Overview Sandwich Blitz, Inc. is a successful business, owned by Dalman Smith and Lei Lee who operate eight independent sandwich shops in a metropolitan area. They specialize in serving gourmet organic breakfast and lunch sandwiches and specialties to a diverse group of clients. Recently, Lei discovered a discrepancy on one of the sales associates time-sheet. Further investigation revealed that the team supervisor allowed the employee to report unearned hours in that pay period. Lei also discovered that the employee handbook did not completely cover all of their duties and responsibilities. This left Lei no other choice, but to review and update the existing control system.
Four Steps of Control System Although Bateman and Snell identify four steps that managers must take to introduce or improve the existing control system, Rao and Shankar also introduce a preliminary step - key areas to be monitored (p.170). In this particular case, Lei has already identified the type of discrepancy and the possible cause of it. Their employee handbook has not been updated and, thus, was lacking description of their duties and responsibilities as well as various operational procedures. Therefore the main area that Lei must focus on is to bring the handbook up to date. Lei could perform this task herself or delegate it to one of her regional managers. Step 1. Setting performance standards. The employee handbook will serve as a guidance for the employees and as a reference book for the managers to evaluate their performance. The updating process should take a couple of weeks, so that Lei herself or a manager is capable of reviewing the operational process, pinpoint the strengths and weaknesses or each sandwich shop, analyze and systematize collected data and put down generalized standards and regulations, regarding employees' responsibilities. These standards must include customer service quality, quality of management, standards relating to the organizational variables of control, responsibility, formal organization and time reporting procedure among others (Rao, Pande, and Shankar, 2010). Step 2. Measuring performance. During this stage, Lei Lee and her managers will be collecting information regarding employees' work ethics such as customer satisfaction or complaints, previous time sheets, determining which of the employees were constantly tardy verses who was timely productive. Lei Lee will refer to all three sources identified by Bateman and Snell: written reports done by team supervisors and managers, self-assessment reports filled by employees, oral reports provided during on-site observations and inspections and personal observations done by Lei and managers at any given location during this process. Step 3. Comparing performance with the standards. Once Lei collects enough information, regarding the operation of the shops and performance levels of her employees, she will be able to evaluate each staff member and pinpoint their strengths and weaknesses. At this stage Lei can determine what type of deviation exists at a certain location and could concentrate on finding an individualized approach on solving these issues. Each shop and each employee will be evaluated independently, thus, every discrepancy will be addressed in an individualized way. If Lei finds out that there is a large amount of deviations from the standard, she will have to take the next step. If any shop actually meets or exceeds the standards, she will not take any additional actions, but reward the workers. Step 4. Taking actions to correct problems and reinforce success. At this stage Lei will take appropriate actions to improve the situation with the misreported hours. The employee that reported unearned hours will have a choice of working these hours or deducting them from the next paycheck, whichever he/she prefers. The team supervisor will receive additional training and will be closely monitored in the future. Lei must also revise the existing payroll or time reporting procedure to avoid this discrepancy in the future. An introduction of a new Employee Time Software will be appropriate for this stage. Each worker will set up a password in order to login, these entries will be matched with the existing schedule, and a unit manager will be authorized to allow workers to sign in if they get called in to cover a shift. This might also involve changes in the payroll. To avoid the necessity to close out pay period on the last day of the week, the payroll day could be postponed by a day or two. Lei Lee and managers could also introduce an incentive program for exceeding the performance standard over a period of time. This program could include such bonuses as cash, extra time off or a possibility for an employee of a quarter to pick a preferred shift. These steps will facilitate improved control system and reinforce successful operation of Sandwich Blitz, Inc. Any deviations from standards involve additional investments of time, money and effort and increase costs of a company. If employees follow the guidelines and perform their duties in such a way that they meet and exceed the set standards, the company will benefit and increase its revenue. In the end both management and employees will benefit as the company will continue to operate and provide jobs, accompanied by various incentives and bonuses for those, who follow rules and maintain positive work ethics.