TGI Fridays champion empowerment through involvement

Citation

Urquhart, J. (2002), "TGI Fridays champion empowerment through involvement", Measuring Business Excellence, Vol. 6 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/mbe.2002.26706bab.005

TGI Fridays champion empowerment through involvement

TGI Fridays champion empowerment through involvement

Empowerment – what exactly does it mean? Why is it necessary in the drive for quality? And, of course, how can it be achieved?

While some see this concept as a universally defined term, it has been known to cover a variety of arrangements and manifest itself in a number of forms due to differing managerial intentions. For example, empowerment can mean involving employees in aspects of service operations without necessarily sharing decision making power with them, whereas other managers would see empowerment as taking full responsibility for all decisions and actions within a certain area.

The benefits of empowerment are obvious on a myriad of levels. Initially it encourages employees to feel more in control and to take ownership of their role within the organization. As a result they feel a valued part of the business and therefore become more committed, which in turn should lead to increased levels of work-rate (as well as satisfaction) which of course will ultimately produce more profit.

Empowerment crucial for TGI Fridays

At the restaurant TGI Fridays, employee performance is about more than just "carrying plates". Management believe that empowerment is critical for their employees and consequently encourage staff to accept responsibility for the service encounter.

So how does this form of empowerment affect the nature of the service that is on offer to the customer? To what extent do the power dimensions impact on the motivational dimensions of working experiences at this organization? Essentially, do employees feel empowered?

From the outset, there is one dilemma often encountered within the service industry that tends to affect any empowerment initiative: on the one hand customers need to feel important as individuals, but on the other, they desire the security of knowing what to expect – something that comes with a mass standardized service.

This predicament is addressed by TGI Fridays in two ways:

1. 1.

   Each restaurant has standardized décor and layout and has set times by which starters and main courses must reach the diner. However, this standardization is balanced out by the extensive menu on offer and the chance for customers to choose combinations not readily available.

2. 2.

   Staff must cater for each type of diner and adjust their behavior accordingly. For example, they must know when to "have a good laugh" with the customers, when to leave them to their own devices and when they need to create a party atmosphere.

The need for staff to determine what kind of behavior to adopt illustrates how empowerment can be a useful management tool. By talking to HR directors from TGI Fridays head office, it was possible to gain a further understanding of the importance of employee empowerment in their organizational strategy.

Managerial intentions

According to these HR directors, management at TGI Fridays encourage employee empowerment using the following initial theories:

• •

  Motivational constructs. Through selective recruitment, extensive training and regular appraisals, feelings of ownership about the service encounter are generated. This encourages employees to "buy into" the TGI experience, to make them feel that their organization is unique.

• •

  Relational constructs. This is achieved by encouraging employees to take on more responsibility, previously the manager's concern. For example, employees have authority to deal with customer complaints and take orders for food not on the menu. However, this has created a degree of tension as kitchen staff can be reluctant to prepare non-menu dishes and staff sometimes feel that dealing with complaints was the manager's duty and that they were simply being "dumped with the task".

Making empowerment a reality

By grounding their strategy within these two concepts, TGI Fridays employs a number of methods to involve and empower:

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  Daily team meetings. Quality issues are addressed, news is relayed but this tends to be interspersed by laughing and joking, thus creating a sense of camaraderie.

• •

  Stringent recruitment process. Potential employees face three to four interviews, role-plays and psychometric testing before they are hired.

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  Extensive training. Once employed, new starters are trained by experienced staff before they are given a small section of the restaurant to manage on their own.

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  Freedom to determine shift patterns. In each of the restaurants, the top ten performers for that quarter are given the task of drawing up staff rotas. This not only serves as an incentive to become an efficient employee but also enables staff to fit their working patterns around individual needs.

• •

  Tips and incentive schemes. These were found to have mixed results. Although the kitchen staff were compensated for their lack of direct tips by having higher commission rates, there was still a degree of tension between them and the front-liners who were said to earn much more through the higher tips. And because top waiting staff were allowed to choose which shifts they worked, there was a slight sense of rivalry between front-liners, whereas kitchen staff acted more as a team due to their equal pay in this respect.

• •

  Freedom to deal with complaints. Front line staff have the authority to deal with the majority of customer complaints and are authorized to provide "give-aways" (as compensation) where they deem it necessary, however this is closely monitored by managers.

Does this all work for TGI Fridays?

In short, the answer is yes and no.

On the plus side, it was observed that employees were able to act spontaneously and out of the immediate intervention of the manager. For example, eight waiters were observed performing an impromptu rendition of "I'm getting married in the morning" to a hen party dining at their restaurant. And with a reported 70 percent of its custom comprising repeat business, the organization must be doing something right.

However, quality management techniques at TGI Fridays are distinctly lacking, relying too much on employees and managers to detect faults and not enough on formalized processes. The brand has no mystery diners, no focus groups and no sample questionnaires, all of which could provide invaluable information for improving customer satisfaction and service quality.

When staff were actually interviewed, the more experienced employees appeared to have established a strong sense of personal efficacy. The kitchen staff spoke of how they "can take it" working under pressure and the front-liners described the importance of "making a good show". One employee told of an experience that reveals a great deal about the relationship between employees, customers and managers. He said:

I like the relationship with customers. I like to feel that I have given them a good time while they are in the restaurant. Last week I had a party in from one of the theatres, I didn't rush them, I took time and had a good laugh with them. After the meal one customer asked me for a cigar. We don't sell cigars, so I went next door to the tobacconist and bought one for him. He was really grateful. Afterwards they thanked me for a great time and left me a £20 tip. Management wanted me to hurry them through so as to bring in more customers, I don't like to rush people.

However, the organization's command and control system can also frustrate staff. One employee noted that:

When management cock-up. It seems like bureaucracy. We are now two fryers short and it has taken them a month now to get it sorted. Now it needs to go to head office to get signed and it seems like 20,000 signatures are needed before anything can get done.

Evidently there are benefits and limitations to the employee approach fostered by TGI Fridays. Experienced staff do develop a sense of personal pride and efficacy in their relationship with customers but the degree to which they are committed to the organization itself is questionable.

Empowerment is an important issue for HR directors at TGI Fridays and clearly this has filtered down to employees in a number of forms. However, there is still a way to go before this organization can claim complete success in this field of quality improvement.

Management implications

So how would you implement such a strategy? What methods would you adopt? If you are aiming to enhance employee empowerment, here are a few points to bear in mind:

• •

  Try to encourage creativity. Even if you are a highly standardized operation, create scope for creativity among your workforce, through customer interaction where possible.

• •

  Ensure the correct people are hired in the first place. Do this preferably through a severe recruitment process. However, if you are going to be as demanding as TGI Fridays, make sure potential employees are going to stay for a considerable amount of time.

• •

  Carry out intensive training. By investing heavily in your employee from the outset you will not only display your commitment to them (inspiring a feeling of worth), but will also ensure high standards from the beginning.

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  Implement incentivized pay schemes. Although beware of inconsistencies that may develop. A scheme must be deemed fair by all employees for it to be fully successful. Take into account variations in job tasks, and if necessary, introduce departmental as opposed to organizational schemes.

• •

  Hold regular meaningful appraisals. This sounds relatively simple but in practice it takes a lot of commitment. This should be a time to monitor performance, motivation and abilities and must not turn into a meeting for the sake of it.

• •

  Trust your employees. It is no good talking of empowerment if you are not prepared to give your staff the freedom to handle responsibility. Once again, the old adage rings true: actions speak louder than words.

This is a review of the article "Empowerment through involvement: a case study of TGI Fridays restaurants" by Conrad Lashley of Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds, UK. It was originally published in Personnel Review, Vol. 29 No. 6, 2000.

Comment: This article takes a long and in-depth look at how empowerment through involvement is adopted by TGI Fridays. Despite a slight academic feel, the introduction provides a number of insights into the meaning of empowerment and its development over time. As it moves on, the piece becomes more and more readable and whether you are involved in such a program or merely interested in the subject, this article makes for a highly informative and interesting read.