Job Analysis / Job Description Job analysis

Undercover Boss: Season 1, Episode 2: Hooters Inc.

Coby Brooks, the President and CEO of Hooters Inc. goes undercover in the company's restaurants to inspect the operations, general activities, employee behaviors, and management styles without disclosing his identity in front of any person. Coby Brookes hides his identity by cleaning out his goatee beard and wears glasses to look somewhat different. He spends five days in different Hooters restaurants and work with different people from various organizational levels and job positions. During these five days, he observes numerous positive and negative things happening in the restaurants. The following section presents a description of two job positions from Hooters restaurants and subsequent comparison and job analysis for these positions.

Job Position 1: Restaurant Promoter

On the second day, Coby Brooks had to work with two girls who were employed in the Sales and Marketing department of the company. The girls, Amanda and Brittney were mainly responsible to promote the restaurant's business in the locality and adjacent areas by wandering in the markets and streets and offering free samples of boneless wing to the passers. Their job responsibilities also required them to look professionals and real representatives of the restaurant chain. First of all, they had to wear special dresses of Hooters' standard brand colors, i.e. orange and white. Secondly, they needed to present themselves as pleasant and attractive personalities. It is because they had to directly interact with the potential customers of the restaurant. Greeting these customers with smile and requesting them to try Hooters' boneless wings and beer were the major requirements of their job position.

Amanda and Brittney were not the only two business promoters for the company; there was a specialized team in the Sales and Marketing department. However, Coby Brooks, as an UnderCover Boss spent his entire day in the streets and markets with these two girls only.

Job Analysis: Restaurant Promoter

The job positions held by Amanda and Brittney were at the lower (non-managerial) level in the restaurant. This position generally requires excellent communication and interpersonal skills. As far as restaurant business promoters are concerned, they need to be highly friendly and pleasant in their behavior so that they can convince the potential customers to try the foods or beverages offered by their company.

Current Job Responsibilities:

Amanda and Brittney were not only responsible to attract customers by offering free beer and boneless wings samples, but also convince them to change their eating habits in case they do not like fast foods or beer beverages. This job is more often known as sales representatives, business development, or business promotion; and sometimes adjoined with customer services section in the companies, and thus, known as customer sales representatives.

Job Description

Interpersonal Qualities:

Other important interpersonal skills which restaurant promoters need to possess include dynamism, ability to make a good impression, good relationship-building skills, excellent tolerance to stress, thoroughness and organizational abilities, good persuasion skills and aptitude for communication, and physical confrontation to work long hours inside or outside the office if required by the supervisors or immediate bosses (Alonzo, 2007). An ideal candidate must have strong aptitude for sales and customer services and must have interest in making his or her career in the same field (Zoltners, Sinha, & Lorimer, 2009).

Professional Skills:

Business promotion officers must also have strong marketing analysis skills. These skills are necessary for them to inspect and brief the future market potential in the current target markets to their Sales managers. Moreover, they must have an in-depth knowledge of the sales territory which comes from understanding the market dynamics, i.e. social, cultural, demographic, and economic patterns (Sommerville, 2007).

Business promotion officers must also be able analyze the consumer behavior in the current target markets, i.e. they must keep in view the likes and dislikes of the customers with respect to the aforementioned marketing dynamics (Alonzo, 2007; Shock, Bowen, & Stefanelli, 2004). In the case of Hooters restaurants, the UnderCover Boss Coby Brooks realized the fact that female consumers do not like the restaurant at all due to disgrace of their gender in the company. On the other hand, male consumers truly fond of the beer and boneless wings offered by this restaurant chain. Business development officers must understand this thing and communicate it as a big business problem to the higher officials (Zoltners, Sinha, & Lorimer, 2009).

Job-Related Knowledge:

Moreover, these people must also have a complete knowledge of the products and services to be promoted to the potential clients. The most essential information which they must have in hand all the time is; ingredients used in the foods...

Finally, these professionals must keep in touch with their old clients for the purposes of getting feedback about the company's products and services and building long-term relationship with these clients which is the key to success for any type of business (Zoltners, Sinha, & Lorimer, 2009).
Educational Qualification:

Ideally, a business promotion officer should be a college or university graduate who has studied all core courses in the field of business management; especially in sales and marketing areas. However, under-graduate people with some hand-on experience in sales and marketing; or 6-month to 2-year diploma in vocational studies in professional sales and marketing studies can also be considered for the job positions of restaurant business promoters (Sommerville, 2007).

Job Position 2: General Manager (Restaurant Operations)

The third day, Coby Brooks worked as the assistant manager of the general manager, named Jimbo at a restaurant. Being the general manager, Jimbo was responsible to oversee all types of restaurant operations -- from employees' working options, restaurant environment, and employee uniform inspection to the restaurant administration and assessment of marketing activities at large. Jimbo has been shown as a mixed personality; having a cruel heart that disgraces his female workers without any reason, while at the same time, a highly professional person who really wants his restaurant business to grow in the market with a more rapid pace.

Job Analysis: General Manager (Restaurant Operations)

Current Job Responsibilities:

From job analysis of the post of general manager (restaurant operations), the most notable thing is the authority and power which this person possesses in his organization. General Manager is a post at higher (managerial) level position in the company. Therefore, a general manager enjoys full command and authority in his area. He oversees all types of restaurant operations and is mainly responsible to show better and better sales and operational performance with each passing year (Sommerville, 2007).

In addition, he keeps an eye on the employees' working options and restaurant work environment, e.g. The time and day schedules of each employee, atmosphere of the restaurant, time and day schedules of the restaurant, foods and beverage items to be offered, promotional offers and discount or price-cut policies, and others.

Job Description

A general manager needs to highly qualified, competent, and experienced professional. For managing the general operations of a restaurant, the general managers must be experienced in the field of fast food business or in hospitality industry. At least a Masters level qualification is necessary to reach this position in addition to possessing various certificates and proven records of achieving sales targets or managing operations of a large scale organization. More often, companies prefer those general managers who have exposure in the same industry and in the same geographical boundaries. Reason being, such professionals are better able to understand the changing market dynamics and consumer behavioral patterns (Saiyadain, 2009).

Moreover, a general manager must possess strong decision making, analytical, interpersonal, and administrative skills in order to oversee the operations of the whole restaurant or a chain of restaurants. He must also have a soft corner in his heart for his employees.

Methods of Collecting Information:

For job analysis and discussion, information has been collected through market surveys and literature review. The market survey included 5 fast food restaurants as the sample in which restaurant managers and business promotion officers, sales officers, or customer services representatives were interviewed about their key job responsibilities and roles within their current organization. Moreover, they were requested to give their opinion on the minimum qualification, experience, and skills necessary to obtain those particular positions. Finally, they were requested to mention some ethical and legal matters which every employee must respect while performing his job responsibilities within or outside the organization. The literature review was done to have an in-depth understanding of the two job positions analyzed in the paper.

Compliance:

On the basis of interviews, market survey, and literature review, it can be said with complete confidence that the job analysis and job description made in the previous sections are compliant with the State and Federal regulations on Industrial relations management. For example, the minimum qualification required for sales representative or business promotion officers is suggested to be graduation (Saiyadain, 2009). Although the State or Federal laws do not make it obligatory for private sector firms to hire only graduates at this level; but these firms are supposed to adhere to the employment…