Scenario:

Castle’s Family Restaurant has eight restaurants in the northern California area with approximately 300–340 employees. Most of the employees are part time, with approximately 40% of them full time. The operations manager, Jay Morgan, also acts as the HR manager and travels to each location each week to take care of scheduling, recruiting, hiring, and answering questions for the employees as needed. He also takes care of payroll using an Excel spreadsheet and has a computer application to print payroll checks. Mr. Morgan approaches you, an HR consultant, for a proposal. Due to the increase in gasoline costs, he would like to greatly reduce his travel time for visiting each location each week and wonders if there is anything you can suggest to him to help him complete his HR tasks in a cost-effective manner. He hopes there is some way he can do part of his HR tasks from his office instead of traveling to each location.

This is the part that I need some assistance with:

BUSINESS ASSESSMENT: the name, type, and size of business you’re assisting. Make assumptions in your business description using theory as needed and include the information in your paper for this case scenario. These assumptions would include background about a restaurant work environment and industry.
What are some of the theories that I could mention on this assignment?
I think that I can answer this question if I know what to look for. What are some of the assumptions that I can make from this scenario? Is it referring to the HR functions and how it affects business? Please help me with this part of the assignment.

Thanks,

Kathy

One way in which businesses today are dealing with travel costs is having online meetings. Here's one way:

http://www.gotomeeting.com/online/enter

Another saving could be having the employees' pay delivered by direct deposit into their bank accounts instead of printing and distributing (even maybe mailing) checks.

Those are just two ideas. What else do you think could be addressed here?

From the given scenario, we can make several assumptions and mention relevant theories for the business assessment. Here are some assumptions and theories that you can consider for this assignment:

1. Business Description:
- Name: Castle's Family Restaurant
- Type: Restaurant chain
- Size: Eight restaurants, approximately 300-340 employees
- Location: Northern California area

Assumptions:
- The restaurant industry is highly competitive and requires efficient management practices to stay profitable.
- Restaurants typically have a mix of part-time and full-time employees due to the nature of their operations.
- HR functions play a crucial role in managing and coordinating employees' schedules, hiring, payroll, and addressing employee queries.

Theories:
1. Human Resource Management (HRM) Theory:
- Discuss the importance of HRM in effectively managing a restaurant business.
- Emphasize the strategic role of HRM in aligning human capital with organizational goals and ensuring employee satisfaction.
- Highlight HRM responsibilities such as recruitment, hiring, scheduling, payroll, and employee relations.

2. Efficiency Theory:
- Explain the concept of efficiency and its significance in reducing costs and streamlining operations.
- Discuss how reducing travel time for HR tasks can increase operational efficiency and save costs for the organization.
- Suggest the use of technology and software applications to automate HR processes and reduce manual effort.

3. Managerial Roles Theory:
- Explain the concept of managerial roles, as proposed by Henry Mintzberg.
- Discuss how the operations manager acts as an HR manager, performing tasks like scheduling, recruitment, hiring, and answering employee queries.
- Suggest how reducing travel time can free up the operations manager's time for other important managerial roles such as planning, organizing, and decision-making.

4. Technology Adoption Theory:
- Discuss the benefits of adopting technology in HR processes, such as payroll management and employee scheduling.
- Highlight the advantages of computer applications and software, like Excel spreadsheets and payroll check printing tools, in improving HR productivity and reducing errors.

These assumptions and theories can provide a foundation for your business assessment and help you propose cost-effective solutions to reduce travel time for HR tasks in the given scenario.