Abstract
Onboarding is an essential HR process that extends for several months after hiring a new employee. Onboarding provides positive outcome in terms of better employee retention, improved process consistency, faster new employee ramp-up, and better acculturation.
Ya Ya Kitchen has experienced initial success in its business, but the company is facing a huge problem in quality product and service delivery due to poor employee retention policy. Since Ya Ya Kitchen has no defined HR practices, trying to implement a full scale HR system will not be fruitful. Therefore, the company should first implement a robust onboarding program, which will enhance employee satisfaction and in turn will improve employee retention and quality.
Introduction
Ya Ya Kitchen is a gourmet Chinese restaurant situated in Toledo, Ohio. The restaurant started its operation in 2012 (Ya Ya Kitchen, 2016). Owners, Wang and Li, started the restaurant with only two employees. Wang managed the kitchen with a kitchen helper while Li managed the billing and customers with the help of a hired employee. However, within one year after opening the restaurant, Ya Ya Kitchen managed to break even due to its unique and high quality Chinese and Korean food. It was rated the best Chinese restaurant of the Toledo region in 2012 (Ya Ya Kitchen, 2016). Owing to its instant success, Wang and Li decided to increase the size of the restaurant by transforming it into a full size sit-and-dine eatery. Ya Ya Kitchen further opened another of its outlet in a different location within Toledo. Presently, the restaurant has five kitchen chefs, ten kitchen helpers and 23 waitresses. It also has two restaurant managers for supervising the operation in the two locations. Li and Wang look after the overall financial matters and procurement of raw materials. However, in recent years, Ya Ya Kitchen is witnessing a decline in the number of its customers. Customers mostly complain about the inconsistency in the quality of the restaurant’s food. In fact, many customers complain that the food taste varies considerably between the two outlets of Ya Ya Kitchen.
Apart from customer complaints, Wang and Li are plagued with another problem. The rate of attrition among waitresses was high from the very beginning, but Wang and Li never paid attention to that issue as availability of waitresses was not a problem. However, in recent times, the attrition rate among chefs has gone up. This has created headache for the owners as getting good quality chef is an issue. Secondly, training the chefs to cook authentic Chinese and Korean food is a big task. In last three years, owners were only concerned about the food and customers. Wang and Li never focused on employees. Wang and Li have formal education in human resource management and they are at a loss about the situation. They have hired a HR Manager on short term contract to look into the issue and provide guidance. This essay will study the problem of Ya Ya kitchen in-depth from HRM perspective and suggest one HR initiative that can reduce the rate of attrition and the problem of inconsistency in the quality of food served in the two outlets of the restaurant.
Problem
Upon analyzing the situation, several problems were identified at Ya Ya Kitchen:
1) Customer satisfaction rating for Ya Ya Kitchen has gone down in almost all of the food review sites, such as Yelp and Zomato. Customers complained about the consistency of quality. The food served to customers is sometimes tasty and savory, but the same customers who were once satisfied with the quality of food complained of bland taste when they repeated their visit to the same outlet or the second outlet of the restaurant.
2) Employee attrition was another major issue. In last one year, Ya Ya Kitchen has lost five of its previous chefs. It has also lost 30 waitresses. The company is facing almost 100% rate of attrition.
Cause of the Problem
Upon detailed analysis, it was observed that the main cause of the problem is unsatisfied employees. Ya Ya Kitchen employs waitresses, but does not provide any initial training to them apart from introducing them to the Ya Ya Kitchen menu. Both Wang and Li believe that initial onboarding training for the job of waitress is not required and it is a non-value adding activity. Due to the lack of engagement with the waitresses, the other employees do not feel engaged with the organization and use the work experience at the restaurant to move into a better opportunity when they get one (Garten, 2015).
As Wang is an excellent cook himself, he demands the delivery of high quality food from its chefs. However, with more than one restaurant in operation, Wang cannot be physically present in both the locations simultaneously and tend to the kitchen himself. Additionally, he is unable to spend more time with the chefs because of increased workload in the raw material procurement and storage. Chefs are trained on the job by Wang. There is no formal training program in place. New chefs work with Wang for a few days before they begin to manage things on their own. Some of the chefs learn quickly, but some others struggle learning the Chinese and Korean style of cooking in such a short duration of training period. Therefore, they cannot deliver high quality food consistently. If the customer complains about the food, chefs are subjected to rebukes and harsh criticism from Wang, which further lowers their morale. This low morale is the main cause of chefs leaving Ya Ya Kitchen whenever they get better opportunity elsewhere (Schooley, 2010).
Possible Solution
The problem with Ya Ya kitchen requires a comprehensive look at its human resource practices. Currently, there is no human resource framework in place at the company. Many different types of human resource programs can benefit the restaurant. In the absence of proper HR practices in Ya Ya Kitchen, it is important to implement the basic HR practices first before moving ahead with more comprehensive HR programs (Schooley, 2010). Therefore, the main focus should be laid on implementing a proper onboarding training and induction process (Fretwell, 2008).
Implement Onboarding Process in Ya Ya Kitchen
Wang and Li need to realize first that onboarding is not a one-time event and is a time-taking process. Onboarding is the process of acquiring, assimilating, accommodating and accelerating new employees in the company. As of now, the onboarding process in Ya Ya Kitchen includes collecting paperwork, getting new employees on payroll and organizing on-the-job training for the chefs. However, many elements of a standard onboarding, process such as formal induction training, consistent initial communication, communicating the key organizational work practices, and job mentoring are missing.
Ya Ya Kitchen should launch a standardized onboarding process by introducing the following steps:
Proposed Activities and Benefits
It is not necessary for Ya Ya Kitchen to do all the onboarding activities themselves. In fact, the owners can perform only certain key parts of the onboarding process and outsource the non-critical elements. The table below shows the onboarding process that needs to be introduced at Ya Ya Kitchen:
Conclusion
Ya Ya Kitchen does not have any HR practice in place currently. This is one of the main reasons for the high employee attrition and inconsistent food quality. To improve that, Ya Ya Kitchen should introduce a robust employee onboarding and induction program. Consistent communication about the vision, mission and culture of the organization from the owner will help new employees feel engaged in the new company. Initial induction training provided by Wang and Li will certainly help in creating a good first impression. Chef training program and periodic on-the-job training will improve the quality of food and chefs will have better understanding about the Chinese food preparation and expectation from the owners. Finally, a weekly huddle will help better collaboration and communication between employees, which will improve employee satisfaction. A group of engaged and satisfied employees can certainly help improve the customer satisfaction and push the revenue upwards.
Learning
This exercise was a good learning experience. While doing this project, I understood that HR function is not only important for large organizations, but also is equally important for small organizations. I also learnt that onboarding is not a onetime first day HR activity. In fact, a comprehensive onboarding process should kick-start before the actual recruitment takes place and should continue at least for a few months after the recruitment.
This model of HR can be used for almost any organization. However, suggestions provided in this exercise were mostly customized for a small size startup restaurant. The basic onboarding framework proposed in this project can be used for almost all the organizations with only a few changes made.
References
Garten, A. (2015). Case Study: An Analysis of Human Resources Practices at Starbucks Coffee Company. Ashford University. Retrieved on 24th Mar, 2016 from <https://awc.ashford.edu/PDFHandouts/Case_Study_Sample_Annotated_08.31.2015.pdf>
Fretwell, N. (2008). Project management Case Studies. Meticulous HR Solutions. Retrieved on 24th Mar, 2016 from < http://www.mhr-solutions.com/project-management-case-studies.asp>
Schooley, C. (2010). Case Study: First Horizon National’s 90-Day Onboarding Program Benefits The Company. Forrester. Retrieved on 24th Mar, 2016 from <http://hr.gsu.edu/files/2014/03/Case-Study-6-to-9-month-approach.pdf>
Bharadwaj, S. (2015). Case Study: Can a Work-at-Home Policy Hurt Morale?. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved on 24th Mar, 2016 from < https://hbr.org/2015/01/case-study-can-a-work-at-home-policy-hurt-morale>
Ya Ya Kitchen. (2016). About Us. Retrieved on 24th Mar, 2016 from <http://www.yayakitchen.com/aboutus.aspx>
