Training Needs Assessment in Dolmino’s pizza

Domino’s Pizza is the world’s leading pizza delivery company and one of the largest of all quick service restaurants chains in the world. It was founded in the United States in 1960. Domino’s Pizza Group Limited (“DPG”) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Domino’s Pizza UK & IRL plc. There are 526 stores throughout England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. This information is made available to the public through the means of publication in both internet and company’s “grey” literature and brochures. This report aims to focus on one single Domino’s Pizza store- Berkhamsted store.
The purpose of the report is to identify two different groups of employees and to analyse their training needs for current jobs, as well as medium and long term career development. Because of its size the chosen store does not allow to select two groups of employees. This is why the report will be about two individuals instead and will intend to explain the process of determination of the needs and confer about the implications for both organisation and employees. Because of reasons of confidentiality the individuals will not be named. In this case they are manager in training and a recruit.
There are 526 stores throughout England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Domino’s Pizza’s mission is to become the best delivery company in the world and is looking towards its goal of opening 1. 000 stores by 2017. It aims to ensure that high brand standards are achieved at all stores. To do this, Domino’s Pizza employs over 325 team members who work in a range of store support functions at locations in the UK and Ireland. Domino’s Pizza’s expertise and passion for delivering hot and fresh pizzas has earned it numerous awards and the loyalty of millions of pizza lovers around the world.

Watson (2007:313) suggests that the purpose of analysing training needs is to understand how development and learning strategies and activities can bridge the gap between where the organisation is at the moment and where it needs to be to achieve its strategic objectives. Taylor and Thornton (1995:23) note that each recruit needs to receive appropriate training as part of their induction period. In addition to it they state that there should be a standard programme as well as additional modules depending on which job the worker is doing.
Domino’s Pizza ensures that all staff receives the training which is necessary to enable them to carry out their jobs. It is usually as part of their conduct induction (NTO) and probationary period. Taylor and Thornton (1995:23) describe it as initial training and link it to the needs of the job description. The manager of the store refers to a profile comparison approach while identifying the training needs of recruits. According to Torrington et al (2002:428) this is the most useful approach for identifying the training needs of beginners.
This is how are matched the individuals competency profile with that for the job they are filling. The next step which the manager does is to phrase the required needs in terms of learning objectives. Goldstein (1993:38) suggests that the goals and the objectives are likely to be very clear when new employees are hired and needs to be trained. Because Domino’s Pizza believes that its team member’s image leaves lasting impression that could determine whether its customers will return or not, it provides an approved uniform.
As part of the induction every recruit receives an uniform and key guidelines which must be followed as well as a New Team Member Orientation book. In addition each novice is introduced to the team member appearance standards and the personal conduct standards. All beginners are notified of the safety and security procedures. Domino’s Pizza encourages all its members to be security conscious. It provides rules in its New Team Member Orientation book which reduce any chances of being robbed.
The next step is identifying the job description. According to the job position which the recruit has applied for, the manager points out their training needs. According to Goldstein (1993:55) task analysis is a description of the job and starts as a task description, followed by a specification of tasks, and deciding whether they are critical, frequent or just an occurrence. The task description performs as a summary of the job and defines its main duties. Each team member is provided with a Team Member Training Record.
It contains all training tasks required by the available five job positions. The manager is responsible for completion of the training record. This record consists the core curriculum of the organisation and makes it easy to divide the learning into small components which will aid the learning process . There are notified the name of the trainee and the starting day of the training as well as the seven main training tasks related to the chosen job position. Each of them consists several other tasks.
Goldstein (1993:61) states that the purpose of a needs assessment test is to obtain information about the task required to perform on the job and the knowledge, skills and abilities (KSA) needed to perform the task and defines knowledge (K) as a foundation where skills and abilities are built. Skills (S) are performance standard which is usually required to operate the job effectively. And Ability (A) is a capability necessary to perform the job. The manager marks the employee’s knowledge, skills and abilities (KSA) in their Team Member Training Record.
After identifying the training needs the manager plans the training. Usually it is himself who becomes a coach and uses several training methods. The Domino’s Pizza manager practices many didactic/teacher-centred methods. The National Employers Survey (LSC, (2004), in Watson (2007:317)) divides training into off-the-job training and on-the-job training. At this level in the organisation the manager of Domino’s Pizza Berkhamsted store practices on-the-job training. Watson (2007:318) states that this type of learning is popular because this method is job-specific and relevant, immediate and flexible.
However it has both negative and positive behaviours. Demonstration is one of the most popular methods which the manager uses. This method is considered to be very effective for basic skills training. In this case the manager shows the recruit how to do something, for example how to prepare pizza dough, put topping or cut pizzas. He becomes a coach and the recruit a coachee. A coach is someone who must speak and act in a way that others learn and perform at their best (Downey, 2003, in Watson (2007:319)).
Advantage of the demonstration method is that the trainee is involved and is engaged with several senses: seeing, feeling, hearing and touching. Disadvantage of the method is that requires planning and preparation by the trainer and there is need of adequate space for the demonstration. If the trainer is not good at their job may exhibit inefficient job practicing. The trainer called also a role model is expected to be highly experienced as others will learn by watching him/her. This type of on-the-job method is called Sitting by Nellie.
The manager also assesses training times and constructs a timetable for the training. It is essential to make sure that there is no recruit on training during the rush hours because every minute during the rush is critical. The last part in the training cycle is evaluation. It is a form of research. Hargreaves and Jarvis (2000:139) consider evaluation as qualitative rather than quantitative and state that it is important to know why, what and how to evaluate. It is advisable to be planned in advance.