Highlights
Task:
Concerned about the deteriorating company performance and the attendant deficiencies relating to the company’s people, the new chief executive John Winter and HR manager Tina King have decided to hire an external HR consultant (You) to prepare a report for presentation to the board.
You are required to analyse the case study from an HR perspective and to discuss some recommendations concerning how to improve the company’s performance with respect to its people, so that it can begin the task of moving back into respectable profitability.
Your answer should be underpinned by appropriate academic literature throughout your report, in order to achieve a pass grade.
The text should contain a maximum of 1500 words (+ 10%). In addition, you should use one or more tables for your analysis. The table(s) should contain no more than 500 words (+10%). Words in the table(s) are in addition to the 1500 words in the text.
The references are exempt from the word count
There should be no appendices in the report Please see Canvas for Individual Assignment Guidance Document Sojourn Restaurants and Coffee Houses
Sojourn Restaurants and Coffee Houses was the result of a merger in 1995 of Good Vibrations Restaurants and Mellow Coffee Houses; the respective brand names were retained. After initial restructuring, the company prospered and maintained healthy profits for two decades. Such profitability enabled the company to expand steadily, so that by the end of 2019 it had 36 restaurants and 63 coffee houses. These were located in the
Authorised: Authorised: FoSS version 1 - Approved by: FAEC November 8 th 2016. Ref: 2 Module Assessment Briefing Form major cities and towns across the East Midlands and the North of England; the head office was located in Manchester. The company positioned its outlets as premium brands in the market place, as depicted by quality, service, price, décor and ambiance. Its restaurants served a typically British fare, but with an international tinge. The coffee houses similarly pursued a typically British style and were deemed by the company management to be better than the high street chains of Starbucks, Costa and Caffe Nero, in that there was much closer attention paid to sourcing quality ingredients. Moreover, they believed that the selection of cakes, pastries and sandwiches were superior and the design of the furniture was believed to be more contemporary. Across both businesses, along with product quality, customer service, which emphasised friendliness, concern for the customer and reliability, was a key competitive weapon.
However, from the beginning of 2017, the company began to falter. Revenues and profits in both parts of the business began to decline and by the end of 2019 many of the outlets were barely breaking even; some, indeed, had recorded a loss for the first time since opening. The company was not yet in crisis, but it was clear that corrective action was necessary.
A new chief executive had been appointed in January 2016. Although the company was very profitable at the time, he had recognised that the business environment had become much more competitive. As a result, he had taken immediate action to cut costs by reducing staff numbers (both businesses were labour intensive) and putting some of the surviving staff on new contacts. This involved a greater use of part-time work. Moreover, spurred on by the perceived success of Sports Direct, he had introduced zero-hours contracts for many new employees; these would only be upgraded to permanent status when a vacancy occurred. His aim was to produce a more flexible workforce that would enable the management to more accurately manage the peaks and troughs in service (the senior management had conducted an analysis of each outlet’s customer flow) and he used the favourable labour market conditions as the basis to achieve this. He commented that zero-hours contracts offered great work-life balance opportunities.
Criteria Weighting (If applicable)
1 Using information: Identify and use relevant academic literature to support analysis and to inform discussion of theories and concepts
N/A
2 Analysis: Use of argument, models, evidence and techniques in the development of theory and practice
N/A
3 Critical thinking: Objectively assess the relative contribution of different analytical approaches and theoretical perspectives.
N/A
4 Presentation: Clarity of portfolio presentation. Use of appropriate English with correct grammar, spelling and punctuation. Appropriately referenced sources using the Harvard Referencing methodology
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