How the employee selection methods at Outback Steakhouse help the organization achieve a competitive advantage
Competitive advantage is achieved through the optimization of the company’s internal and external environment. If a company manages to leverage its structure, it will be far easier for the company to remain relevant in its market niche. Outback Steakhouse has managed to enhance its internal capabilities through a thorough employee selection that attracts the right people for the job in the company.
Competitive advantage means that a company has added advantage over its competitors in the market; in this case, Outback Steakhouse is having a loyal, ethical, and responsible human resource in its company. This is a clear added advantage because of the significance of the human resource in a company. According to Phatak (2009), the human resource of any organization is critical to the success or failure of the organization. In this sense, if a company has more loyal employees at its disposal, it gains a leverage point over its competitors.
As evident by the proprietary selection process, Outback Steakhouse employees are certainly part of the company and also responsible for others in the company. In essence, once employees have this shared ideology, it is certain that they will act responsibly and diligently because they are clearly aware that they will be responsible for their actions in the organization. More so, the decision-making process within the company will be enhanced by more participation from the employees involved. The corporation and cumulative responsibility of each employee in a company, therefore, leads to improved service delivery and hence customer satisfaction which is a leverage point that creates competitive advantage as witnessed in the case of Outback Steakhouse (Stewart, 2008).
The importance of fit to Outback Steakhouse
The Outback Steakhouse values employees who are able to fit into the organization and thereafter be in a position to work jointly with their colleagues. Outback Steakhouse acknowledges through its selection process that if a candidate fails to meet the expectation of the outlined procedures in the selection process, such an employee will not be hired. The major reason is simply because of the candidate’s failure to oblige to the rules and the culture of the organization. This rule is important to Outback Steakhouse because it leverages its employee commitment to increase its competitive advantage in its market niche (Stewart, 2008).
The other major reason why organization fit is important to Outback Steakhouse is because of the expected commitment and less employee turnover. The selection process of the company is rigorous enough and hardly allows unqualified employees to get into the company (Phatak, 2009). By doing so only employees who can perform their job and be able to fit into the organization will be accepted as the employees of the organization. This is a crucial strategy of ensuring competency and thus validates the importance of employee’s integration to the company.
Outback’s selection process evaluation
As emphasized by Stewart (2008) there are fundamental ways that an organization can implement in its recruitment process, these ways are aimed at getting the right human resource to the organization. The reason why Outback Steakhouse chose to use the application process, test completion, and interview participation are for the company to be in a position to eliminate unqualified candidates as early as possible. The other reason is also to be in a position to extract the desired qualities from the candidate through a rigorous and effective process.
Phatak (2009) also states that the success of any recruitment process is entirely based on the way in which the recruitment process is done. The emphasis is therefore not entirely on the number of steps that a candidate passes through in the recruitment process but the efficiency of the recruitment process itself. In this case, Outback Steakhouse has three fundamental steps that are detailed and focused on the ability, behavior, and competency of the individual being interviewed. The steps that Outback Steakhouse uses, therefore, ensure that the right and committed employees get a chance to work in the company.
Validity of these selection methods
The selection methods that are used by Outback Steakhouse are valid because of a number of reasons. The first reason is that the current performance and the low employee turnover of the company are the available evidence that the company selected the right employees to work for its firm (Stewart, 2008). More so, the commitment of the employees and the responsibility of the employees of Outback Steakhouse are enhanced because of the shared values and virtues that were tested during the recruitment process.
The second reason for the validity of Outback Steakhouse as stated by Phatak (2009) is because of the efficiency of the steps involved. Unlike other companies, Outback Steakhouse has three main steps that are meant to determine if the candidate has the right abilities, behaviors, and competencies that can allow him or her to easily and fully integrate into the Outback Steakhouse culture and shared missions and visions (Stewart, 2008). It is easy for the employee to be determined in the second stage because of the need to adhere to the company’s beliefs of proprietary where every employee is responsible for others.
References
Phatak, A. Bhagat, R., & Kashlak, R. (2009). Strategic human resource management: International HRM supplements. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Stewart, G., & Brown, K. (2008). Human resource management: 2010 custom. (1st ed). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.