Dunkin Donuts: My Kind of Franchise

I am now a District Manager. The owner of the stores I have been working at has seen and rewarded me for all of my hard work and dedication. Now his plans are to open five new stores for me to head over in the next two years. My first step after the stores are built, are to structure, staff and operate these five locations for this Franchisee. This will be a new step for me; however, this person has put their trust in me. They also know that I am well qualified to get the job done. Now I will lay out my plan to structure, staff and begin operations for the business. Job Design

“Job design occurs when managers determine the tasks needed to be done, who will do them, and the selection criteria to be used to choose employees and place them on the job” ( Reilly, Minnick & Baack, 2011). With job design, I will identify the knowledge, skills and abilities of a job to the person that can complete the job right.

I will start by doing a job analysis. This consists of using the three forms, comparison with other companies, experimentation and reflective planning. Comparison can be calling another place and asking if they think Dunkin Donuts is right for the area. Experimentation is what it says. Trying new things to see what works well and works together. The final form is reflective planning. This requires a manager to think about how the job should be designed. I personally would have to use the reflective planning. Even if a job title changes the job itself could stay the same. An example of this could be someone monitoring the internet for false or misleading information about the company. If it was not for the monitor on the internet, a potential problem could not have been eliminated. “Job analysis is a vital first step in the design of an organization. When the manager and human resource specialist have agreed on the tasks that belong to each job, the next organizational step in job design takes place – creating a job description” (Reilly, Minnick & Baack, 2011).

Job descriptions use two main ways. First, it is part of the recruiting process that allows those applying to see what the job actually is. Second, they usually appear in the company website or company bulletin board. These help the manager to find the person suited to the job. Once this is created, than we have the job specifications. This list of requirements is needed, to even be considered for the job listed. “This list, job specification, identifies the eligibility requirements or qualifications needed to perform a job” (Reilly, Minnick & Baack, 2011). Most job specifications are listed in publications within the company and once released go out to the labor boards and such for hire. This is so the labor boards can find and match those that belong with the jobs needed. Once this process is finished than the Manager can go on to, start the hiring process and find those that he feels will work best for him.

Organizational Design
“Organizational design is the process by which managers make specific organizing choices that result in the particular kind of organizational structure they will use” ( Reilly, Minnick & Baack, 2011). There are six key steps to organizational Design. What this means is that an entire job is founded on many smaller jobs done together for the sake of that one job. The first is work specialization. An organization separates its jobs in to these different degrees. The second is called departmentalization. This is the basic step to how the jobs are grouped together. There are five steps within this step. Functional, product, geographical, process, and customer departmentalization. The third is chain of command. This is as the name implies. The continuous line of authority, which goes from the highest levels to the lowest levels. It also tells us who reports to who. There are three theories that go with this step. Those are authority, responsibility and unity of command. The fourth is the span of control. This determines the number of levels and managers a company has.

The fifth is centralization and decentralization.
The sixth is formalization. This tells us the degree to which the jobs within the company are standardized. It also tells us the extent an employee’s behavior is guided by the rules and regulations. Ur nest process is recruiting and selection. Recruiting and Selection

“The employee placement process consists of four activities: recruiting, selection, orientation and employee development” (Reilly, Minnick & Baack, 2011). Since we now know whom we are looking for, it is time to find the employees that best fits the areas needed. Now we have to list our job, its description, and various functions. We should also add the minimum requirement on education as well as previous training. We will now send it out to advertise for potential employee has and show them the possible positions available. After we have our close date, we will begin with forming our short list of those applicants that are a perfect fit for the job.

When we look at selection, we have a checklist that helps us to obtain the right fit with the right employee. Once we have our short list we can now look at the interview and what it entails. “Candidates are found among agents who have demonstrated good, transferable sales skills following company systems. A development program should enhance skills, focus the skills on management roles, and add certain skills” (Souter, 1990). You have to have a set of acceptable job related questions pertaining to the job. Also, a certain set of aptitude tests for evaluation. Have all job-related work samples included for any other interviews. Training and performance Appraisals

“The official and ongoing educational activities within an organization designed to enhance the fulfillment and performance of employees. Training and development programs offered by a business might include a variety of educational techniques and programs that can be attended on compulsory or voluntary  basis by staff” (Reilly, Minnick, & Baack, 2011). Once all of the testing is complete and the applicant hired, we have to train the new hire. “Bill Russell, district manager for Pitney Bowles, feels strongly that all new sales representatives require special guidance. He says they have to work by the numbers” (Falvey, 1990). Many times the very first day is spent filling out paperwork in personnel, touring the plant or in orientation. “However, day one really should be spent face to face with the manager, who should go over all the aspects of the job, the market, the company, the training period and the expectations for each time period in the first few months” (Falvey, 1990).

Since most of the district managers started from the bottom and worked their way up, they have a great insight on just what training needs to be done. They will be the ones to teach the managers of each store to teach the employees what needs to be done. “Almost all new hires need to learn the ropes. Every company has its own procedures, which are important for all employees to understand” (Reilly, Minnick & Baack, 2011). Once someone has been hired in and trained, they will have a grace period most of the time. Once that time is up, we look at performance appraisals and other things to see if the person still fits with the job they are doing. Performance Appraisals

“Performance Assessments consists of assessing an employee’s performance and providing feedback. This staffing task has two purposes. First, a performance appraisal helps employees understand how they are doing in relation to objectives and standards as well as in relation to other workers. Second, Performance evaluation assists in training and personal development programs” (Reilly, Minnick & Baack, 2011). We know many ways to do a performance appraisal. “Few organizations are satisfied with their own performance appraisal system, and fewer still know” (Perry, More, & Parkison, 1987). However, through trial and error we have found what works for us and still is within the laws. “Before the introduction of monitoring systems, performance appraisal activities were left to the discretion of each of the different departments” (Perry, More, & Parkison, 1987). This left a lot to be bias.

This is why we chose to find new ways to perform the task. “A checklist was developed that listed only the  ‘shall’ and ‘must’ elements. This was then divided into three sections; timeliness, content, and process. Timeliness dealt with the various time lines. Content determined the degree to which the written material addresses the required elements. Process asked the questions; was the appraisal discussed, was the employee given the time to give their own input, and did the employee receive a copy?” (Perry, More, & Parkison, 1987). It was from these humble beginnings, that we have the various foundations, which we have today. Now we have such a system that we are checked and balanced throughout every aspect of the appraisal process. “Production work and good supervision of work requires ongoing communications that result in better, or in continuance of the best, working relationships” (Perry, More, & Parkison, 1987). Conclusion

Now I am a District Manager. The person who put me in this position felt that I was well qualified to handle the job design that they have set for me. Now I have set the job and organizational designs. I have completed my recruiting and selection, choosing those that I felt would do best for this new venture. After I found the short list of people that I thought would work, I went on, hired them, and trained them. With all of that done, we went through our grace period and have come to the yearly task of performance appraisals. We see the benefits that came out after the appraisals and are continuing with the next store at hand. Therefore, we will now continue to with our day-to-day operations of this store and the other five, ‘Time to make the donuts.’

References
1) Dunkin’ Brands, ( 2014) Dunkin donuts: About us; DD IP Holder LLC and BP IC Holder LLC Canton. MA Retrieved From:
http://news.dunkinbrands.com/content/default.aspx?

2) Falvey, J. (1990) The care and feeding of new sales people; Sales and Marketing Management Vol.142, Issue 2, pg. 22; Retrieved From:
http://search.proquest.com/docview/211812169

3) Perry, M., More, J., & Parkison, N. (1987) Does your appraisal system stack up. Personal Journal, Vol. 66, Issue 5, p. 82-88; Retrieved From: http://search.proquest.com/docview/219775203

4) Reilly, M., Minnick, C. & Baack, D. (2011) The five functions of effective management Bridgepoint Educational Inc., San Diego, CA. Retrieved From: http://content.ashford.edu/books/AUMGT330.11.1

5) Souter, R.S. ( 1990) Developing staff managers; Manager’s Magazine Vol.65, Issue 3, pg. 22-25; Retrieved From:
http://search.proquest.com/docview/213174085