Table of Contents
Forecast-Growth
For Chick-fil-A to continue to be successful, it must plan for ensuring labor employment and staff needs and growth. Because of the COVID-19 epidemic, Chick-fil-A should come up with new ways to communicate and handle customer service experiences. With that in mind, Chick-fil-A needs to “focus on innovation and to improve to serve and nourish communities.”
At the same time, Chick-fil-A must continue to engage and connect with their employees while providing a safe and positive environment for their growing workforce.
As far as safety guidelines, Chick-fil-A currently provides gloves, facial masks, plexiglass, and sanitizer for their workforce. As a recommendation, Chick-fil-A needs to continue to provide these safety items for their workforce to prevent employees from getting sick.
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Chick-fil-A restaurants are currently serving through the drive-thru are now equipped with outdoor hand-washing stations for Team Members to frequently wash their hands. Chick-fil-A should continue to follow the Center for Disease and Control (CDC) guidelines on washing hands after each customer. “To combat the spread of COVID-19, Chick-fil-A is advising their employees to wash their hands a minimum of every 30 minutes, and every time they interact with cash” (Coronavirus News, n.d.). This will affect the workforce that employees aren’t put at risk, not only will they not get sick, they’ll also feel protected and less likely to quit, etc.
As far as growing the workforce, Chick-fil-A currently focuses on diversity. Chick-fil-A makes diversity a part of the workplace culture. The leaders make sure that they hire people from different backgrounds. They look for individuals that have multiple skills and different perspectives to bring to the workplace. The leaders look for individuals who are honest and zealous about joining forces as a team and blend distinct plans in chasing a bigger cause.
Chick-fil-A should continue including diverse groups to the workforce. Chick-fil-A should attract diverse employees because it drives performance. “Companies that exhibit gender and ethnic diversity are 15 percent and 35 percent more likely to perform those that don’t” (Hunt, Layton, & Prince, 2015). Chick-fil-A will be the frontrunner in having employees that look like their customers.
Chick-fil-A currently provides a nice reward package for their employees. To continue to grow their workforce, Chick-fil-A should continue to provide their employees with a benefits package. According to a BCI confirmation statement, 91% of employees feel that benefits are as crucial as salary, and 86% believe they influence employee loyalty (BCI enrollment confirmation statements, n.d.). Even in these unforeseen times with COVID-19, Chick-fil-A should continue to provide safety, good benefits, and diversity to be competitive within the market. Having an emergency plan of action when strategies fail, it will help Chick-fil-A to retain excellent workers and build the workforce for the long-term.
Forecast-Reduction
All companies want to be successful in dealing with sales growth plans, but organizations must be ready if those plans fail. At the beginning of COVID-19, Chick-fil-A closed all restaurants following other restaurants in the industry. After a certain number of weeks, Chick-fil-A began to open only their drive-thru, open just delivery, takeout, or mobile order options (Frequently Asked Questions, 2020).
It is suggested that Chick-fil-A continue to focus on expanding drive-thru, curbside pick-up, and mobile order options. “Chick-fil-A drive-thru window business generates 70% of sales” (Kempner, 2020). Therefore, maintaining delivery and other options Chick-fil-A will keep sales stable but they may need to make do with fewer workers due to losses during COVID-19.
Chick-fil-A has a culture of caring for others which include their workforce. The COVID-19 pandemic threatened Chick-fil-A’s workforce because of the uncertainty of the economy. Chick-fil-A should encourage at-risk employees such as furlough or employees who have been let go to file for unemployment; therefore, they will have some money coming to them. Chick-fil-A should provide emotional support for their employees through the employee’s assistance program from their benefits package.
It will give support for employees that are stressed about losing their jobs. Chick-fil-A currently has its corporate employees working from home. Chick-fil-A should continue to allow their corporate workers to work from home. Furthermore, employees that work in areas that are in danger of shutting down can be moved to another area, for example, delivery. An employee that just cleans inside the restaurant can be moved to become a delivery driver. These options such as delivery can help to retain the workforce and keep sales stable.
Training Plans-Evaluation
Chick-fil-A has a succession plan to maintain its organizational sustainability. Chick-fil-A utilizes Coca Cola’s system of “Three Deep” (Coyler, 2019). For example, Chick-fil-A picks three top executives and develop their skills to take over the company if needed. Chick-fil-A is fixed on succession planning and is calculated regarding career tracks. The succession planning “ensures that businesses continue to run smoothly after a company’s most important people move on to new opportunities, retire, or pass away” (Kenton, 2020).
Succession planning examines each leader’s skills. It helps to recognize employees that can replace leaders by training them. A company should have an emergency succession plan when certain leaders abruptly leave the company. Also, the company should have a long-term succession plan for regular changes in leaders. For example, 90% of employees received scholarships from Chick-fil-A, they plan to stay with the company after receiving their degree (Romeo, 2020). They have a high retention rate, and employees have emotional intelligence and are trained, so the organization is able to move people up in the company and fill management gaps as needed. When having a succession plan, employees are more likely to stay with the company.
The organization’s performance management procedures happen two times a year and Chick-fil-A has a semi-annual review and the end of the year review for the whole workforce. Once Chick-fil-A’s employees do their review, the management team meets to discuss every worker’s performance. Be that as it may, it is essential to not center around the employee’s abilities as it is matched with performance. As indicated by Levenson (2016), “For workers to be fruitful, there must be a perfect blend of three elements: singular skills, motivation and perspectives, and adjusted job design (Levenson, 2016, p.6).
Since Chick-fil-A is dealing with COVID-19, the employees and executives are currently going through training for washing their hands, how to sanitize the restaurants, how to use the sanitization stations, and properly wear masks. The recommendations are that Chick-fil-A continues monitoring employees with safety guidelines for the restaurants and continue to have training for employees. It is suggested that managers be trained to take temperature checks for employees to prevent the spread of COVID-19. It is recommended that any new employees be trained online instead of the training site to limit contact from others.
Training Plans-Rationale
Chick-fil-A should use the nine-box grid for managing a victorious succession plan all across their restaurants. The nine-box grid is a 3×3 grid that is an evaluation apparatus that is utilized by managers and executives. It examines the employees present and possible level of skills utilized to the organization. “The vertical columns of the grid indicate growth potential and the horizontal rows identify whether the employee is currently below, meeting or exceeding performance expectations” (Shrm, 2019).
The point where these two crosses decide the present positioning of the workers and where development is required. To help solid but not outstanding performers with moderate leadership potential, It is best that Chick-fil-A management team or leaders mix up the training which would include coaching, mentoring, real-life simulations, (Griffin, 2014), to bring employees up to the level of the other high performers.
After the training, the leaders should test every time the employees finish simulations, coaching, and mentoring. Chick-fil-A should put high potential employees with a high performer (High Potentials vs. High Performers: A Manager’s Guide, 2019). They would mentor each other. This helps to build each person’s strength with another weakness and vice versa.
