Outsourcing Human Resources - Essay Sample

Introduction

Outsourcing services is a common ideology by most expanding businesses seeking new markets in continents such as Asia or Africa. In order to get there and breach the market forces existing in the region, there is a need to hire the right personnel. Personnel hiring is a factor of several issues. The most important of these is getting the right staff, then training them to maintain the organizational culture, as well as compensating them enough to keep them motivated. Organizations that manage these key aspects of human resource can explore new markets and essentially establish niches as well. Human resource management is important to the stability of a business as the employee is the most critical contributor to the very business (Brewster, Vernon, Sparrow and Houldsworth 2016). This essay explores the strategies that can be utilized to ensure that restaurant expansion in McDonald's into Jeddah, Saudi Arabia is effective and well managed in terms of human resources.

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Strategic Decisions

Staffing

Staffing in a new region is a considerably challenging issue. There are work issues that the human resource function should consider. The first of these is the work permit concern. If foreigners are to work in the Jeddah store, they need to have the appropriate legal papers to allow them to work in the new location (Nankervis, Baird, Coffey and Shields 2016). Getting local staff is also a factor of considerable difficulty for a foreign organization. There are options that can be considered when hiring a local hand. The first of these factors is outsourcing hiring services. Having local agencies supply employees to work in the Jeddah McDonald's store can be a good strategy but an expensive one. The second approach is to franchise the brand, and include employees in the franchise deal. McDonald's can turn a successful Jeddah restaurant into a rebranded McDonald's store and offer the existing employees new contracts (Albrecht, Bakker, Gruman, Macey and Saks 2015).

Exploring outsourcing options is important for the human resource option. Since staffing is a significant challenge, it may be important to hire a point person who will manage the restaurant. This person should be a local and native of the region. They should be chosen in a competitive interview process, after which they can be allowed to bring on staff who can then be vetted and trained to fill in various other positions in the restaurant (Jamali, El Dirani and Harwood 2015). This strategy is the riskiest of the three. If the manager is not professional enough, they can bring employees who are not suited for their roles and end up exposing the restaurant to risky customer reviews. While it may be necessary to have a manager who understands the region and clients, it is more important to have employees who are competent in their duties and can always deliver on their mandates with minimal supervision (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart and Wright 2017).

Training

Appropriate training strategies for a restaurant differ based on several factors. The first of these is the size of the restaurant. An organization with many employees ensures that each employee only serves minimum roles and thus can be trained within a short period of time (Buettner 2015). Restaurants however commonly have employees serving different tasks. They need training on organizational culture as well as aspects of cuisine and service that define the restaurant. Being a fast food joint, McDonald's needs to have a specified manual on how fast foods are run and what constitutes discipline, hygiene and service standards in their establishments. The employees in this location also need to be trained on how best to dress when serving clients, including being offered uniform to wear during working hours (Brewster et al. 2016). Training should also include aspects of the relationship between employees and management. Employees should know how best to relate with one another for the benefit of the organization.

The training strategies in place should consider measures such as disciplinary issues, and how management can handle employees, the organizational bylaws as well as the employee rights and privileges. Training is important to ensure that the employee is indoctrinated in the culture of the organization (Cascio 2015). Consistent training of staff should also be encouraged in situations such as when they are being promoted as well as when they begin offering new services and cuisine. Organizations should manage their training as well. They can do so by either outsourcing the services to an organization that performs staff training for restaurant staff, or by having training centers in cases where there is a larger chain or restaurants. In the case of Saudi Arabia, it may help to work with an expert organization that can do the training on behalf of McDonald's and ensures the staff is well trained to handle cuisine and other catering services.

Reward System

Hiring and training cannot be sufficient in a business that runs on attitude and the need to be courteous. A good reward system maintains employees and keeps them working in the organization for a longer period of time. McDonald's thus needs to determine the appropriate reward system to use on the employees in the region they seek to set up shop. Rewards systems can be based on market demand or company policy (Shen and Benson 2016). If McDonald's considers the market demand, they have to meet the cost of service staff that the restaurants in Jeddah pay their staff. The organization needs to investigate on how payments are made in terms of frequency, the level of compensation in Dollars or Saudi Dinar, as well as the bonuses and allowances. It is better to use this approach than to pay the same amount of money paid to American service people as it may be unsustainable to simply transfer salary scales to a new continent.

Motivating employees in Saudi Arabia will involve more than simply compensating them well. There are other issues of reward that need to be considered as well. These include; salary increases, bonus payments, overtime payments, and promotions. Employees need to feel that they are growing with the organization, and as the company makes more money, the same should be reflected on their paychecks (Shen and Benson 2016). Motivation is necessary to ensure the consistent performance of employees at all time. Similarly, it is vital to have all employees able to air their grievances whenever they feel like, and a channel to do so should be availed within the human resource department. The human resource function in the location will likely be the manager at the store. The manager should be an individual who can listen to complaints and address them appropriately, even as they encourage and commend the good work done by recognizing employees.

Cultural Factors

Language

Language is an important aspect of culture in a new region. As a human resource manager in an organization, it is important to hire employees who can speak the local dialects (Nankervis et al. 2016). The restaurant should communicate efficiently with the clientele. As a result of the differences in English and the Arabic language, the management should have employees who can speak some English as much as they speak the Arabic language. It would ensure that McDonald's customers who are in Saudi Arabia can communicate with the staff or at least one employee at the restaurant in English. Regardless, the inherent communication language in the region is Arabic. The restaurant should thus conform to the new environment. Recruiters need to understand the dialect of the employees they hire so as to discuss pertinent personal issues with them in interviews (Buettner 2015).

Diet

Diet is an important cultural issue in an inherently Islamic nation. Saudi Arabia only allows Halal certified foods to be sold at their restaurants. McDonald's should be careful not to offend clients with menu items such as pork and other edibles that are discouraged by the Islamic religion. The Hindu religion is also similarly represented in the region. Beef is a menu item most Indians would not be happy about. It is important for management to ensure that they have employees who are conscious of diet issues relating to the clients they serve in the restaurant (Gill, Gardner, Claeys and Vangronsvelt 2018). Employees should ensure that they discuss menu options with the clients and have them select the best meals that do not offend their cultures or religions. Diet management is important as it ultimately influences the menu that will be served in the McDonald's store in Saudi Arabia.

Religion

Religion is a complicated aspect of culture that restaurants at time fail to capture. Religions such as Hindu and Islam dictate aspects of etiquette and dressing that should be observed in the business setting. The McDonald's management needs to ensure that they hire employees who are cautious about their religious beliefs and ensure that respect and tolerance for religion are encouraged at the workplace (Noe et al. 2017). Similarly, it is vital for the organization to have all employees understand aspects of the predominant religion in the region; Islam. They should be able to show etiquette in Islam and respect religious holidays and celebrations. Getting in line with the religion that is inherently practiced in Jeddah will make it possible for the organization to attract more clients. It is also important to check aspects such as working days and religious holidays so as to adjust business hours and off days effectively.

Albrecht, S.L., Bakker, A.B., Gruman, J.A., Macey, W.H. and Saks, A.M., 2015. Employee engagement, human resource management practices and competitive advantage: An integrated approach. Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance, 2(1), pp.7-35. Accessed from http://dro.deakin.edu.au/eserv/DU:30071114/albrecht-employeeengagement-post-2015.pdf

Buettner, R., 2015, January. A systematic literature review of crowdsourcing research from a human resource management perspective. In 2015 48th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (pp. 4609-4618). IEEE. Accessed from https://www.prof-buettner.com/downloads/buettner2015b.pdf

Brewster, C., Vernon, G., Sparrow, P. and Houldsworth, E., 2016. International human resource management. Kogan Page Publishers. http://bmsajjad.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/International-Human-Resource-Management.pdf

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Jamali, D.R., El Dirani, A.M. and Harwood, I.A., 2015. Exploring human resource management roles in corporate social responsibility: the CSRHRM cocreation model. Business Ethics: A European Review, 24(2), pp.125-143. Accessed from http://www.academia.edu/download/44524110/Role_of_HRM_in_CSR_Qualitative_Evidence_20160407-31280-1hnzbdx.pdf

Nankervis, A.R., Baird, M., Coffey, J. and Shields, J., 2016. Human resource management: strategy and practice. Cengage AU. Accessed from http://testbankwizard.eu/sample/Solution-Manual-for-Human-Resource-Management-Strategy-and-Practice-7th-Edition-by-Nankervis.pdf

Noe, R.A., Hollenbeck, J.R., Gerhart, B. and Wright, P.M., 2017. Human resource management: Gaining a competitive advantage. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education. Accessed from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ariadne_Tsam...