Training and Development
Introduction
Modern organizations are always struggling to achieve and maintain their competitive advantage in terms of performance and market due to competition and technological changes. Human intellectual investment is more vital in this case than the financial asset investments. They have developed the training and development programs to renew and increase working knowledge and skills among the employees. This has increased their effectiveness and efficiency in production. These programs are always in line with the goals of the organizations regardless of the time and cost expenditures (Carrier, 1999).
Training Elements
The training needs in Subway Restaurant include necessity for knowledge about some work procedures and standards, skills in work performance and attitude change at work. Training criteria can be in several forms. Job instruction focuses on the detailed instruction on how some jobs are to be done. Sometimes the restaurant employees may not be performing according to the required standards. The retraining can be employed in case of new equipments, working standards and also to renew their competencies. New employees can be trained as a way of orientation into the new organizations.
Some restaurants are always desperate for the work to be done immediately thus entitling the untrained people whose competence is very low. Their employers have always assumed that the experience from the previous jobs can be used as training for the new jobs. They expect such people to perform their work according to the organizational standards and policies. Lack of training will always bring about conflicts, tensions and crisis among the workers because they may not know how the services need to be done and the person responsible for the particular task. The employees are in catch up modes all the time instead of being in control of their performance. This has resulted in poor reputation for the restaurant and in turn reduced customers. The management spends a lot of money in advertisement to win back the customers, which is rather costly. Although seen as expensive, training has higher benefits eventually.
The training programme for the restaurant covers several sections. The change of shifts has been challenging to most restaurants. The arrangement and storage of utensils have resulted in wastage of time in service delivery. Poor storage of equipments may be unhygienic and may cause breakages, which are costly to the restaurant in the long run. They are therefore trained on the best storage methods and techniques. The kitchen personnel need to be trained on the waste and portion control to minimize the cost of food resulting from such wastages. The washing machine operator can be trained on troubleshooting techniques to avoid frequent breakdowns or any other complications that may occur during the washing process. The employees need to change their job attitude and to develop work etiquette.
The trained employees will offer a lot of benefits to the restaurant. With minimum time and energy spent by the managers to follow up and closely monitor what the workers are doing, there will be minimum delays and losses at work. The time will be well utilized by the workers, which is very beneficial to the growth of the restaurant. The efficiency and effectiveness in production attract more customers thus, increasing the sales and the income of the restaurant. The number of customers will increase as a result of the good services offered at the restaurant.
Performance Theories
In the expectancy theory, the reason for the individuals to choose one behavior over the other one has been explained. The workers will always be motivated by knowing that any decision they make will have the positive impact on the outcome. They will therefore motivate their behavior in order to be in line with the intended outcome. The management can achieve this through appreciating and motivating the best performers in the restaurant. This theory is very important because the desire for better performance is from within the employees (Gagné, & Deci, 2005). The model for this theory can be illustrated in the diagram below.
Figure 1. The expectancy theory model
In the Cognitive evaluation theory, the employee is motivated for better performance by the external factors, such as rewards, datelines, close supervision and evaluations (Gagné, & Deci, 2005). The employee is likely to lower the quality of performance in case the motivating factor is withdrawn.
Challenges in Organizational Performance
The managers and restaurant owners face several challenges in their effort to maintain high performance. The integration between the employees and their knowledge products and their prices is a major challenge. Some employees do not know how to answer the customers effectively whenever they make an inquiry about any product in the restaurant. Any dissatisfactory answer paints a negative reputation of the restaurant. In most cases the employees are never blamed for such miscommunication but the management. The other management issue is predicting the daily customer purchasing trend. The special events may be very inconvenient to the restaurant management in case communication is not in the proper way.
The working environment may be very overwhelming to the employees. They therefore feel distracted and less motivated. Such situations may lead them to lose focus at work thus becoming very inconsistent at work. The managers always have a challenge understanding the employee’s state of work and mind in order to motivate them all the time. The managers are always striving to instill confidence in the workers through appreciation and motivation.
The inconsistence in the quality of food prepared by the kitchen personnel is an issue for the managers. The customers may be willing to come back to the restaurant if the quality of the food was high. The managers are therefore required to ensure that the food is prepared in the right way following the right procedure and ingredients.
The diversity among the employees makes it difficult for the managers to harmonize the operations. Different employees may be having different perceptions about certain activities because of different social cultural backgrounds. The cooking styles may also be varied depending on different cultures. The managers are therefore required to ensure there is a harmonious and well-coordinated working environment.
The turnover among the trained employees has been a challenge to the management of the employees in the restaurants. Most employees are always after good pay and motivation. The turnovers always have a bad impact on the performance of the restaurant. There will be a gap in case an employee leaves and it takes time to replace. This lowers the performance of the restaurant in general. The amounts of money spent on training the departed employee may be counted as a loss for the restaurant. The management must therefore ensure the conditions for all workers are favorable to avoid such occurrences.
Gaps Analysis
Gap analysis in small businesses has helped them identify the underperforming areas and other external and internal challenges that are affecting the performance of the business. The current status of the business is compared to the goals and objectives of the company thus help to set some strategies towards gap elimination and profit maximization. The comparison can also be done against the business standards and regulations. Most researchers have concluded that some gaps may be from the internal inefficiencies, such as, lack of competence among the staff and poor communication within the business set up. External gaps are as a result of the business not responding well to the external environment. The business may be situated in the wrong market or the management failed to conform to government regulations. These gaps are an indication that the business is not meeting the market demands.
Identification of the gaps in small businesses has positive impacts on the operation and performance of these businesses. It helps them stay on course within the operation standards and regulations and still achieve the goals within the time and cost constraints. This can be achieved by comparing the production parameters and improving the effectiveness and efficiency in the business.
The gap detection helps in understanding the business’s current capability before one initiates improvement programs. This will help the management focus on the risks and shortcomings alone instead of spending extra costs to pay for the consulting services that are not necessary. Only the fundamental issues identified during the gap analysis are customized.
Once the gaps are detected, the businesses can be able to forecast on the trends in production and marketing. They can therefore put up the strategies to help them remain relevant in future.
For example, in the restaurant’s case, the gaps can be safety, health and hygienic standards and regulations set by the health and sanitation sector. The management need to compare their current state to the authority requirements and make the necessary adjustments to avoid conflicts with the arm of law. The customer requirements in terms of the quality of meals and services can also be evaluated in order to ensure the customer needs are fulfilled.
Training Strategies
As a training company, the training curriculum can only be developed after doing the training need analysis of the target business. This analysis helps to identify the gaps in the business and also the people responsible for the gaps. The magnitude and mode of training can also be identified through the analysis. The research on the training need is carried out thoroughly to identify the causes and remedy all the gaps in the business. The future market trends and technologies are also identified during the research.
The curriculum is then developed in line with the training needs identified during the training needs analysis. The training methodology is also put in place. However, before training is scheduled, the drafted curriculum and methodologies are counterchecked with the formal formed from the national training authority to ensure they meet the national standards.
The agenda of the training for the Subway restaurant will be to establish the current performance and operation state of the restaurant by interviewing the trainees, identifying the gaps by comparing the current states with set standards and the restaurant’s goal, establish the sources of these gaps and finally lead them interactively through the techniques to bridge these gaps.
The mode of training can be categorized from the introduction that is the theoretical part; the trainees will then be involved in practical demonstration on how to apply what they have trained in their real life and finally the question and answer questions for elaboration and evaluation of their understanding. The trainees are also given an opportunity to evaluate the trainers’ ability and relevance. The evaluation forms are forwarded to the set training authority.
The above strategy will ensure the trainees have both the theoretical knowledge and practical skills to do their work. The evaluation ensures that both parties are satisfied with the training. The training will change the workers’ attitude towards work, motivating them more to provide the quality services. The best and quality services attract more customers, which in turn increase the income return and reputation of restaurant (Cannon-Bowers, Johnston, & Salas, 1997), thus, becoming competitively relevant in market and service delivery.
References
Cannon-Bowers, J. A., Johnston, J. H., & Salas, E. (1997). How can you turn a team of experts into an expert team: Emerging training strategies. Naturalistic decision making, 359-370.
Carrier, C. (1999). The Training and Development Needs of Owner-Managers of Small Businesses with Export Potential. Journal of Small Business Management, 37(4), 30-41.
Gagné, M., & Deci, E. L. (2005). Self‐determination theory and work motivation. Journal of Organizational behavior, 26(4), 331-362.