English for Management Recommendation Report
UNIVERSITI TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN FACULTY OF BUSINESS AND FINANCE ENGLISH FOR MANAGEMENT (UALE 2003) MAY TRIMESTER 2012 ASSIGNMENT 1: INFORMAL REPORT TUTORIAL GROUP NO: T15 LECTURER’S NAME : TUTOR‘S NAME : MS. NUR AIZURI BINTI MD. AZMIN Item| Student’s Name| ID| Year / Sem. | 1. | CYHEETAL KAUR SANDHU D/O AUTAR SINGH| 1105929| Y1/S1| 2. | LIM LIK KHOON| 1103683| Y1/S1| 3.
| MALVEENN PREET KAUR GILL| 1105909| Y1/S1| 4. | TAN YONG KEAT| 1105969| Y1/S1| *Deadline: Week 8 MEMORANDUM To: Mr Joshua Liew, General Manager of Marrybrown From: Ms Cheryl Chua, Human Resource Manager
Date: Jun 12, 2012 Subject: RECOMMENDATION REPORT TO IMPROVE THE EMPLOYEE PRODUCTIVITY Introduction At your request, I am here submitting this report detailing my recommendations to improve the employees’ productivity. My recommendations are based on observation and feedback received from our customers. Background Marrybrown is proudly Malaysian owned and managed. It is founded in 1981 and is known as the largest homegrown fast food chain with a global reach of over 250 outlets. In the 1980s Marrybrown Family Restaurant became the first local fast food chain to franchise its business system in Malaysia.
Upon being known as a worldwide brand, Marrybrown has won a numerous awards such as “Most Promising Franchise of the Year”. However, recently we had received a lot of complaints. Therefore, we have investigated the problems. Problems Due to lack of skills among employees and shortage of employees in the management, our organization has been experiencing a decrease in the level of productivity. In the meantime, fundamental project details change, responses come in late and some never arrive, leaving the management incomplete. As a result, the productivity of the employees is not always as great as it could be.
Dull working environment will lead to employees being distracted as well as spiritually discouraged thus making them to lose their work focuses. Besides, work overload can be caused by having too much work to do or being given task to complete without any notice. Work overload can lead to fatigue and stress in management. To investigate the problem, we have observed the employees performance level for the past four months. A survey has been conducted at the same time by distributing survey forms.
This allows us to recognize the overall efficiency of our employees from the viewpoint of our customers.
We have also observed the relationship between our customers and employees. Findings Lack of skills among employees We are facing problems in the shortage of skilled employees for kitchen staff as well as the receptionist. While the number of customers is rapidly increasing, the orders were not efficiently taken consequently wasting customer’s time by delaying their food. According to the feedback received from our guests, they were not satisfied with the quality of the food and the way they were treated. For instance, when the food was served, the food had become cold.
This will cause the guests’ to lose their appetite.
There were also complaints concerning food was not appetizing and tasteless. Even worst, some guests had trouble communicating with our staff as they had to repeat their order. All these problems happened because our employees are lacking in workplace etiquette, conflict resolution and teamwork. Shortage of employees As the number of customers is increasing in our franchise, we could not please everyone due to the lacking of employees in the organization.
This staff shortage is affecting our daily activities such as taking orders from the customers, delivering food to them and maintaining cleanliness.
Customers tend to face difficulty in finding a vacant place to dine-in as some of the tables are not cleaned up after they have eaten. This makes them feel irritated and tend to choose another place rather than Marrybrown. Dull working environment The environment where we work plays a vital role to carry out our task efficiently as well as effectively. Dull working environment will lead employees to boredom and drudgery, causing them to become unmotivated to perform at a high level.
Hence, we can put some songs as music is a great way to entertain and stimulate workers while working. This will keep everyone on their toes.
While it is natural for employees to become disinterested after doing the same thing over and over, the manager should be responsible of making sure their workers approach their job with motivation. Offering employees the option of taking on new positions, urging them to accomplish new goals and allowing them to participate in an enjoyable workplace can result in a motivated and inspired staff. Work overload Work overload can be caused by having too much work to do, being given tasks to complete without notice that add to employees daily workload or being given tasks that require skills that employees do not have.
Constant work overload can lead to fatigue and stress to an individual. People feel very low and frustrated due to workload. Along with this some employees also tend to undergo from physical and psychological health issues as a result of workload. Worse than this, a heavy routine workload leaves them little time to deal with the emergencies that come up from time-to-time. This adds to the feeling of being “out of control” that is so much part of stress.
Not only can a heavy workload be tiring, it often drives employees to work much longer hours than they would really like.
This means that employees are working when they should really be resting. Conclusion As our main purpose is to satisfy the tastes and needs of customers in our restaurant. It is significant to have a team of superior employees that carry out their jobs well. By this they will have a vigilant determination to increase employee productivity. By that, I wish to recommend a few suggestions to improve the employee productivity which are providing effective training, applying job rotation and cross-training course, hiring capable workers, setting a homely environment and offering premier benefits plan.
Recommendations
Provide effective training We should train our employees to present a smile along with a welcome greeting whenever customers enter the restaurant. It will help our restaurant to set the tone for the visit. Conversely, we should provide proper training required to get employees to utter a simple greeting which is negligible. We should train our employees to understand how to use the register, and monitor raw material ordering so that our restaurant does not run out of popular food items. Besides, we should train our staffs in the use of equipment so that the diner’s food is indeed fast, as well as tasty.
The management of Marrybrown should start coaching and mentoring their new workers so as to accomplish their target of having well-organized employees.
Demonstrated benefits of these approaches include improved quality of work, transfer of learning, enhanced communication and problem-solving skills among employees. Apply job rotation and cross-training course Job rotation moves an employee through one or more different positions. The rotation can last several hours, several months or even a year or two. Cross-training is a specific type of job rotation where an employee learns the skills of a different position.
These approaches can effectively add diversity and interest, prepare individuals for promotion, rejuvenate work units and improve communication.
These approaches can also solve problem in lack of employee skills. Hire capable workers To overcome the shortage of employees in Marrybrown, we should hire more capable workers. Advertisements of vacancy available can be published through media to inform people that we are currently hiring more employees. Likewise, the management can organize a walk-in-interview in selecting the most outstanding applicants that fulfil the job criteria.
By doing so, we can ensure that we have hired the appropriate employee to assist in managing our customers.
At the same time, food can be delivered much faster to customers without having to make them wait for their food and the service provided will be more efficient. This makes our guests to be satisfied with the services offered in Marrybrown and might want to come again to enjoy the great services here. Set a homely environment A sociable and pleasant environment plays a vital role in bringing up the positive side of an individual.
They should paint the inner part of the restaurant with astounding yet impressive colours to make employees feel comfortable and enjoy while working. At the same time, some melodious melodies can be played to instil the spirit of working without feeling bored. To enlighten employees working life, a specific day can be fixed where all the staff dresses differently than the usual day.
The main concern of the fast food restaurants franchise is the health of its customers and thereby it strives to serve hygienic and healthy fast food along with taste and quality.
Moreover, we must ensure that our employees can keep our restaurant interior clean, and landscape the area around the drive-through window to improve the customer perception of our restaurant. A customer who experiences quality dining is a happy customer, and that means repeat business and leads to increased restaurant profits. A satisfied customer will also recommend our restaurant to others. Offer premier benefits plan Most of the time people consider workload when they feel that they do not have potential, abilities or skills to do that.
People also consider the workload when they have huge amount of work to finish within shorter period of time. In order to overcome workload, we should plan the work in such a way that work might get completed before deadline without imposing a stress on mind. If employee gets the work which is in huge quantity, then they should divide it in different phases, set targets and milestones for each phase. In this way they will be able to complete the work easily. The presence of workload can be solved by introducing a workload diary in the organization. The higher-ranking staff should encourage other workers in the rea to complete a workload diary to show common patterns and causes of work overload.
This evidence can be used to raise concerns through their Occupational Health and Safety Representatives. Workload issues lie behind much of the stress we experience. Limitations However, the skills improvement training and course will be slightly expensive either externally or internally. This is because we have loads of staff in the organization thus, we cannot be certain to satisfy all of their needs. We are also in a dilemma state as we have to select suitable employees to undergo training for improving their productivity.
Subsequently, they can act as a mentor for the junior staffs that are lacking in skills of management.
So, we have to ensure that the training provided is cost-effective and the staff can really handle our customer professionally. For hiring capable employees, a walk-in-interview requires a lump sum of money too. The management will have to advertise through media that there is currently vacancy in Marrybrown. By doing so, job seekers will be informed immediately without having much trouble to find job. Nevertheless, some of the employees might leave their current job for a better paid job in future.
Regarding to those recommendations to improve the productivity of fast food restaurant, reward valuable employees are costly too. Moreover, it will lead to greater rewards as employees begin to work but not of sufficient value to the employees for them to change their behaviour. Thus we need to plan carefully to avoid making mistakes in an organization. As a conclusion, time and budget constraints are the considerations we need to take into account when we implement those recommendations. Lastly, please do not hesitate to contact us for any feedback and further enquiry.
