Business Management

Kudler Fine Foods

Staffing Strategies Paper

10/16/05

Staffing Strategies Paper

Every organization starts with an idea. It is the steps taken to activate that idea that helps determine whether the company will be successful or not. Every one has their own criteria of what successful is and in order to reach your desired goal, planning and evaluating are critical. This paper will outline an organization called Kudler Fine Foods, and evaluate its recruitment, staffing, and legal strategies that have enabled it to be profitable and growing.

Kudler Fine Foods

Kudler Fine Foods is a gourmet food shop that was originally opened in 1998 by founder Kathy Kudler. Kudler, whose business experience includes a Vice-President position in Marketing, discovered the need for a gourmet food shop that would allow customers the ease of one stop shopping. She opened her first store in La Jolla, California. The success of this store led to the expansion of two more in Del Mar and Encinitas, California.

Kudler Fine Foods mission statement is "Ð'...to provide our customers the finest in selected foodstuffs, wines, and related needs in an unparalleled consumer environment" ( Kudler Intranet). Kudler offers five different departments in each store in order to support their mission statement, which are Bakery and Pastries, Produce, Meat and Seafood, Condiments and Packaged Food, Cheese and Dairy, and Wine. Each of these areas promises to provide customers with fresh foods and quality selections to ensure customer satisfaction.

Kathy Kudler is determined to enhance customer satisfaction and increase revenue for the future of the company. Some current goals are to expand services by offering classes to customers on how to prepare specialty foods, a frequent shopper program which awards loyalty points to consumers, and an increased efficiency process which includes employee training and new software. By focusing on these goals, the company hopes to retain customer loyalty, gain new customers, and increase profits to expand into other areas.

Recruitment Strategies

Kudler Fine Foods currently recruits employees primarily from outside the organization for entry-level jobs (stockers, clerks and baggers). All other positions are posted internally within each store. Current employees may apply for these jobs and are considered before the company looks outside of the organization.

Openings for department managers, assistant store managers and store managers are posted internally to see if current employees may be interested and they are simultaneously advertised in local newspapers, industry periodicals, and through Internet services. Internal candidates are considered along with external candidates.

The organization uses the following methods for recruitment:

Ð'* Online advertisements at Monster.com

Ð'* Advertisements at industry web sites and with industry associations

Ð'* Chef programs at local colleges and universities

Ð'* Newspaper advertisements in local newspapers

Ð'* Employee referrals (including a referral bonus for employees who successfully complete 90 days of employment)

Ð'* Use of employees from temporary agencies

Since all of the facilities are relatively close to each other, all job openings are available to the employees at all of the stores. The company intranet is used to post job openings. Whenever new stores open, they try to fill key leadership positions with people who are already familiar with store operations. By using all of these different recruitment ways, Kudler Fine Foods is achieving Equal Employment Opportunity, which is, "the condition in which all individuals have an equal chance for employment, regardless of their race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, or national origin" (Noe et al, 3.3). The multiple ways of recruitment used allows for the organization to obtain a diverse pool of applicants.

Recruitment Recommendations

Kudler Fine Foods has a great way of recruiting employees. By hiring inside the company first, it gives employees the opportunity to move up in the company and gives them a way to obtain goals. Learning Team C would recommend that the managers and other employees get a sign on bonus when they apply and accept other positions within the company, instead of just new hires from outside the company. This would be a great incentive and allows employees to further their knowledge of the company.

Staffing Strategies

Kudler Fine foods takes an approach to its staffing that several company's use by promoting from within. For Town and Country Food Stores 90% of the management ranks started out as associates (Francella, 2004). What drives these types of food chains to have a policy of promoting within? Loyalty is one