CLOSING CASE Investing In lalent Some businesses see em- ployee costs such as wa
ID: 330013 • Letter: C
Question
CLOSING CASE Investing In lalent Some businesses see em- ployee costs such as wages and salaries as an expense. But others see employees as vital resources that can give them a real competitive ad- vantage. Darden Restaurants alls clearly in the second set. Darden operates such popu- lar eateries as Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, Capi- tal Grill, and others. All told the firm has about 150,000 employees and 1,500 restau- rants (all company owned, not franchised) and 3 agers are women. What's Darden's secret? pany tries to impress upon its employees that working for Darden can be a career and not just a job. The firm invests heavily in talent development and offers extensive career planning to all employees. The company also offers its employees an array of other meaningful benefits as wel For example, it supportsa credit union that provides Darden has been named one of the best companies to work for in America by Fortune magazine, the only restaurant business that's ever made this list. The firm's annual employee turnover is about 20 percent lower than its industry average and many Darden top managers started at the bottom and worked themselves up the corporate ladder. In fact, that is one major reason that Darden's employees enjoy working there so much. low-interest loans to employees, strong health-care packages and substantial training and Darden recently announced plans to open 500 new restaurants in the next 5 years and hire almost 50,000 nevw employees. Given its track record in hiring, nurturing, and pro moting employees, there seems to be little question that it succeed. And who knows-Olive Garden and Capital Grill may one day soon be as common as McDonald's and Starbucks.2 Take Mike Stroud,for example. Stroud started asa busboy at a Red Lobster in Georgia in 1973 (at the time Red Lobster was owned by Darden but was recently sold to a private investment group). Today, he is a senior vice presh dent overseeing 215 locations. Likewise, Lisa Hoggs joined the company waiting tables at a LongHorn Steakhouse. Now Case Questions 1. What factors have led Darden to take its current ap- proach to employee development and advancement Darden owns both family-oriented casual restaurants such as Olive Garden and more sophisticated upscale places such as Capital Grill. What effects might this struc ture have for employee development? 2. anaging partner, running a $3 million location in out 42 percent of its employees are minoritiesExplanation / Answer
Talking about Darden, they have a long chain of hotels and restaurants as they want to develop the life cycle of the customer to customer satisfaction, hence the company as to improve the goodwill have invested the amount in the improvement of the employee, talking about rest of the world they take investment for the employees as salaries and expense and dont like to invest in the upliftment of the employee not thinking that this employees are the asset for them, as when they think about the employees, the employees will take care of your business.
Now talking about Darden, the company thinks about the growth of the employee is in terms of mutual benefits, first thing is while taking care of the employee, as when they thought to help the employees and not to give the thought that they are here to just work, its more than doing the job, the employees can grow here and make their career and they can also become managers in their life, the company also helps the employees with loan and they think that they are their family members which make the employees think that they are also the part of the company like family members, which will make them more faithful towards the company, now thinking from the point of employees, if the company is giving them the chance to grow as well the company provides that space which is very much necessary for them in their daily life, it will be very much helpful for them to satisfy all their needs, hence all the employees will be very much satisfied and also very much towards the goal to achieve what they want in life, hence they might like the environment to work here more rather than to leave the organisation.
Now talking about Darden having two businesses they will strategise the whole plan for the growth of the employees as well as they will make the plan in such a way that the employees will be very much helpful in both the organisations and when they want to switch the staff they can, as this will be very much helpful for the employees as well as the company mangement, as there will be no bifurcation in both the employees and they will be ready for both the circumstances which come up to work for, so the employee development will be planned in such a way that it will grow the employees keeping in mind both the situtations which are very much helpful for the organisation.