Human Resources Management in Restaurant Co - Case Study Example

Human Resources Management in Restaurant Co Student’s Name Institution Date Human Resources Management in Restaurant Co Restaurant Co operates a chain of restaurants managed to stand out in its operations largely due to the input of its human resources. The firm has a large workforce which operates in an informal working pattern where front line managers in every branch make crucial management decisions. The firm’s informal working patterns allow its managers to collaborate effectively with employees to make decisions regarding various issues that have an impact on performance. This paper will look at the human resource practices of Restaurant Co to assess their advantages and disadvantages. The firm has a unique approach to human resources which is responsive to its needs. It has a central monitoring unit that assesses different functions performed by its employees in various branches. It has instituted different quality parameters which focus on satisfying customers to improve the relations it has with them. This has proven beneficial to the firm because customers’ opinions are taken seriously and they are used to rate managers’ performance in their individual workstations. As a result, managers that put in place working systems which satisfy customers’ interests are given positive ratings which earn them higher bonuses. Branch managers and employees working under them take the initiative to improve their performance to ensure they register high quality performance. Even though managers are given the autonomy they need to make crucial decisions in their branches, they are responsive to the mystery customer program. This program uses anonymous customer feedback to monitor how branch managers and employees discharge their duties (Dundon & Wilkinson 2013). The firm has taken active steps to encourage its employees to build positive relationships with their colleagues. As a result, this has made the firm to improve the way different processes are performed to make it more competitive in the hospitality industry. The firm has tried to bridge the gap between managers and their subordinates by encouraging them to collaborate on different tasks which affect the nature of services it offers to its customers. The firm has also instituted different forms of organisational change which has encouraged managers and their subordinates to communicate and interact more. As a result, these two parties understand their roles effectively and what they are expected to do to make the organisation achieve positive performance. Employees are involved and participate in decision making processes in the firm. As a result, they share competitive ideas with their superiors and this advances the quality of the firm’s operations in the industry (Griffin & Moorehead 2011). The firm has been able to implement different phases of organisational change by making its employees aware on what they are expected to do and how they are required to perform their duties. The employee involvement strategies put in place have managed to encourage managers to communicate the firm’s vision to employees working under them articulately. The firm has also improved the manner in which workers’ skills are utilised by developing talent nurturing policies. These policies enable the firm to transfer valuable skills to its workers to make them more competitive in what they do (Griffin & Moorehead 2011). As a consequence, the firm is in a better position to improve the quality of skills its workers possess to make them suitable for different roles and functions. It is beneficial to the firm’s interests that it is developing leaders from within who understand its systems and cherish its organisational values. The firm has put in place effective HR systems that ensure workers use their ideas to improve its operations at the workplace. As a result, its managers are always in touch with employees working under them in different branches, which allows them more time to learn about different systems in their workstations. The branch managers consult with other managers in their workstations who brief them about what is going on in their workstations. Systems which are used at work benefit the firm’s operations. The firm has been able to improve the quality of service it offers its consumers by encouraging its workers to motivate themselves. Workers have been taught the value of being independent at work which has increased their levels of commitment to the organisation (Purcell & Hutchison 2007). The firm encourages its employees to use flexible approaches to work which helps them deliver quality results in all activities they do. The decision to make all branch units run like franchises has streamlined the firm’s operations. This has made it possible for branch managers to take charge of their units to ensure decisions which are made are valuable to the firm’s operations in the long term. As a result, the firm is improving the way its branches perform their duties. Managers have greater independence to alter working systems in their franchises to make them conform to their leadership styles and employees’ skills. This also allows the firm to save time wasted on inefficient supervision processes which do not add value to its operations in the industry. The firm’s branches have some level of autonomy which enables them to improve their internal systems to enable workers achieve their objectives more effectively. The management in the firm has put in place effective policies to enable managers to transfer their skills to subordinates (Purcell & Hutchison 2007). Managers observe different workplace processes to ensure all functions run smoothly without interruptions. The firm’s capability framework emphasises on building inspiring leadership to ensure performance is a key yardstick that guides how different employees in various branches conduct themselves. As a result, the firm has taken active measures which ensure responsibilities that need to be performed are allocated fairly. This encourages the firm to harness its workers’ skills and talents to boost its own productivity. Workplace systems which have been put in place motivate workers to develop solutions that affect how they perform different duties at the workplace. As a result, this has made the firm’s operational processes more innovative which has made them more competitive in different market environments. The firm has also unified its operations by encouraging workers to collaborate more whenever they do different activities. As a result, teamwork is a valued concept that has contributed positively to the firm’s performance. The firm has been able to implement effective systems that integrate both formal and informal employee involvement and participation (Purcell & Hutchison 2007). The firm has managed to develop a participative work style that includes all workers in major activities it gets involved in. As a result, the organisation is able to organise team meetings that ensure all workers contribute their ideas to improve crucial work processes. The firm has also managed to put in place effective communication channels through which workers are notified on different activities the firm is involved in. In essence, these communication channels make workers understand what they need to do to become more competitive in their duties. Formal channels enable the firm to communicate important messages which make it possible for managers to build close working relationships with their subordinates. On the flipside, informal channels are used to convey less important messages which do not have an impact on the way the firm runs its long term operations. As a result, the firm’s workers have stronger relationships which have encouraged them to achieve different organisational objectives (Mabey & Finch-Lees 2008). The communication systems in the firm allow managers to find out issues taking place in different branches which affect the quality of services offered to consumers. As such, whenever a problem happens, quick corrective measures to prevent the firm from getting exposed to different types of risks. This ensures all operations in the firm run smoothly without a hitch. The firm has put in place effective policies that determine how information flows from one department to another to ensure every branch understands what it is expected to do. Employees in the firm understand the seriousness of information relayed to them and they are able to adjust accordingly to perform different types of duties in the firm. Some employees are able to perform different types of skills in their respective workstations because they have been exposed to high quality working systems by their managers. The firm uses both informal and formal channels of communication in its operations to encourage constant interactions between employees and customers (Mabey & Finch-Lees 2008). Even though the firm has increased employee involvement and participation in crucial processes, it still needs to do more to make its human resource policies more competitive. The firm’s approach of monitoring the quality of services offered from its headquarters does not offer it a clear perspective on the quality of its operations in different branches. Overall ratings from consumers alone cannot be used to assess each branch to determine if it has achieved positive results in its operations. Therefore, even though some managers may be rated highly by customers, an effective assessment method needs to be put in place to measure the quality of their output. The firm needs to involve employees in surveys that measure the quality of its operations in different branches to find out what it needs to do to improve itself. This will give it a chance to implement decisions which are comprehensive to give it an edge over its competitors (Mabey & Finch-Lees 2008). The autonomy granted to different branches and units by the firm may make some managers to implement business strategies that are likely to result in losses. The firm needs to create an effective method to monitor how managers and employees in its branches serve customers in a timely manner. Employee discipline, financial management and other crucial services need to be integrated in a secure system to protect the firm from any problems that may arise. The firm has also not put in place effective policies to guide the management on how different employees will be given promotions. Therefore, employees who deserve to be rewarded may be overlooked in favour of those that are less deserving. The firm needs to improve the way employee advancement policies are done to ensure all employees are encouraged to improve the quality of their output (Mabey & Finch-Lees 2008). Branch managers are given too many responsibilities by the firm and this makes them more ineffective in discharging their responsibilities. The firm needs to delink HR functions from responsibilities its branch managers are required to perform. This will improve the way its branches operate to make its operations more competitive. The firm also needs to hire specific HR managers for all branches to work under the authority of a senior HR director based in its head office. This will ensure all branches have a manager that is responsible for employees’ issues to improve its internal HR practices (Mabey & Finch-Lees 2008). Each HR manager can liaise with other managers in his place of work to find out different operational issues his branch faces. This will help every HR manager to make specific recommendations to increase productivity in every branch. Work responsibilities for branch managers have become more intense and this has made it difficult for them to oversee different functions in their workstations. The firm also needs to review employee involvement and participation policies to make them more responsive to its internal work conditions. It needs to develop uniform policies to be observed by all employees in their respective workstations. The firm needs to work on a plan that stipulates when informal and formal channels of communication need to be used to enhance EIP. There should be clear guidelines that guide subordinate workers about EIP and when it is necessary. This will make them understand how it contributes to the quality of results they attain in different activities they engage in. The firm also needs to decide whether a uniform EIP will enable all branches improve the way they deliver different messages to their workers. The informal and formal processes that employees use in EIP need to be redefined to make them understand the level of contributions they need to make. This will improve the quality of decisions they make in their respective workstations (Hill 2012). The firm needs to reorganise its organisational structure to relieve branch managers. The firm needs to review the job description of branch managers to make their jobs easier. Head office support processes are very bureaucratic and they do not facilitate other branches to perform their functions effectively. This makes it difficult for branch managers to get timely messages from support to improve the way they discharge their duties (Hill 2012). This hampers them from monitoring different activities in their workstations that have a direct impact on performance. The firm also needs to organise constant meetings between branch managers and other senior executives in its headquarters to come up with good ideas to improve the quality of its operations. This will make its operations lean and efficient to help it save unnecessary costs. The head office managers need to be more in touch with consumer needs in different branches and how they need to be satisfied. Restaurant support departments do not satisfy expectations of branch managers. Therefore, the firm is unable to achieve positive results in its operations due to constant logistical hitches. The firm needs to institute effective policies to improve the way different functions in its branches are coordinated (Hill 2012). The overall organisational behaviour needs to be improved to ensure head office and branch operations run smoothly. The firm needs to streamline communication processes between the head office and its branches to reduce make branch managers feel that their input is valued by the head office. This will make its operations more competitive in the industry. Time wasted on inefficient functions will be eliminated and this will give the firm an opportunity to increase its competitive edge in the industry. Decision making processes in the firm are not well structured and this opens up a possibility for conflicts between branch managers and operations managers. Branch managers are not given an opportunity to give their views regarding different changes that are implemented in their restaurants. Therefore, they are not able to optimise their internal work systems to achieve positive results. They are also not allowed to order crucial supplies for their operations and this makes it difficult for them to register good performance. As a result, this has lowered their morale because they are marginalised by senior executives based in the headquarters who do not consult them when necessary. The firm needs to get rid of this practice as it reduces the level of productivity. The firm relies on ineffective coordination systems which have a negative effect on its operations (Hill 2012). The impact of the EIP has also come under sharp focus. In some instances, EIP is not effective in resolving different workplace problems faced by workers. The firm lacks alternative systems to resolve problems faced by workers whenever they perform their duties. As a result, this affects the way employees in different branches interact with their superiors. In large branches, managers have inadequate time to interact with their subordinates because they are expected to perform a lot of responsibilities. This makes EIP unsuitable for the firm’s operations. References Dundon, T & Wilkinson, A 2013, Case studies in global management, strategy, innovation and people, London, Springer. Griffin, RW & Moorehead, G 2011, Organizational behaviour: managing people and organizations, Cengage Learning, Mason. Hill, AV 2012, Encyclopaedia of operations management, FT Press, Upper Saddle River. Purcell, J & Hutchison, S 2007, ‘Frontline managers as agents in the HRM performance causal chain: theory, analysis and evidence’, Human Resource Management Journal, Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 3-20. Mabey, C & Finch-Lees, T 2008, Human resource management at work, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, London. Read More