SWOT Analysis Team Exercise 1 PDF

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Team Exercise 1

SWOT ANALYSIS

SWOT Analysis Strengths:

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Existing customer base: Barrie Super Subs is a well-known chain across Canada; and are well recognized in its category therefore, their existing customers can allow the company to shift its focus to managing operations rather than acquiring customers.

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Good incentives provided to management and staff: Bonuses motivate management to investigate wastage and encourages them to eliminate it as they are direct beneficiaries from the process of making the outlet more efficient. Additionally, food allowances provided to regular staff can be an attractive perk for job applicants and can encourage employees to work more hours, especially during times where shortages in staff occur, thus making their efforts essential. Food allowances also puts a limit on the amount of food that regular staff can eat freely, which helps in reducing wastage.

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Training: Super subs does provide training for new employees whether they have experience or not. Providing some additional training can help employees get adjusted to a new work environment, and thoroughly understand and learn their duties.

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Student-friendly: A unique factor is that most of their employees are students, so Super Subs can be pretty accommodating to employees' schedules. Being a resource for students to obtain a part-time job can also improve reputation. Moreover, Super subs customers are even increasing with students inviting fellow classmates and friends to the restaurant. This is reinforced by a recent study displaying that 38% of students agree that on-campus marketing is the way to reach them (Hansen, 2012).

Weaknesses:

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Low morale: Low morale decreases motivation to cut down on waste for regular employees at the outlet, especially given that they are not directly benefitting from the reduction of the wastage. This is seen to be dampening the work atmosphere and affecting the overall performance of the outlet, as well as increasing production costs.

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Strained relations between management and employees: The damaged relations between management and regular employees at Super Subs can affect their work environment significantly. This is because regular employees feel like they are being unfairly treated by not being able to access the work allowance most of the time, leading to their refusal to cooperate with the outlet’s management in order to reduce waste. Additionally, the time that managers spend supervising their employees is limited due to being busy with organizing other aspects of operations, which reduces the guidance and support provided to regular staff.

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High turnover: About 20% of employees have left over the past two months due to poor management, repeating a cycle of hiring unsuitable employee selection. They should re-evaluate their hiring process to decrease the high staff turnover (Verlinden, n.d.). In addition, as most of the employees are students, they tend to stay with the company for short periods of time before eventually leaving. This is resulting in added training costs for new employees and additional time going towards finding new hires.

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Organizational culture: There is a culture that lacks transparency and integrity in the company as exemplified by the employee’s willingness to lie about deliberate wastage. They are even going so far as to punish a colleague who opted to be act responsibly in addition to encouraging new employees to increase waste as well. These habits will continue costing Barrie Super Subs valuable resources if they are left unaddressed.

Opportunities:

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Offering student discounts: As Super Subs is a popular outlet for students in the area, offering student discounts gives the outlet a competitive advantage and increases their revenues as more students would opt for a more budget-friendly meal. Overall, “Students discounts can earn you new customers in the college demographic, help build loyalty that lasts a lifetime, and create word-of-mouth excitement about your products” (Collegemktgrp, 2019).

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Introducing pre-packaged snacks: Selling pre-packaged snacks alongside regular menu-items at Super Subs such as crisps and snack bars would offer a good option for people who are on a budget or on the go, especially students. It also has no waste associated risks, which can be a good option moving forward for increasing revenues.

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Improving reputation : Instead of throwing away food, Super Subs can donate any surplus of materials or wrong orders that were prepared during the day to people in need. This would generate a positive reaction from the public and possibly increase their popularity due to displaying social corporate responsibility.

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Hiring new staff : Hiring or promoting an employee for a supervisor position can help free time for the restaurant manager to focus on their responsibilities in running operations. Having a supervisor on site can ensure all employees are performing their duties and assist with new hires with training if necessary. It can also boost morale by showing a possibility for job promotions. Furthermore, training new staff can help erase the bad habits that were rooted in the previous employees’ behaviours and start implementing better standards instead.

Threats:

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Competition: The outlet’s declining reputation and standards are resulting in a loss in the customer base of Barrie Super Subs. This decrease in their competitiveness results in customers being more likely to choose a different competitor that might have the advantage of providing them with a much more prompt and convenient service; given the negative reviews that Barrie Super Subs has been accumulating over the past few months.

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Shortage of skills: The restaurant is unable to hire experienced staff due to only being able to offer a minimum wage. This limits their job applicants to students with minimal to no experience. This shortage can be amplified if a competitor is to offer better wages or incentives, which will then give them the advantage of acquiring more experienced staff who can provide better service with smoother operations. Hence, this will take more customers away from Super Subs. Hiring unexperienced staff is therefore costing Barrie Super subs training costs, time, resources as well as worsening the quality of services that are offered to customers.

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Loss of key staff: As job satisfaction declines at Super Subs, it is becoming harder to retain staff. This is also due to poor interpersonal relationships between co-workers that are making them resolve to quitting and damaging the future possibility of other people considering a job at the outlet. These factors combined are furthering the gap in the outlet’s workforce.

References

Collegemktgrp. (2019). 3 reasons your brand should offer student discounts. Retrieved October 14, 2020, from https://collegemarketinggroup.com/blog/3-reasons-yourbrand-should-offer-college-student-discounts/ Hansen, M. (2012). Why offer a student discount? Retrieved October 14, 2020, from https://www.sheerid.com/blog/why-offer-a-student-discount/ Verlinden, N. (n.d). What does high turnover mean? Turnover rates, jobs and causes. Retrieved October 14, 2020, from https://www.digitalhrtech.com/high-turnovermeaning-rates/...