Arab Open University Faculty of Business Studies, KWB T306A TMA- SPRING 2015/2016 Please read these instructions carefully. However, contact your tutor in case any difficulties with the instructions. You should submit your completed assignment to your

Arab Open University
Faculty of Business Studies, KWB
T306A TMA- SPRING 2015/2016

Please read these instructions carefully. However, contact your tutor in case any difficulties with the instructions. You should submit your completed assignment to your tutor no later than Saturday, 7/5/2016.
Please use standard A4 size paper for your TMA. Your name, personal identifier, course and assignment numbers must appear at the top of each sheet. Please leave wide margins and space at the end of each sheet for tutor comments. It is better to use double spacing so that you can easily handwrite corrections to your drafts and tutors have space to encourage with your points as you make them. Start each question in the assignment on a new page. Any extended text should ideally be word-processed, but, diagrams and accompanying notes may be hand drawn and you can use large sheets of paper.

Completing and sending your assignments

When you have completed each of your TMA, fill in an assignment form (PT3), taking care to enter correctly your personal identifier course and assignment numbers. Each TMA and its PT3 form should be sent to your tutor with your name, address and personal identifier written on it. Keep a copy of your TMA for security. The copy that is eventually returned to you after the assessment process will have comments written on it. All assignments are treated in strict confidence.
It is very important that you ensure that your tutor receives each assignment by the cut off date given. If you feel that you are unable to meet the cut-off date for any of the TMA, please contact your tutor as soon as possible to discuss your situation.

Plagiarism
You can score very well on this assignment using the materials provided as part of the course. However, if you have access to other sources of information such as reference books or the Internet, you may find it interesting to look there for additional relevant information. Very short extract from published sources may be included in context but you should avoid copying significant amounts of text from other authors. You should note that whilst the internet can provide lots of information much of it is not refereed and should be treated with caution.
If you take material from the course or elsewhere and incorporate it in your answer word-for-word, you must indicate where you have taken it. Not to do so it termed “plagiarism” and is regarded as an infringement of copyright. To attempt to pass off such work as your own is cheating.

You must therefore acknowledge all your sources of information.

Plagiarism will lead to a loss of marks and extensive plagiarism could mean that you fail this TMA. For more information about what constitutes plagiarism or cheating, you should refer to the current Assessment Handbook.

General
There are three questions in this TMA at the end of this case study. You should answer them all. You should notice the mark allocations for each question and allocate your effort accordingly.

Read the following case and then answer all the questions that follow:


McDonalds - Using assessments to improve the Customer
Experience and drive better business results

McDonald’s is one of the world’s leading family restaurant brands in the quick service sector. The company operates more than 1,200 restaurants across the United Kingdom, employing more than 97,000 people. McDonald’s UK has seen growth in its business and in its workforce during the past few years. In order to sustain this growth, changes needed to be made in restaurant operations, supported by more “customer confident” employees and managers who would deliver a great customer experience. To make these changes, McDonald has needed to enhance its existing selection process for new employees with a rigorous and customer centric recruitment strategy with the goal of hiring candidates who were capable of meeting the rapidly evolving needs of the business.

The challenge: finding the right candidates faster

The in-house recruitment team plays an integral role in supporting McDonald’s restaurants in the UK. During this period of growth, the business had a record number of applicants, and the team was challenged to look for innovative ways to improve efficiencies and enhance the effectiveness of the recruitment processes.
Across the UK, McDonald has received an average of 2,000 applicants each day for crew and customer care positions. However, only one of every 25 applicants was successful, meaning a high number of candidates were rejected at each stage of the process. The ratio was even bigger for trainee manager positions – only one of every 150 applicants was successful.
McDonald is using assessments to improve the customer experience and drive better business results overview the need McDonald’s UK recruitment team needed to enhance its selection process for new employees with customer centric strategy to attract and hire candidates with the right job fit.
The recruitment team had to find an innovative way to reduce the time recruiters and managers spent on screening and assessing unsuitable candidates. At the same time, the team had to provide a positive candidate experience to each applicant, whether they were successful or not.

The solution: assessing candidates for fit

McDonald’s recruitment team selected IBM to come up with a way to solve this challenge. Together, they held 20 focus groups throughout 2013 with more than 150 top performing employees from around the UK. Feedback from the focus group revealed:
• Many candidates did not have a comprehensive knowledge of the roles they were applying for.
• Many candidates did not consider the impact of undertaking shift work, working in a customer-facing environment or the requirement to be able to follow procedures and work as part of a large team.
When a candidate’s experience matches their expectations of the job, they are more satisfied and less likely to leave on their own. When a company can reduce early turnover, it can see substantial employee replacement cost savings. Using certain assessments can encourage candidates not to proceed with the application if they feel that the requirements will not suit their preferred way of working, thus reducing the number of unsuitable candidates in the later stages of the application process.
As a result of what was discovered from the focus groups, consultants from IBM and McDonald’s recruitment team created the Realistic Job Preview (RJP) and Situational Judgment (SJT) & Dependability Test, and embedded them into McDonald’s Online Recruitment System. These assessments were designed to provide the candidate with a clear understanding of the expectations, culture, values and attitudes required from people in the positions of crew/customer care. These assessments presented scenarios that candidates will face in the position of crewmember and customer care assistant.
After completing the RJP, candidates get immediate feedback, letting them know how their responses fit with McDonald’s and the requirements of the position. If they proceed to the next step, they take the SJT, which assess the behaviors that have been defined as critical for the position. Candidates either pass or fail the SJT.
Candidates also take the Dependability Test, which is designed to assess natural levels of dependency, reliability and the likelihood to follow instructions. The results then generate an overall score, which determines whether a candidate progresses to the next stage.

The results: saving time and resources while finding top talent

The RJP was launched in September 2013, and it was expected to provide a noticeable drop in the number of applications because more candidates would de-select themselves during the process. In addition, McDonald’s recruitment team expected the application to hire ratio would improve, allowing the team to use the time saved to focus on more suitable candidates. The SJT & Dependability tests were launched by January 2014, and the team anticipated that scores would eventually rise because the candidates would be a better fit and could provide a better customer experience.
It did not take long for McDonald’s recruitment team to see the benefits of its investment. Immediately, the number of candidates proceeding to the application stage dropped for both crew and management positions. Four months after the launch, the number of applicants for crewmembers dropped 35 percent, while management positions experienced a 50 percent cut.
As a result, the time saved by screening fewer management applications was significant, allowing the recruitment team to focus on the most suitable candidates and to set up and support a centralized assessment schedule for management positions across the UK. This centralized assessment center model allows for greater consistency of hiring practices and allows team members to support the “business need” to increase the management establishment numbers.
The assessment centers cut time to hire for management positions by more than 25 percent, and cut the application to hire ratio by nearly 66 percent.



Questions:
1. Comment on the relevance and suitability of hard or soft approach in highlighting issues faced by McDonald’s. ( 600 words) (20% marks)

2. Apply the Soft Systems Method to this situation case, including rich picture and conceptual mapping in order to brainstorm, analyse and make suitable recommendations. Provide a detailed narrative explaining your thinking process. (1500 words) (60% marks)

3. Investigate further suitable approaches and tools that could be used to investigate, illustrate and make recommendation to solving problems. Please consult all your course materials and undertake relevant literature search. (600 words)(20% marks)