A minimum of a Bachelors degree in operations management. Minimum of 1 year work experience in similar position or relevant sector. Attentive to fine details. Courteous and excellent communication skills. Strong leadership skills and interpersonal skills. Strong understanding and skills in cost control, menu planning, and inventory management. Candidate interviewing The company will recruit both from the internal and external market. All subordinates interested in the position will be notified about the job opening through e-mails and a post in the company website. In addition, in order to encourage new talent in the company, a job advert will be placed in the daily newspapers so that external candidates can apply for the job. The interested applicants will be required to apply the job by sending an application letter to the manager in charge of human capital within a period of three weeks (Mishra 2009). After making the job advertisement, the management will invite the prospective candidates for an interview. Prospective candidates for interviews will have to be shortlisted depending on the minimum qualification and experience outlined in the job advertisement. Only the shortlisted candidates will be invited for the interviews through a letter of invitation (Storey 2007). The interview criteria and process will ensure that the company recruits the best candidate for the position depending on the job description and skills of the different candidates in the industry. Prior to interviewing, a set of core questions will be developed based on the required knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours of the job holder (Mishra 2009). In addition, the management will review the candidates’ academic transcripts, certificates and other documentations in order to ensure they are genuine (Storey 2007). The interview process will be conducted by a panel that will include the General managers, executives and other senior personnel at Pizza Hut. The interviews will entail a series of three interviews that will be geared at testing different aspects of the requirements for the job. The management will ensure that the interview environment is free of any noise, distractions and candidates are relaxed during the interviews. Open ended questions will be asked in order to probe for details on the suitability of each candidate (McCain 2005). The initial interview will be an oral face to face interview with the panel. The main purpose is to understand the candidates’ academic qualifications, skills and work history. All candidates will be requested to fill a job candidate evaluation form outlining their bio information and also work history. The candidates will be required to outline their strengths and weaknesses in the checklist form (Storey 2007). Shortlisted candidates will be required to avail their original academic certificates and answer to open ended questions pertaining the suitability for the job. The management will also discuss with the candidates on the duties and responsibilities for the position including the time requirements, travelling needs and on-the job expectations. The management will provide equal opportunity to all candidates and maintain the interview information confidential (Kumar 2011). The next interview will be detailed interview since the successful candidates will hold meetings with executives and senior personnel in Pizza Hut. This interview will test the job related knowledge that has been derived from work experience, and the general traits of each candidate that are essential for the position. The managers will test the candidates on the procedural skills in operations management such as stock control, inventory management and food safety precautions (Storey 2007). The final interview will be designed to test the personality and attitudes of the candidates. It will test the emotional stability, the level of self-motivation, verbal expression of the candidates, and impression management when dealing with complaining customers. The candidates will also be granted an opportunity to express their desired future performance targets. Issues of compensation will be discussed during the third interview (Storey 2007). Selection and placement process The interview panel will select the best candidate according to the performance during the three interviews. A rating scale of 1 to 10 will be used to rank the candidates performance during the interview. Academic qualifications, skills and experience in a similar position will account for 30 percent of the candidate suitability for the position. Job related skills and knowledge such as in-depth understanding of the procedural work will account for 50 percent of the requirements for the position. The final interview that is designed to test the traits and attitudes of the candidates such as communication capabilities, empathy and interpersonal skills will account for 20 percent of the suitability requirements (McCain 2005). After the ranking and selection of the most suitable candidate, the human resource manager will communicate to the successful candidate and require him or her to accept the job offer. The next step will entail placement of the candidate in the organisation and job orientation in the workplace. The operations manager designate will be take around the workplace and shown the major facilities in the organisation. The operations manager will meet staff from different departments including the subordinates who are responsible for various activities in the organisation (McCain 2005). The orientation will be done in order to familiarize the trainee with the work environment and explain the company history, mission and strategic objectives to the new employee. I will demonstrate all tasks to the Operations Manager designate so that he or she can fully understand what is required in his or her job position. I will also explain to the Operations Manager designate the strategic objectives of the company and the communication channels in the organisation. Training programmes As the General Manager, I will be tasked with assessing the training needs of the operations manager designate. I will carry out the skills gap analysis in order to identify the areas that the operations Manager designate needs more training. For instance, the training programmes will deal with inventory management, sales forecasting, profit planning, customer relations, soft skills, conflict handling, cost control, food handling, procurement and safety in the workplace. I will use different training methods for all the training needs of the employee. I will combine both off-the job and on-job training methods depending on the unique training objective. Some of the suitable training methods include lecturers, case studies, coaching, simulations and mentoring (Storey 2007). In order to effectively train the Operations Manager designate on procurement, profit planning, inventory management and sales forecasting, I will design training materials that have enough literature on the topics (McCain 2005). The lecturers will be conducted in a classroom environment whereby the Operations Manager designate will have the opportunity to seek clarifications on the procurement rules and profit planning method used by Pizza Hut. I will also provide the employee with a manual that contains the procurement procedures, the company policies and safety rules that should be adhered by all employees in the organisation (Mahapatra 2010). In addition, on-the job training methods such as coaching and mentoring will be used in training soft skills, conflict handling, food handling and customer relations to the Trainee Operations Manager. The employee will be taught on how to negotiate with customers, welcome the customers and handle customer complaints. I will utilize a simulation of a complaining customer in to ensure the trainee operations manager understands how to deal with customer complaints (Storey 2007). I will also simulate to the trainee how to design menus, handle conflicts in the workplace and control inventory. A case study will be essential in the profit planning training needs since the trainee will understand the relationship between increase in the sales revenue, reduction in the operating costs, efficient use of inventory and the increased profitability of the organisation (Mishra 2009). Accordingly, the trainee will receive training on budgeting and benchmarking processes including the process of ensuring continuous improvement in food quality and customer experience. The trainee will be trained on work scheduling, restaurant design and layout in order to facilitate customer convenience in the restaurants (Mahadevan 2010). The trainee Operations Manager will receive training on the key performance indicators evaluations. The key performance indicators include the level of customer service, the learning and growth in the company, the economic performance and the quality of processes in the organisation. The trainee Operation Manager must be able to develop operational strategies that lead to efficient service delivery thus increasing customer convenience. The trainee must be trained on the input-output transformation process, the need of variety in menus and demand estimation in order to ensure the right stock of inventory and prepared food at all the time. The work flow and processes in the restaurants must minimize time wastage during and also preserve the quality of the foods (Willmore 2004). The trainee Operational Manager will also be trained on subordinate training, motivation and rewarding systems in the organisation. Some of the topics that will be covered include leadership skills, motivation of subordination and administration of non-financial rewards such as appreciation to the high performing subordinates (McCain 2005). Another key performance indicator is financial performance of the restaurant. In addition to profit planning and budgeting, the trainee Operation Manager will have to be trained on developing new and innovative menus, cost cutting, increasing customer loyalty and the need to ensure an attractive eating environment that enhances customer satisfaction and experience (Willmore 2004). The trainee will also be taught on how to measure customer satisfaction level. Some of the methods that the trainee will receive training on include understanding how to use customer satisfaction surveys, complaints handling and use of loyalty programs and discounts to the increase customer retention (Greasley 2008). Appraisal process The final step of the 12 month programme will be the appraisal of the progress. The appraisal stage is important since it enables the management to evaluate the effectiveness of the recruitment and selection process in the organisation and effectiveness of training in the organisation. The appraisal stage will also be used to evaluate the attainment of individual performance goals and identify any skill gaps in the organisation. The appraisal process will review the job description of the trainee and assess the attainment of the performance targets. Several methods of performance appraisal will be used in the performance evaluation. For instance, the trainee will be required to appraise his performance and recommends on areas that he or she requires further training (Willmore 2004). The trainee will be required to fill a checklist that can be used by the management in reviewing his performance. As the General Manager and a supervisor of the trainee, I will use essay evaluation method that will indicate the strengths and weakness of the trainee behaviour and also forced ranking method to evaluate the performance of the trainee Operations Manager. Some of the work processes that will be used to appraise the performance of the trainee include the response to training, the reduction in work related accidents in the restaurant, the improvement in work efficiency, the reduction in customer complaints, the increase in customer retention ratio , the degree of subordinate satisfaction with his or her leadership style and financial performance of the restaurant (Galloway 1996). The trainee Operations Manager will be included in the appraisal process and feedback will be provided soon after the evaluation. A standardized rating system will ensure fairness to all employees. The trainee will be notified of the performance appraisal results and areas that need more training (Martin 2009). Conclusion Operations managers are tasked with preparation of operational strategies in the organisation. Pizza Hut will utilize the above 12 month schedule to prepare the Trainee Operations Manager for the job. The job holder will be tasked with supervision of subordinates, handling customer complaints, inventory management and cost control in the organisation. The interviewing process will aim at selecting the best candidate while orientation will be done to familiarize the trainee with the work environment. The training methods and strategies will ensure that the trainee acquires the relevant practical skills that are essential in attaining the organisational objectives. The appraisal process will evaluate the effectiveness of the other processes while feedback will allow the trainee to improve on the weaknesses through further training. Reference list: Blyton, P and Turnbull, P.W. 1992. Human resource management: conflicts and contradictions. London: Sage. Galloway, R.L. 1996. Operations management: the basics. London: Thomson. Greasley, A. 2008. Operations management. London: Sage Publications. Kumar, R. 2011. Human resource management: strategic analysis text and cases. New Delhi: I.K International. Mahadevan, B. 2010. Operations management: theory and practice. London: Pearson. Mahapatra, P.B. 2010. Operations management: a quantitative approach. New Delhi: PHI Learning. Martin, J. 2009. Human resource management. London: Sage. McCain, D.V. 2005. Evaluation basics. Alexandria. ASTD Press. Mishra, D.K. 2009. Operations management: critical perspectives on business. New Delhi. Global India Publications. Storey, J. 2007. Human resource management: a critical text. London: Thomson. Willmore, J. 2004. Performance basics. Alexandria. ASTD Press. Appendix 12 month schedule for Trainee Operations manager 1st to 31st March 2013 (3 weeks) 1st April to 15th April 2013 15th April to 15th May 2013 15th May to 30 May 2013 1st June to 31st December 2013 1st January 2013 to 31th January 2014. 1st February to 28th February 2014 Job advertisement Candidate short listing Initial interview Second interview Final interview Job offer, placement and orientation Training Appraisal process Appraisal feedback and recommendations Read More