A Summary Of Integrative Paper On Human Resources
Crystal Littrell
June 3, 2012
Integrative Paper on Human Resources
Introduction Finding the right employee is something all organizations struggle with. Human being’s posse different personalities and cultures as well as organizations. Everyone has their own viewpoint about what they desire, what they expect from their employee/employer, and what is expected from them. Each HR department is structured based on the strategic plan and goals of the company. Some are motivated by quality while others are motivated by cost. In either case, each department has their own method of recruiting, selecting, training, and appraising their employees or potential employees. The following paper will analyze how Rick’s Barbecue recruits, selects, trains, …show more content…
and appraises their employees as well has give suggestions on improvements that can be made.
Recruiting
Rick’s Barbecue is a fast food restaurant with 6 different entities that employee around 135 people. The company currently has no HR department and all of the hiring selection is done by the owner. Most of thier employees are younger than the age of 25 and work part-time. The company has a couple of ways of recruiting qualified employees. One is through a message center the company displays at each location that advertises when help is needed; another is through job boards at local colleges. A lot of the recruiting is also done by current employees who have friends that want to work for Rick’s. The company also likes to promote from within when possible and make managers out of their employees. Their most successful recruiting tool has been the job boards at local colleges. Many college students want a part job to help them pay for expenses while they are attending school. Since 70% of Rick’s employees are part-time workers that offer a flexible schedule, college students are a perfect fit. Hiring friends of employee’s has also proved to be successful as long as they are working at different entities. Even though the hiring of friends has proven to be successful in many cases it also proven to be a weakness. This is why it was stated in the previous paragraph, “as long as they are at different entities.” The company has experienced problems with employees that are “good friends” creating a buddy system to cover mistakes, thief, someone not pulling their weight, and more. Promoting within has also proven not to be the best method to obtain quality management. As mentioned earlier, most of the employees are under the age of 25 and even though they may have worked for Rick’s a couple of years, does not mean they are mature enough to manage employees their own age.
Recommendations
To improve their recruiting efforts, Rick’s needs to first of all implement a recruiting metrics to measure how effective their recruiting efforts are. This will help the company measures which avenues of recruitment are working and which are not. Next, they should look at other fast food chains with similar strategic plans and evaluate the success of their recruiting efforts. Learn from those companies what works and what does not work and use the most effective recruiting process. In recruiting management, Rick’s can use newspapers and the internet to find quality managers. The company can provide a link from their web page that list the jobs needing filled and the qualifications for those jobs. The company’s website is also a good way to let potential employees learn about the company’s mission, values, and goals. If utilized, the Rick’s BBQ website would be the most effective avenue for screening employees as well as administering test used during the hiring process. Another way to find quality restaurant managers is to pull from other restaurants. Having restaurant management experience is always a plus and many qualified working managers are looking for a change. There are several recruiting avenues that have not been explored that would be useful to Rick’s.
Selection
The selection process at Rick’s is short and sweet. Applications are screened by store managers or office personal. According to the availability and experience of the applicant, or who they may know, that applicant is then contacted for an interview. The potential employee comes in for an interview completed by the owner, if he likes you than your hired, if not than you are not hired. A couple of characteristics he looks for are an outgoing personality, that the person takes pride in their appearance, how they perform in school, and their work history. Since many of the employees are high school kids, Rick’s is their first job. The selection process at Rick’s is pretty shallow with no real substance. The basic recruiting tools, such as drug test and reference checks, have not been implemented. No TDR’s or KSA’s have been established or written for the selection process. Employees are promoted to shift-leader position based on whether the owner likes you are not. There is little emplaces put on actual abilities but more own perception of the employees abilities. Rick’s has a lot of turnover and would benefit greatly from creating a standard selection process. Recommendations First of all the TDR’s and KSA’s for each position need to be established. The TDR’s/KSA’s of the front counter person are different than the TDR’s/KSA’s for the person preparing food. Each position in the restaurant has different responsibilities and duties that require different skills and abilities. Rick’s needs to also implement some validated selection tools. The following are suggestions to which tools may be useful: 1. Check References – checking references may reveal useful information about a potential employee. 2. Drug Test- a basic drug test lets an employer the type of person they may be hiring. 3. Structured interview – the current interviews are not structured with standard questions or evaluations. There should also be more than one person interviewing so that different observations can be made about the potential employer 4. Honesty test- theft has been a problem at Rick’s an honesty test would hopefully reveal informative information about the character of the potential employee.
These selection tools are just suggestions for Rick’s Barbecue.
Each one of these tools needs to be validated for reliability and effectiveness. Rick’s also needs to measure motivation levels of the applicants. There are a lot of people who want jobs but they are not all motivated to do quality work. One way of doing this is by discussing goals the potential employee has either personally or professionally. Look at their work history and see where they have been and what they have accomplished. Implementing these and other selection tools can reduce turnover, reduce cost, and increase the quality of employees working at Rick’s …show more content…
BBQ.
Training
Once the employees are recruited and selected at Rick’s, the next step is training. The training starts with each employee receiving an employee handbook stating policies and procedures of the company. This is the first outline of how the company handles various situations, dress code, cash drawer management, reprimands, and more. From there the employee goes straight to On-the-Job training. No one person does the training. It is left up to the manager of that entities discretion as to how and who trains the new employee. On-job-Training offers hands on training that allows the employees to experience first-hand how to run the cash register, prepare food, daily restaurant flow, and more. It is an effective way of showing each employee what is expected of them. On the other hand, there is no one person that conducts the training. The new employee usually trains with whoever is on the same shift as them. That person could be a fairly new employee their self or a shift-leader.
Recommendations
The first recommendation for Rick’s is to set up a training room where they can offer product samples and videos so that new employees have the ability to familiarize themselves with the product they will be selling or preparing. This also gives them first-hand knowledge of Rick’s Barbecues menu items and a greater knowledge of what they are selling so they can answer questions from customers. Secondly, there should be a designated trainer. Everyone knows that some people are good trainers and some are not. Rick’s needs to retain the employees the highest training capabilities and give them specified, consistent training guidelines so that all employees are trained the same. This will insure consistency throughout the company and also validate what training techniques work. Each employee will better understand their duties and responsibilities while obtaining greater knowledge needed to perform their jobs more effectively. Cross-training is beneficial to the fast-food business. When employees are able to work any position, scheduling and replacement is easier. Good training gives new employees the confidence they need to do their job and may reduce turnover.
Performance Appraisal The extent of Rick’s BBQ performance appraisal is an evaluation sheet filled out by the manager when they request a pay raise for one of their employees (this happens sometimes but not always).
Pay raises are not given at any certain time but left up to the discretion of managers and who they believe deserve a raise. The length of time that an employee has been with Rick’s is usually irrelevant. Managers never have any kind of performance appraisals completed as well as many of the employees. Employees are reprimanded (written up) if they did not complete one of their job duties or had unacceptable behavior. The reprimands are given by either the store manager or shift-leader in charge. Two out of the six facilities give an employee of the month reward. Rick’s puts more emphasis on mistakes and negative behavior than it does those who show good performance
levels. The benefit of a reprimand is that it discourages employees from repeating their behavior. In some cases though, the employees disagree with the reprimand and quit while others are discouraged and their level of work decreases. Without regular scheduled performance reviews, employees are not sure of how they are performing. They are not sure if their work is satisfactory or not and may not understand why they are not receiving raises or promotions.
Recommendations
Rick’s BBQ needs to first of all implement a set policy for appraisals. Hourly employees could be evaluated after 90 days and then again each year while managers should be evaluated twice a year. The recommendation for hourly workers performance appraisals would focus on the KSA/TDR’s set for that particular title and job. The ranking of 1 to 5 will be sufficient as long as the questions are specific about behavior and performance capabilities. The managers will then be trained on how to use the evaluation papers and criteria for each ranking. A pay range needs to be set up to reflect the evaluation scores and each employee needs to understand the reasoning behind their score and pay evaluation. Hopefully each evaluation will show positive features of each employee as well give the managers a chance to discuss improvements that need to be made. The manager’s performance appraisals are handled differently. Each manager should complete a self-evaluation form. This gives them the opportunity to review their accomplishments, challenges, and performances over the past six months. The managers will also have the opportunity to give constructive criticism or note areas they feel help is needed from their superiors. Supervisors performing the evaluations need to understand the duties and requirements of the manager being evaluated. There evaluation form needs to also follow the TDR/KSA’s of managers and be specific in the evaluation questions and responses. There should be plenty of room on the evaluation forms for comments as well as enough time for discussion during the actual performance appraisal. Pay ranges should be set up to correlate with the appraisals as well goals to accomplish between appraisals.
Conclusion
Overall, Rick’s hiring process needs several improvements. Their first priority should consist conducting a jobs needs analyses and determining the TDR/KSA’s of each position. Second, is the implementation of validated selection criteria and performance appraisal structure. A good HR system of recruiting, selecting, training, and performance appraisals would decrease the turnover rate, decrease cost, and increase productivity.
June 3, 2012
Integrative Paper on Human Resources
Introduction Finding the right employee is something all organizations struggle with. Human being’s posse different personalities and cultures as well as organizations. Everyone has their own viewpoint about what they desire, what they expect from their employee/employer, and what is expected from them. Each HR department is structured based on the strategic plan and goals of the company. Some are motivated by quality while others are motivated by cost. In either case, each department has their own method of recruiting, selecting, training, and appraising their employees or potential employees. The following paper will analyze how Rick’s Barbecue recruits, selects, trains, …show more content…
and appraises their employees as well has give suggestions on improvements that can be made.
Recruiting
Rick’s Barbecue is a fast food restaurant with 6 different entities that employee around 135 people. The company currently has no HR department and all of the hiring selection is done by the owner. Most of thier employees are younger than the age of 25 and work part-time. The company has a couple of ways of recruiting qualified employees. One is through a message center the company displays at each location that advertises when help is needed; another is through job boards at local colleges. A lot of the recruiting is also done by current employees who have friends that want to work for Rick’s. The company also likes to promote from within when possible and make managers out of their employees. Their most successful recruiting tool has been the job boards at local colleges. Many college students want a part job to help them pay for expenses while they are attending school. Since 70% of Rick’s employees are part-time workers that offer a flexible schedule, college students are a perfect fit. Hiring friends of employee’s has also proved to be successful as long as they are working at different entities. Even though the hiring of friends has proven to be successful in many cases it also proven to be a weakness. This is why it was stated in the previous paragraph, “as long as they are at different entities.” The company has experienced problems with employees that are “good friends” creating a buddy system to cover mistakes, thief, someone not pulling their weight, and more. Promoting within has also proven not to be the best method to obtain quality management. As mentioned earlier, most of the employees are under the age of 25 and even though they may have worked for Rick’s a couple of years, does not mean they are mature enough to manage employees their own age.
Recommendations
To improve their recruiting efforts, Rick’s needs to first of all implement a recruiting metrics to measure how effective their recruiting efforts are. This will help the company measures which avenues of recruitment are working and which are not. Next, they should look at other fast food chains with similar strategic plans and evaluate the success of their recruiting efforts. Learn from those companies what works and what does not work and use the most effective recruiting process. In recruiting management, Rick’s can use newspapers and the internet to find quality managers. The company can provide a link from their web page that list the jobs needing filled and the qualifications for those jobs. The company’s website is also a good way to let potential employees learn about the company’s mission, values, and goals. If utilized, the Rick’s BBQ website would be the most effective avenue for screening employees as well as administering test used during the hiring process. Another way to find quality restaurant managers is to pull from other restaurants. Having restaurant management experience is always a plus and many qualified working managers are looking for a change. There are several recruiting avenues that have not been explored that would be useful to Rick’s.
Selection
The selection process at Rick’s is short and sweet. Applications are screened by store managers or office personal. According to the availability and experience of the applicant, or who they may know, that applicant is then contacted for an interview. The potential employee comes in for an interview completed by the owner, if he likes you than your hired, if not than you are not hired. A couple of characteristics he looks for are an outgoing personality, that the person takes pride in their appearance, how they perform in school, and their work history. Since many of the employees are high school kids, Rick’s is their first job. The selection process at Rick’s is pretty shallow with no real substance. The basic recruiting tools, such as drug test and reference checks, have not been implemented. No TDR’s or KSA’s have been established or written for the selection process. Employees are promoted to shift-leader position based on whether the owner likes you are not. There is little emplaces put on actual abilities but more own perception of the employees abilities. Rick’s has a lot of turnover and would benefit greatly from creating a standard selection process. Recommendations First of all the TDR’s and KSA’s for each position need to be established. The TDR’s/KSA’s of the front counter person are different than the TDR’s/KSA’s for the person preparing food. Each position in the restaurant has different responsibilities and duties that require different skills and abilities. Rick’s needs to also implement some validated selection tools. The following are suggestions to which tools may be useful: 1. Check References – checking references may reveal useful information about a potential employee. 2. Drug Test- a basic drug test lets an employer the type of person they may be hiring. 3. Structured interview – the current interviews are not structured with standard questions or evaluations. There should also be more than one person interviewing so that different observations can be made about the potential employer 4. Honesty test- theft has been a problem at Rick’s an honesty test would hopefully reveal informative information about the character of the potential employee.
These selection tools are just suggestions for Rick’s Barbecue.
Each one of these tools needs to be validated for reliability and effectiveness. Rick’s also needs to measure motivation levels of the applicants. There are a lot of people who want jobs but they are not all motivated to do quality work. One way of doing this is by discussing goals the potential employee has either personally or professionally. Look at their work history and see where they have been and what they have accomplished. Implementing these and other selection tools can reduce turnover, reduce cost, and increase the quality of employees working at Rick’s …show more content…
BBQ.
Training
Once the employees are recruited and selected at Rick’s, the next step is training. The training starts with each employee receiving an employee handbook stating policies and procedures of the company. This is the first outline of how the company handles various situations, dress code, cash drawer management, reprimands, and more. From there the employee goes straight to On-the-Job training. No one person does the training. It is left up to the manager of that entities discretion as to how and who trains the new employee. On-job-Training offers hands on training that allows the employees to experience first-hand how to run the cash register, prepare food, daily restaurant flow, and more. It is an effective way of showing each employee what is expected of them. On the other hand, there is no one person that conducts the training. The new employee usually trains with whoever is on the same shift as them. That person could be a fairly new employee their self or a shift-leader.
Recommendations
The first recommendation for Rick’s is to set up a training room where they can offer product samples and videos so that new employees have the ability to familiarize themselves with the product they will be selling or preparing. This also gives them first-hand knowledge of Rick’s Barbecues menu items and a greater knowledge of what they are selling so they can answer questions from customers. Secondly, there should be a designated trainer. Everyone knows that some people are good trainers and some are not. Rick’s needs to retain the employees the highest training capabilities and give them specified, consistent training guidelines so that all employees are trained the same. This will insure consistency throughout the company and also validate what training techniques work. Each employee will better understand their duties and responsibilities while obtaining greater knowledge needed to perform their jobs more effectively. Cross-training is beneficial to the fast-food business. When employees are able to work any position, scheduling and replacement is easier. Good training gives new employees the confidence they need to do their job and may reduce turnover.
Performance Appraisal The extent of Rick’s BBQ performance appraisal is an evaluation sheet filled out by the manager when they request a pay raise for one of their employees (this happens sometimes but not always).
Pay raises are not given at any certain time but left up to the discretion of managers and who they believe deserve a raise. The length of time that an employee has been with Rick’s is usually irrelevant. Managers never have any kind of performance appraisals completed as well as many of the employees. Employees are reprimanded (written up) if they did not complete one of their job duties or had unacceptable behavior. The reprimands are given by either the store manager or shift-leader in charge. Two out of the six facilities give an employee of the month reward. Rick’s puts more emphasis on mistakes and negative behavior than it does those who show good performance
levels. The benefit of a reprimand is that it discourages employees from repeating their behavior. In some cases though, the employees disagree with the reprimand and quit while others are discouraged and their level of work decreases. Without regular scheduled performance reviews, employees are not sure of how they are performing. They are not sure if their work is satisfactory or not and may not understand why they are not receiving raises or promotions.
Recommendations
Rick’s BBQ needs to first of all implement a set policy for appraisals. Hourly employees could be evaluated after 90 days and then again each year while managers should be evaluated twice a year. The recommendation for hourly workers performance appraisals would focus on the KSA/TDR’s set for that particular title and job. The ranking of 1 to 5 will be sufficient as long as the questions are specific about behavior and performance capabilities. The managers will then be trained on how to use the evaluation papers and criteria for each ranking. A pay range needs to be set up to reflect the evaluation scores and each employee needs to understand the reasoning behind their score and pay evaluation. Hopefully each evaluation will show positive features of each employee as well give the managers a chance to discuss improvements that need to be made. The manager’s performance appraisals are handled differently. Each manager should complete a self-evaluation form. This gives them the opportunity to review their accomplishments, challenges, and performances over the past six months. The managers will also have the opportunity to give constructive criticism or note areas they feel help is needed from their superiors. Supervisors performing the evaluations need to understand the duties and requirements of the manager being evaluated. There evaluation form needs to also follow the TDR/KSA’s of managers and be specific in the evaluation questions and responses. There should be plenty of room on the evaluation forms for comments as well as enough time for discussion during the actual performance appraisal. Pay ranges should be set up to correlate with the appraisals as well goals to accomplish between appraisals.
Conclusion
Overall, Rick’s hiring process needs several improvements. Their first priority should consist conducting a jobs needs analyses and determining the TDR/KSA’s of each position. Second, is the implementation of validated selection criteria and performance appraisal structure. A good HR system of recruiting, selecting, training, and performance appraisals would decrease the turnover rate, decrease cost, and increase productivity.