Reference no: EM133156903

Subject: Human resources

A Healthy Workplace?

Ten years ago, as a hungry Sam Dickinson walked through a shopping mall looking for a quick lunch, he despaired at the choices. High-fat and calorie fast-food was everywhere. Like many others, Sam was becoming acutely aware of the importance of a healthy diet and of keeping his weight in check. As he searched in vain, an idea came to him that was to become the foundation for a small empire: not just a sandwich and salad shop, but an extensive menu with healthy takes on traditional fast food favourites such as hamburgers, fries, pizza, and fried chicken, with no menu item containing more than 400 calories, nutritious, tasty, quality fast food.

Sam set up his first healthy fast food outlet at a shopping mall in the United Kingdom with a team of 16. It soon became renowned for high-quality food, cleanliness, and great customer service and was an immediate success. Today, there are more than 80 of Sam's healthy food restaurants in 10 countries throughout Europe, employing nearly 1,800 staff.

But what at first was a relatively easy business to run became far more challenging as the firm grew. Recently, Sam sat at his desk in the company's brand-new head office reading a recently conducted customer and staff feedback report compiled from all the company's restaurants. He did not like what he was reading. While customers at some outlets praised the standard of the food and service, at others it was described as "tasteless," taking too long to make; employees were called "rude" and the restaurants "dirty."

The employees were not satisfied either. Among the gripes were allegations of unfair treatment, below-average wages, long hours, demotivation, and food hygiene regulations not being followed. The bottom line for Sam was decreasing profits, stores closing, and high staff turnover. Sam's empire seemed to be crumbling before his eyes.

Answer ALL the following questions.

From the article, identify TWO (2) possible factors that you think causing the poor customers' and employees' feedback.

Based on your answer in Questions 1, explain your answers to clarify why these factors can lead to poor customers' and employees' feedback.

Provide THREE (3) justification to explain how better knowledge of "Human Resource Management" among the store managers can improve the situation at the restaurant.

(i) Identify TWO (2) HR challenges that have emerged due to the firm's growth.

(ii) Based on the identified answers in Question 4(i), propose recommendations to address them. (Students are required to elaborate your answers to explain how the proposed recommendation can best addressed the challenges)