Dunkin Donuts and Dominos Pizza: Training for Quality and Hustle

Case Study: Dunkin Donuts and Dominos Pizza share the same requirement for success: Provide a highquality product at an impressive speed. Where, Dominos guarantees a hot, tasty pizza delivered to your doorstep as soon as possible, while Dunkin Donuts promise fresh doughnuts every four hours and fresh coffee every 18 minutes. To meet this requirement both these fast-food companies face the training challenge: Train a very young and inexperienced workforce to meet rigorous performance standards. Both the companies approach this training challenge with a highly decentralized training function, which is highly profitable for both the companies in the terms of sales. Discussion Questions: 1. What are the strengths and shortcomings of a decentralized approach to training managers and hourly employees? Discuss. 2. Develop a plan for determining the training needs of the hourly paid staff of a Dominos Pizza franchise. 3. In your opinion, why was the turnover rate among the management trainees in Dunkin Donuts centralized program so high?

Facts taken from the Case: Provide high quality product at impressive speed Same training challenge for both the companies Train a very young and inexperienced workforce Highly decentralized training function On-the job training for hourly employees Training by store managers or franchisee owners Performance standards are demanding Control by corporate training staff on store managers to provide training to hourly employees Provide videotapes Provide corporate produced training posters Dominos provides six month MIT program for store mangers training Management trainees also sent to regional training centre Franchisee owners conduct the MIT courses Rigorous training programs for all prospective owners Dunkin donuts conduct demanding training programs for its franchisee owners Six weeks of training at Dunkin Donuts University in Braintree Four weeks in production training, where last two weeks focus is on financial aspects Former store managers or district sales managers conduct the training programs Training of hourly employees is totally decentralized Franchisee owners serve as trainers Receive help from corporate office Experienced store managers are trained as store manager trainers Program and materials developed by the corporate staff Company dropped its 12-weeks training program at company headquarters Annual training costs decreased People related management skills are emphasized Annual turnover rate for hourly workers is considerably less than the industry average

Q) What are the strengths and shortcomings of a decentralized approach to training managers and hourly employees? Discuss. Answer: A decentralized approach to training managers and hourly employees has some advantages and some disadvantages as well for the organization. For example the disadvantage can be that you can lose control over the standardization of your training material as well as consistent training programs. While the advantage can be that you can conduct training explicitly for a specific business or department, or even to a macro level as for a certain task that needs to be carried. There are possibilities of inconsistencies to occur in the training standards followed across the various locations where the trainings are conducted, as that would also depend upon the quality of trainer that is available at the given locations. All the trainers cannot be of the same quality, maintaining the standard of the trainings is a challenge. Also, there is a possibility of the training to get restricted to specific jobs, and so the trainees may not be able to learn all the aspects of the trainings they need to have actually gone through. However the biggest advantage is the cost factor. The annual expenses incurred for trainings are much less as that compared to the case in a centralized approach. Also, the trainees get an on-the job experience during the training, but is much better an experience as compared to a regular formal training. Also, the trainees are closer to their target audience, and so they can understand the needs of the customers better and build better relations. In the case of this case study we can certainly notice a few strengths and shortcomings of a decentralized approach to training managers and hourly employees which are listed as follows: Strengths in training managers o Their training program provides them with practical as well as theoretical knowledge o They are trained in corporate headquarters, therefore they are aware of how corporate headquarters actually functions which will sharpen their skills o They have been trained by experienced store managers which give them skills to handle the workload as well as they come to know about different experiences which they are likely to face in store operations Shortcomings in training managers o After completing their education, the employees already know many features of the theoretical aspects, so there is actually no need to provide them with a 6 months program and spend a lot on just training of store managers o After completing 6 months program, if they are not able to clear the test, the failure will give them insecurity at the job o They should be taught something about customer satisfaction, time management, risk management because these are the important things that are related to the restaurant industry Strengths in training hourly employees o On-the job training is provided which give them more practical knowledge o They are paid, so they can also earn while they learn

Performance standards are demanding so their training makes them more tough to handle the work load o Video cassettes are provided by the corporate staff so that they can learn through those videos and apply that in their jobs Shortcomings in training hourly employees o Constant monitoring is not done by the corporate staff due to which the franchisee owners can skip some of the training sessions o On-the job training means employees are not aware of their corporate headquarters standards of working. Employees should actually be aware of how their corporate staff actually functions o They are trained by the store managers, so they will be bounded only to the store operations

Q) Develop a plan for determining the training needs of the hourly paid staff of a Dominos Pizza franchise. Answer: After recruiting the hourly paid staff at Dominos Pizza, the staff must be evaluated upon certain skills. They should be given a feedback form or a short objective type question paper in which certain questions related to restaurant operations must be asked. Through this we can judge that how far they are aware of store operations because its not necessary that each and every employee requires undergoing the entire training program. It is also possible there maybe a few employees that have a work experience in working with other stores so, which means that they do not need to undergo the training program and that can save a lot on the training costs. Also, after evaluating the question paper, we can make groups of those hourly paid employees according to their skills they possess. The employees who have similar kind of skill set can be grouped under one team. After that, for 2 weeks those employees should be asked to work in a store without giving any training and store manager should monitor that how are they working and what additional skills they require. So after monitoring them for 2 weeks, we can make a list of certain areas/skills in which each group needs has to be trained on. And according to that we can provide them on-the job training. For example, it is possible that a group is very good in taking the order, while the other can be a very good pizza maker. The time period for this training now will be different for different groups because it depends upon what skills are needed. For example, as I have mentioned in the above example one group will not be needed to be trained on taking the order, while the other need not be trained on making pizza. Through this kind of a training program we can cut down the cost for training as well as we can save our time and polish all the employees equally.

Q) In your opinion, why was the turnover rate among the management trainees in Dunkin Donuts centralized program so high? Answer: In the centralized program all the store managers were given training in corporate headquarters by the corporate executives. There is a possibility that the store managers do not get the on-the job experience and so possibly that they do not get the complete satisfaction, even after attending the program. Due to this there are chances that many of these store managers leave Dunkin Donuts due to the dissatisfaction. Whereas, in the decentralized approach the store managers are given the training by experienced store managers. Here there is a possibility that the store managers would feel that they do not need to attend this training program formally. With this kind of the training they also get the on-the job experience, and possibly give them satisfaction at work. The other advantage with this approach is that there are very good chances that these store managers will be given chances to train the newer managers once they have gained adequate experience. Also, there is a possibility that the experience store managers are paid a little extra, as monetary incentives, for the trainings that they conduct. This can be an enough motivation for the new managers to stay with Dominos for a longer duration. Therefore the turnover rate of the new managers at the decentralized training program is much less as compared to the earlier centralized program, and that has significantly decreased the annual training costs.