1. Max’s Restaurant Portfolio
MGMT 341
human resource management
TEAM 2
FALL 2011
Penn State logo retrieved from mdchahockey.com on Nov. 30, 2011
Club Sandwich photo retrieved from giantelectric.blogspot.com on Nov. 30, 2011

2. General Managers Valerie Bender Jeffrey McElhinny Sara Greenwood
Shawn Musho
Daniel Luttner
Aaron Silverman

3. Introduction Strategic Human Resource Mangement (HRM)
Business Ethics & Corporate Social Responsibility
Workforce Diversity
Internal Employee Relations
Job Analysis & Human Resource Planning
Employment Recruitment
Employyee Selection & Orientation
Training & Development
Performance Management & Appraisal
Our Employee’s Labor Market
Ranking Hourly Employees
Benefits & Nonfinancial Compensation
Union Considerations
Throughout our portfolio you will be able to see that we have elaborated on the above listed issues regarding Max’s Restaurant. We feel that it is important to consider all options when opening a restaurant in a college town, and ensure that our employees are happy. Also, it is of utmost importance that we hire the appropriate staff while taking all of these issues into consideration to make sure there isn’t high turnover rates within our business. While going through our portfolio you will be able to see how we are going to incorporate these into our restaurant and make it a successful business. Finally, by taking all of the above mentioned business operations into consideration and making sure that we review all possible options then we feel that our business will be successful.

4. Strategic Human Resource Management (HRM)
Job Analysis
Recruit ample amount of candidates
Train new employees
Duties of the General Manager
Qualified to supervise salaried and hourly employees
Quick learner and versatile
Conduct a SWOT Analysis
Before opening our restaurant we need to go over some Human Resource issues and who and how we are going to hire associates to work in our restaurant. First of all we need to post the job in the newspaper giving a job description and analysis of what the associates will be doing once they are hired and also the positions we are hiring for. Next we need to look at the applications and recruit an ample amound of candidates. Then, we need to train the employees to make sure that they know what is expected of them once the restaurant opens.
Now to go into the responsibilities of the General Manager. First they need to have prior knowledge and experience as a manager of a restaurant or other type of business venture. Next they need to be a quick learner and versatile since the economy is ever changing. Also, once hired, they need to conduct a SWOT Analysis, which is identifying the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats of the company. Finally, by going over all of the above mentioned Human Resource Management issues at hand we feel that we will be off to a good start in having a successful business.

5. Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility
Max’s Core Values:
Commitment to Quality
Community
Teamwork
Community Involvement Activities
Fundraisers and catering
Sponsor local youth sports teams
Organize charities and donations
As a business it would be a good idea to get involved in fund raisers in the community for good causes.  We can hold the fundraisers in our restaurant or cater the food.  This will expose people to our food and friendly staff and quality service. We can build our image up and market our product at the same time. Additionally, it would be a good idea to become involved in local school and sports events; perhaps we can even sponsor a local youth sports team. This would be a great way to get ourselves out there and make ourselves known to the community as well as provide a lot of exposure. By giving back to the community and becoming more involved in the community, we will actually be advertising ourselves as a friendly local business and that will help bring in future customers.
We will be involved in school functions, community charitable organizations, and local youth sports. We could even offer incentives for employees volunteering in cleanups in neighborhood parks and recreational centers. We can also implement charitable donation programs for local families in need of assistance for either sick children or due to a fire or other natural disaster.

6. Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility
Whose responsibility is community involvement and relations?
General Management
Community Relations Manager
Everyone!!!
"A family owned business with over 80 years of experience dedicated to expanding our one-of-a-kind commitment to service outside of our walls and into the communities we depend on.“
As general manager, we would have the final say on what decisions are made but perhaps we can make it everyone's responsibility, or even assign a small team to be in charge of community relations. If Max’s became big enough, there could be a possibility for community involvement and community relations to be managed by someone other than the general manager. A position such as Vice President of Community Relations or Community Relations Manager could be formed so that more time and resources could be devoted to community efforts without taking away time from the general manager’s busy day-to-day functions. We could look for candidates with both public relations and community service management experience who could bring new ideas to the company. This way we could go above and beyond what competing restaurants do as far as community involvement.

7. Workforce Diversity Diversity Initiatives Examples of Diversity
Training
Age, Race, Gender
Watch videos
Religion, Culture, Ethnicity
Surveys and assessments
Sexual Orientation
Foster environment of acceptance
Geographic Origin
Physical or Mental Handicap
Management must set the example
Weekly meetings
Diversity starts with hiring process!!
We need to implement diversity in the workplace, which consists of employment training and refresher training. 
We want to follow through with surveys of assessments to make sure everyone understands the importance of diversity.  If we choose to train our employees but not really implement the idea of diversity then we can’t hold employees liable for not following through. We need to foster an attitude of openness in our organization which means we need to encourage employees to express their ideas and opinions and give them the sense of equal value to all, by having an open door policy. The management staff needs to be an example to the employees.  If we can’t implement diversity in the workplace employees themselves won’t do it. To encourage diversity within our organization the management team will implement the following:
Have a weekly meeting where everyone gets to know each other on a personal basis and not just a professional one. They could share stories about life and work experiences and gain a better understanding of what they have in common and what is different; and then learn to embrace those differences as potential to get a different perspective on issues that may arise in the future.
Watch videos of some typical stereotypes and how it makes people feel.  So, by the end of the video our employees have grasped the concept that sometimes you inadvertently stereotype, and the video makes you aware so you are cautious about what you say and do to others at work.
To celebrate ethnicity we could hire chefs and food preps from various ethnic, cultural, and religious backgrounds so that we can expand our menu to include various world cuisines. These new menu items could be used to promote upcoming religious or cultural holidays. In addition we could also teach our chefs and food preps how to prepare different regional styles of American dishes to incorporate these dishes in our menu.
We could also reward tenured employees through bonuses, compensation, etc
By incorporating all of the above statements our restaurant will not only focus on an Americanized view but also a more culturally diverse view.
Photo retrieved from northwesternflipside.com on Nov. 30, 2011

8. Internal Employee Relations
Disciplinary Procedure
1st offense: oral warning, undocumented
2nd offense: written warning, documented
3rd offense: job suspension without pay
4th offense: job termination
Grievance Policy
Third party arbitration
Communication with corporate HR office
Confidential
Discipline as a learning experience rather than punishment
Disciplinary Procedure:
**All steps in the disciplinary procedure will be communicated both verbally and in writing. Employees will be reminded of the company’s code of conduct at each level of the disciplinary procedure so as to ensure that future violations do not occur.
1. When improper behavior is discovered that warrants disciplinary action, the employee will receive an oral warning. This will be undocumented, and not reported to higher levels of management. In the event that the employee’s first violation requires more than just an oral warning, they will instead receive an official, documented warning in writing. These behaviors may include, but are not limited to, inefficiencies and negligence in job duties, as well as unexcused absences.
2. More serious offenses, as well as second offenses, will require a written warning, to be placed in the employee’s file.
3. Offenses that require more than a written warning, as well as third offenses will require a suspension from the job without pay.
4. Offenses that require more than a suspension, as well as fourth offenses will require job termination.
Grievance Policy:
For full-time and part-time employees, we have the policy in the employee handbook. We encourage the employees to direct grievances to their immediate supervisor directly, and an open-door policy is in place full time. If their immediate supervisor does not take an acceptable course of action, or, if the immediate supervisor is the cause of the problem, we have a procedure wherein they contact HR directly. If we, as general managers, are the source of the problem(s), we have outlined how they would contact the corporate office for further investigation.
In the event that an employee feels as though they’ve been unfairly singled out by either an immediate supervisor or by one of the general managers, there will be a neutral third party to turn to from the corporate office.
- We emphasize that third party arbitration exists from the corporate Human Resources office.
- Employees also have the ability to contact corporate Human Resources to report any wrongdoings from their immediate supervisors.
- Discipline will never occur in front of or be discussed with other employees.
- The specific form of discipline given is to be used more as a learning experience rather than a punishment to enhance an employee’s knowledge of the job.

9. Job Analysis and Human Resource Planning
Shifts: 6am-2:30 pm and 2:30pm-11:00pm
Hourly part-time positions will rotate their schedules
Hourly employees will be trained in all areas of the restaurant
21 employees working each shift:
2 Salaried management employees
1 GM
3 Hourly supervisors
1 Extra salaried manager / part time
4 Dishwashers
3 Prep Cooks
1 Chef
6 Order Takers
We have decided to split our shifts evenly from 6am-2:30 pm and 2:30pm-11:00pm
So our crew would look like this:
-2 salaried management employees
-1 GM
- 3 Hourly supervisors
-1 Extra salaried manager / part time
-4 Dishwashers
-3 Prep Cooks
- 1 Chef
-6 Order Takers
This is a total of 21 employees
We will address the problem of fluctuating human resource (employee) requirements by following the proceeding steps:
1. Hourly part-time positions will rotate their schedules, so we can always call in more hourly employees if necessary
2. Each hourly employee will be trained in other areas of the restaurant in the event that they need to multi-task or fill in for another employee.

10. Employment Recruitment
Job opportunities
Full time jobs
Part time jobs
Internships
Employee development program and promote from within
Great opportunities
Flexible schedules
Recruitment
University job fairs
Ads in the school
Ads in local newspapers
$100 referrals bonus
An “employment” link on the company website
Posting flyers throughout campus and on bulletin boards.
“Help Wanted” sign in the door at our facility
We have 13 entry-level positions to fill (3 prep cooks, 4 dishwashers, and 6 order takers), with a very viable labor market due to the college town we are located in. We will offer part-time jobs through which students can make some extra money; and even management internships to juniors and seniors pursuing a degree in Business Management. We can advertise these openings at the university job fairs, ads in the school and local newspapers, an “employment” link on the company website, and by posting flyers throughout campus and on bulletin boards. We will also place a “Help Wanted” sign in the door at our facility until we reach the manpower that we are aspiring to. A $100 bonus for a referral will be given to any employee who refers a friend to apply for a position at our restaurant. The check will only be awarded if the referee is selected to join our team and stays a minimum of 3 months.
As far as the 3 hourly supervisors, we can promote from within from another Max's restaurant. An employee with at least 18 months at the company and at least two consecutive satisfactory performance reviews will be considered. We will create a job posting for these 3 positions and the potential candidates will have the opportunity to apply and interview for them.
Hourly employees will have the opportunity for upward mobility as the most experienced and qualified employees will have the chance to work full-time as openings arise. Although we are bringing in 3 supervisors from other locations, in the future promotions will be made from within our store, unless there are no qualified candidates or some other extenuating circumstance exists.
The following is the advertisement that we will run in the school and local newspapers.
Restaurant is open from 6am - 11pm, with all shifts available.
We are looking for motivated, friendly, energetic, bright and hardworking individuals. If you are a college student looking for a Job, look no further!   We offer great opportunities and flexible schedules. In addition we offer an excellent employee development program for those seeking to grow with the company.

11. Employee Selection and Orientation
Selection Process:
Collect and review applications/resumes.
Use a job-knowledge test as a pre-employment test to get an idea of the applicant’s experience.
The areas covered in the interview will consist of occupational experience, interpersonal skills, and personal qualities.
The initial method of interview will be one-on-one. A two-on-one interview will then be used as a second interview if we are interested in the applicant. The two-on-one interview has the added benefit of putting the interviewee in the spotlight and affords us the opportunity to see how they handle the situation at hand.
The interview will include a realistic job preview so that the applicant can gain an appreciation of what the job entails.
After concluding the interview, we will contact the applicant’s references. If we feel then feel that the applicant is the right match for the position, we will then conduct a background check and a drug screening test.
Notify all successful and unsuccessful candidates, and be sure to let the unsuccessful candidates know that we will retain their application/resume on file.
Questions for a structured interview of applicants for the supervisor’s position:
General questions, such as:
Do you have experience in a supervisory position?
Do you have experience in the restaurant/hospitality/retail industries?
How would you rate your performance at your previous/current supervisory position?
Why did you leave your last job?
How many people have you managed in the past?
Describe a difficult situation you faced in your previous job and what steps did you take to solve the problem?
How busy was your previous restaurant, and how were you able to handle the business?
Do you have experience performing the minor tasks, such as serving or dishwashing? Would you be opposed to doing such things in the event of an unexpected call out?
Scenario questions, such as:
"How would you handle a very irate customer who insists upon a refund after finishing her meal because she claims it was not what she ordered?"
"An employee had called off sick one hour before her shift during a rush period. You had planned on completing paperwork that afternoon but know the line will be overwhelmed. What do you do?"
Once Hired we will also monitor the employees progress as such:
Use comment cards to see how well our new associates are doing and let the public know that their feedback is important.
Use a day grace period for the new employee to prove their abilities to management, and then give an evaluation on their performance. The trial period will provide us with the knowledge of whether we made the right choice in hiring.

12. Training and Development
Training Process:
Customer Service
Ongoing training of restaurants Menu
Job rotation
On the job Training
Training is crucial to an employee’s success in their new job.  It is important that the employee gets a feel for the job, has an understanding of the overall process and everyone’s roles in order to truly understand their own job. At Max’s the order taker is the first point of contact with our customer, and is essentially the face of the organization. An order taker’s successful ability to accurately place an order will determine the quality and timing of a well-executed meal according to the customer’s standards. Additionally, order taker’s will be the main point of contact in providing customer satisfaction, and be primarily responsible for assuring that each of Max’s patrons has a satisfying experience and returns.
The purpose of our training program is to provide Max’s order takers with the sensitivity to adapt to different customer temperaments and provide excellent service, the skills to accurately place each order correctly and fuel sales, and the knowledge of our restaurant’s process within their specific position and beyond.
1st – We will provide customer service training including how to handle irate customers.  We feel this training is important to order takers because most of their job will be customer interaction.  Our order takers will be the face of our business, if our customers receive bad customer service they might not return. This will be done using an early stage instructor-led (training manager) curriculum, followed by continuous behavior modeling.
2nd- As an order taker it is important that our employee understand the menu.  They must be trained on our menu and even try out new foods in order to best help the customers with any questions they might have. This training is ongoing, because the menu will change periodically. In tandem with menu training, new associates will also receive technical training on how to use the computers and POS system to input orders, track sales etc.
3rd- Job rotation is also important for our new employees. To gain experience they should spend at least 1-2 days with someone in the restaurant who performs a different job. This way they can get a better understanding for the restaurant and how things work.  For example if they spend time with the prep cook or chef they will be able to understand what goes into preparing the food and understand the timeline.  Additionally this is important because if someone calls out they can also help out.
4th- Lastly on the job training, this is important as the trainee will be able to make sense of all the information provided to them and apply it to their job.  The on-job training will allow then to gradually gain a comfort level with the job. This can be done with a mix of job shadowing with more experienced order takers, as well as periodic role playing with groups of order takers to assume hypothetical roles of irate customers, complicated orders etc. so that they stay sharp.
As our Max’s franchise is an experimental location, all of our training processes will be a continuous learning process for order takers and managers alike. Development through quality circles will ensure that managers are receiving timely and accurate feedback from the front line employees, and their experience will be used to adjust further training for new associates.

13. Performance Management & Appraisal
Critical Incidences:
Attendance and lateness.  Attendance and lateness affects all employees negatively.
Customer Service.  This is so important because even if customers enjoy our food, if they feel mistreated they will not come back.  Additionally word of mouth travels quickly.
Staying on top of inventory.  This is so important so that we as a store don’t run out of items, because this will affect business and the customer’s opinion of us as a business.
 Food standards.  We strive to make the best product for our customers; we have mandatory food and hygiene test to ensure they meet standards put forth by both government agencies and Max's.
Timeliness.  We understand our customers time is valuable and we strive to be as time efficient as possible.
Supervisor:
Maintain adequate inventory and use proper FIFO procedures to ensure wasted food does not surpass a specific dollar amount.
Maintain a certain level of call-offs and no-shows. Must keep a record of all call-outs and no shows from all subordinates. Deviance from this without taking steps to rectify the situation proves that the supervisor is too lenient.
Must never be a no-show themselves, and very limited call-offs with a legitimate excuse. The supervisor must lead by example. Supervisor must find their own coverage for any call outs.
Should track average time from order to delivery of meal. The average time to delivery should be within a certain time frame, which will ensure that the supervisor has properly placed all team members in the right positions and are properly trained.
Supervisor should strive to create a safe and fun work atmosphere.  Employees can submit suggestions for team building activities.  If we are not able to create a good working environment we will have a lot of turnover.  If the employees are not happy the customers will sense this with the service being provided.
It is mandatory that supervisors treat everyone equally and with respect.  Disrespect towards employees or customers will not be tolerated.
Prep Cook:
Must be able to produce a certain amount of different types of food in a specific time period. For example, must be able to cook let's say 12 eggs at any given time and have them all cooked properly in 5 minutes. We would also like to rate them on the quality of their food, but this is more difficult to be objective with.
Must advise supervisor if food inventory is running low, in order to avoid any shortage.
Must take a mandatory food and hygiene test to ensure they meet standards put forth by both government agencies and Max's.
Must also maintain an acceptable call-off and no-show ratio. Three strike rule in place this will minimize un-legitimate call outs and no shows.
Prep-Cooks must be on time for their shifts, anything after 10 minutes late can result in a write up
Must prepare the correct amount of ingredients for the chef every night. If the kitchen runs out of ingredients, it is a negative critical task recorded indicating that the prep cook did not do a good job, however if no instances of ingredients running out come up, it’s a positive point in the review.
Prep cooks should strive for zero food quality complaints. Any recorded incidents of poor quality will be a critical task recorded by the supervisor and brought up during the performance review.
Order taker:
Call-outs and no shows.  Three strike rules will also be enforced; this will minimize un-legitimate call outs and no shows.
Order takers must be on time for their shifts, anything after 10 minutes late can result in a write up.
The accuracy and quality of the orders taken.
Communication skills between both the customer and the kitchen staff
High level of customer services provided to our customers. This can be graded by anonymous surveys from our customers.
Appropriate dress attire.  The order takers are the face of our business they must follow the dress code.

14. Our Employee’s Labor Market
Managers
Broad talent pool
Recruit from:
Local area
Other similar cities
Statewide
Hourly Employees
Less skilled/trainable positions
Can utilize talent in local area
To ensure that Max’s recruits the best possible talent, we must analyze the labor markets from which our staff will come from.
Since managerial employees are often recruited from a wide geographic area, the appropriate labor market for the General Manager’s position should include neighboring cities as well as the entire state.  By having such a broad range, we will ensure that we receive the best possible candidates for the job.
Hourly employee positions should be recruited locally, so the immediate area and neighboring cities/townships would be an appropriate labor market.

15. Ranking The Hourly Employees
Order Takers
Client-facing
Very important to customer satisfaction
Prep Cooks
Less interaction with customer
Still critical to food quality
Dishwashers
Least critical
Easily learned tasks and replaceable
1.  Order Taker- These employees will interact directly with the customer and the customer’s interaction with order takers will influence their decision to return to Max’s. They are the most valuable of the hourly employees.   There will be a tip jar in which it will be split amongst all employees at the end of each shift.
2. Prep Cooks- These employees do not interact with the customers, but still provide significant value by preparing food according to company standards.
3. Dishwasher- These employees provide the least value to the company. Their tasks are easily learned, and can more easily be replaced than order takers and prep cooks.

16. Benefits and Nonfinancial Compensation
Meal discounts, paid vacation, profit sharing, 401k, health, life, dental and vision insurance, FSAs and PTO
Legally Required Benefits:
Social Security, unemployment comp, workers’ comp, and sabbaticals
Nonfinancial Compensation
Monthly awards, job satisfaction, healthy job environment and quality work experience
Max’s Restaurant’s benefits package include: meal discounts, paid vacations, profit sharing, 401K plans, health, life, dental, and vision insurance, and have added flexible spending accounts and paid time off banks.
Since health benefits packages are the most expensive benefits from the company's perspective. We will offer a PPO, providing incentives for employees to use health care providers within the system, but still allowing them to go outside of the network if they choose to pay a higher fee.
We will include the following legally required benefits: social security, unemployment compensation, workers’ compensation, and sabbaticals for extended leaves of absence.
Benefits will apply to all employees, and the salaried and full-time associates will receive sick days, and a 401k option starting immediately. Sick days will total 1 week for full time employees with the option of rolling over any unused days. We will allow sick days and unpaid time off when required, but vacation is a separate benefit. All employees need to have 6 months on the job before they accrue any vacation time. From 6 months to two years of employment, employees will receive one week of vacation, and on the 2 year anniversary, we add an additional week. We then continue to add an additional week every 4 years, maxing out at 6 weeks on the employee's 22nd anniversary. Meal discounts will include free fountain sodas and 60% off meals during an employee’s shift.
As for nonfinancial compensation, we consider employee job satisfaction and the work experience that employees gain as nonfinancial compensation. There are factors in the job environment that may be considered nonfinancial compensation, including Max’s capable managers, competent employees, congenial co-workers, good working conditions, and opportunities for growth and advancement. We will also offer status symbols in the form of employee of the month awards.
Hourly employees will have workplace flexibility including flextime, a compressed work week, job sharing, and part-time work. Workplace flexibility is especially important for hourly employees, since Max’s is trying to recruit college students.

17. Union Considerations To discourage unionization, Max’s will
Compensate all employees adequately
Ensure job security and seniority
Treat each employee as an individual
Respect each other
Utilize a formal grievance procedure
Implement incentive programs for employees
Max’s college location provides some insulation from broader industry concerns. Identifying with common consciousness of the University should keep Max’s employees from concerning themselves with unions.
Some of the reasons employees are pro unions are; Job security, advancement opportunities, and fair wages and work schedules are just a few of these reasons. We feel as though Max’s is to discourage unionization, the way to do this is to focus on making sure our employees do not feel as though they need to join a union. By this, I mean we need to make sure they are satisfied by:
-    Ensuring that they are compensated fairly and equitably. We need to make sure we are paying them above what our competitors pay their employees, and that our wage scales are fair.
-    Ensuring that they have job security. Let them know that we value seniority as well as newer members of our team.
-    Ensuring that management treats them as unique, one-of-a-kind employees who are valuable assets to the company.
-    Ensuring that our employees are treated with respect
-    Ensuring that we have an effective grievance process in place
-    Implementing an incentive program for employees
In conclusion, we do discourage labor unions however Max’s Restaurant isn’t as threatened because labor unions target entire industries, so as not to be detrimental to only a handful of companies. As management, our biggest bargaining chip is that all of the aforementioned positions are unskilled labor, and with a college down the street and the rising cost of tuition, it should not be difficult to replace a disgruntled worker. This is not to say that any employee with a grievance should be mistreated and sent packing,  only that we do not need to worry as much as an auto manufacturer, which relies primarily on skilled labor.

18. Thank You!
Max’s Restaurant, Team 2