Steakhouse Outback Derives Competitive Advantage by Hiring

¶ … Steakhouse

Outback derives competitive advantage by hiring higher quality employees. In the casual dining segment of the restaurant industry, many restaurants fail to be discerning with respect to the staff they hire. They do not provide an enticing pay and benefits package, and they do not screen their workers well. Thus, when a firm like Outback does screen their workers well, this gives Outback a competitive advantage. Better employees are more capable of implementing the company's strategies effectively. Better employees also take more initiative in customer service. In addition, hiring higher quality employees initially makes it easier for Outback to find quality management candidates from within.

The competitive advantage ultimately derives from having a generally higher level of productivity and customer service satisfaction from Outback employees vs. others. The productivity would be measured in revenue/employee and this figure can be impacted both in the numerator or denominator. Employees can sell more goods if they are better and impress customers more (numerator) or employees can be so effective that fewer of them are needed (denominator). In either case, the end goal of staffing at Outback is to give the company better people than its competitors, in order to function at a higher and more consistent level.

2. Organizational fit is important for Outback Steakhouse for a couple of reasons. The first is that it makes it easier for the company to train new hires if they already possess the personality traits that are common to the organizational culture. Employees that fit the culture are easier to train and are more likely to comply with the company's instructions. In addition, employees that fit well with the organizational culture will present a more consistent face to the customers as well, as there will be a certain degree of similarity in personality traits among Outback employees.

Employees that are not a good fit with the organizational culture may be perfectly competent at the tasks, but the theory is that such employees would be more difficult to train, or may operate on the job in a manner that is undesirable for senior management for some reason. These employees also may not have the right temperament for the job, or may have another personality deficiency that makes them a poor personality fit for the industry or organization.

3. The application is the first step in the Outback hiring process. It is during this step that the company identifies whether or not the applicant has the necessary training, education or experience for the job. This step is important as the first step, because these qualifications are the baseline qualifications for the company. The second step is the testing. The testing allows Outback to determine things about the personality of the applicant. As with work skills or experience, the personality traits are considered baseline. This means that they cannot be taught, but that they must be present in the applicant in order that the applicant be given proper consideration for the position.

The third step is the interview. It is important that this is the third step because it is the most costly and the most time-consuming. Thus, the first two steps weed out the employees who do not have the base ability to do the job before the interview process, in order to minimize the cost of filling the position. This saves money and ensures that the candidates being interviewed by the company's representatives are quality candidates who may be able to contribute. By this stage, the interviewer is looking for the employee to have a certain fit within the organization.

Each step of the three step process enables Outback to cover thoroughly one component of the hiring process. The first step is about basic qualifications; the second step is about the skills and personality tests; the third step is about the specific fit with the Outback culture. These are the three key dimensions along which employees are hired, and the three step process gives Outback the ability to focus on all three dimensions over the course of the hiring process.