Outback Steakhouse

Outback Steakhouse

OSI Restaurant Partners, LLC, headquartered in Tampa, Florida was founded in 1988 by those who believe in hospitality, sharing, quality, being courageous and having fun! OSI Restaurant Partners, LLC is a company of restaurants that owns and operates Outback Steakhouse, Carrabba's Italian Grill, Roy's Restaurant, Bonefish Grill, Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar, Lee Roy Selmon's, Cheeseburger in Paradise and Blue Coral Seafood & Spirits(Outback, 2007). Outback Steakhouse is a huge company who has many people who care about one another. Each manager is carefully selected and makes sure that they live by Outback’s principles and beliefs. Two organizational resources that management in this organization uses are knowledge and human resources.

Human Resources

Human Resources at Outback Steakhouse play a critical role in the company's value chain, as various cost drivers are associated with this link. Emphasis on human resources is a key component of the company's differentiation strategy, yet there are costs associated with upholding this differentiation (Hallinan, 2005). There are two aspects of restaurant labor operations that Outback Steakhouse places significant energy and value on. Employment recruitment and training is one of them. Getting a job at Outback Steakhouse is no easy task. The hiring process is very intense and requires a great deal of knowledge and testing. Once hired, the training portion is even more intense. Depending upon the job that has been given, the training takes many days. Outback's total labor costs average 24 percent of restaurant revenues over the past 4 years, which is 6 percent lower than comparable companies in the casual dining segment. Outback states that it has the lowest employee turnover in the industry, approximately 2 percent per year, which has lead to reduced labor costs (Hallinan, 2005).

Outback Steakhouse’s human resource department has recently started focusing on a diverse restaurant. Improved fairness in pre-employment screening can help the foodservice industry better tap a thinning labor pool and correct demographic inequities by increasing racial and cultural diversity among managers and executives, prominent operators and human resources experts have concluded. Outback Steakhouse has been working with human resources consulting firm CorVirtus on improving its recruitment methods. Minorities account for 30% to almost half of all foodservice workers at the hourly level, but minorities' percentages decline at the management level, various industry studies have found. Culturally unbiased testing is just one of the elements in a varied approach that is needed to maintain an open and fair hiring practice (Berta, 2006). A diverse workplace is what our society needs to start focusing on. Places of work need to be careful when hiring is involved. The establishments need to make sure that everyone is treated fairly. At Outback Steakhouse, the restaurant is careful to have all of their testing and training tools in English and Spanish so it makes it easier for both parties who are trying to get a job. There were many times that a Hispanic person would come into the restaurant and would not know any English. Everything was fine though, because Outback has applications and testing material available.

Knowledge

Knowledge at Outback Steakhouse is extremely important, not only to the managers and corporate level people, but to the people working in the restaurants as well. It is extremely important for the front of the house staff, as well as the back of the house staff to have knowledge of the product being sold. Outback Steakhouse has a great deal of employees working for them. “Our ability to deliver that experience, day-in, day-out, in every brand and restaurant, helps explain why we continue to generate strong sales and profits year after year. It also explains why we never forget to recognize who is truly responsible for our success: the 95,000 individuals of Outback Steakhouse, Inc. who work so hard each day to get the details right” (Novello, 2005). The employees at Outback Steakhouse are properly trained and know exactly what they are doing because it is important to be knowledgeable about the products that are being sold.

The most important aspect for employees working within the restaurant is the knowledge of the product that is being sold. For the back of the house employees, the men and women need to know exactly how to fix the food and make the food. The food at Outback is fresh, never frozen. It is important for the back of the house employees to know how to make a great deal of the products, since most of the sauces and other food is made within the restaurant. There are