Organizational Assessment: The Multicultural Foodservice and Hospitality Alliance

The Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance (MFHA) is an educational non-profit organization that delivers multicultural solutions and services to its members and customers. Through their work, they aim to build cultural intelligence which maximizes business opportunities in the workplace and marketplace. MFHA’s mission is to bring the economic benefits of diversity and inclusion to the food and hospitality industry by building bridges and delivering solutions. Their commitment is to deliver more connections and opportunities to build its members’ cultural intelligence to effectively engage multicultural employees, customers, and communities. MFHA is a small organization with a diverse team and they pride themselves as living the multicultural experience every day and using their first-hand knowledge and experience, as people of color, to provide the most relevant insights to power cultural intelligence content.

As a small organization, their goal is to help their members and customers to:

• Develop culturally intelligent leaders which are critical for innovation and long-term business success.
• Providing solutions and services that are specific to the challenges of the restaurant, foodservice and lodging industries that will help the industry continue its leadership in multicultural awareness achievement.
• Offering innovative programs that strategically position organizations to maximize the multicultural opportunities for today and the future.

Their end result is to:

• Raise the Topline – sell, market and serve multicultural markets.
• Improve the Bottom-line -attract, engage and develop multicultural talent.
• Add value to the Brand – build “cultural authenticity” into the brand.

MFHA makes sure that they work with members that are dedicated to build cultural intelligence within their organizations in order to ensure that they provide the best services and establish themselves as a leaders in their industry.

Our team evaluated the progress, success, and faults of the organization. We used the SWOT analysis which is a strategic planning tool used to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the organization. This model helped the team to identify the internal and external drivers that MFHA would need to improve and continue their success for future growth.

STRENGTHS

MFHA Recruiting Process

Gerry Fernandez, CEO and Founder of  MFHA says that his selection of a team is what makes the organization successful. He believes in hiring intelligent,  hardworking individuals who believe in doing the right thing. MFHA has a streamline recruiting process that defines the roles, responsibilities and  requirements for their positions in their job description and interviewing process. This educates  the candidates on the expectations of the role and culture of MFHA should they apply. An important piece of the MFHA recruiting process is that everyone is on team interviews with potential candidates and not just the CEO.  He believes that including his team input on hiring someone for the team builds an collaborative environment. He also believes that by stressing the importance of selection and identifying the right employees  has saved the organization time and retained his employees. It has helped him to clearly see the type of person that will be successful in the organization, . All of this has resulted in a better selection  and teamwork, which has led to improved company performance and customer retention.

Work Life Balance

Gerry said, if the employees feel that MFHA is instilling a culture where work-life balance is important, then MFHA is going to be rewarded with employees who are loyal, attentive and committed to their work.  Work-life balance is “creating and maintaining supportive and healthy work environments, which will enable him to have a balance between work and personal responsibilities and thus strengthen employee loyalty and productivity (Johnson, 2015) ).” Gerry said that this approach helped him to create a team which is committed to the company and low turnover of employees. The focus on work-life balance has also contributed  to the productivity of the staff at MFHA. Many firms face unethical issues such as employees coming in late or  calling in sick for personal matters. However, these issues are minimal at MFHA because of the priority of work-life balance. MFHA ensures its employees can balance work and life responsibilities such as  child care and elderly parent care  to ensure employees remain actively engaged.

Team Collaboration

MFHA is a small organization with only seven employees. This gives them the advantage of getting to know each other personally and professionally. Gerry said that a small team is easier to get a real sense of what the business model is and how each employee impacts the work. He also mentioned that in small teams there is less bureaucracy involved and decisions can be made quickly. This has assisted MFHA employees to understand each other’s role and collaborate on projects to produce great work which has made their members and customers continue to do business with them.

Workplace culture

Many organizations pride themselves on having a strong workplace culture and values. But those things are never followed through in their day to day activities. That is one thing that MFHA has been able to establish and follow through each day. Their culture has been a powerful draw for new employees and has kept current employees at the organization long after their contracts have expired. Small businesses have the advantage to promote a culture that aligns or aspires to align with the best corporate culture because the communication is much easier with a few people and the closeness helps to get people together and talk more often. This has helped MFHA employees  have an open dialogue with each other and issues can be resolved quickly. Small business owners should develop and promote their workplace cultures as assets, whether the culture is a supportive family atmosphere, or one with an emphasis on creativity and innovation, or something else.

WEAKNESS

 Expense Policy and Guidelines

MFHA has many strengths as an organization but is also susceptible to weakness as well. For example, they do not have a clear expense guideline policy that outlines the per diem for business travel. MFHA does  not have a functional expense reporting system. Gerry mentioned that in the past they had an issue with individuals using their corporate card for personal charges that were not work-related. Moreover,  he also mentioned that due to their size sometimes, expenses were not submitted on time. This leaves the company vulnerable to auditing issues from the IRS and any other governing bodies. Due to the lack of policy, the organization does not have a process for corrective action. In the example of the individuals using their corporate card for personal use, Gerry mentioned that when it was discovered that this unethical behavior was happening they were sat down and told not to do it again.  However, the issue  as the company grows. a  certain action must be in place rather than a   simple conversation…

Onboarding Process

Although MFHA has a great selection process they still have an opportunity to the onboarding of new employees. Gerry stressed doing the right thing in the interviewing process. however, new employees do not receive an handbook because it is outdated Doing the right thing is a great mantra to live by. However if it is not clearly defined it can mean different things to different people. Without a clear definition the onboarding process becomes  a liability which could lead to turnover. In addition, since their employee handbook is not recent and not used during the onboarding process, it can be an issue to set an expectation around how to  behave when it comes to workplace conduct. Although MFHA, has these vulnerabilities they can take these and turn them into opportunities.

OPPORTUNITIES

Establishing Expense and Guideline Policy

One of the ways MFHA can address the expense policy issues is to establish policy around travel for work. Since they are a small business, it could be difficult to have funding for resources. However, there are many programs that are low cost to help out such as Certify Travel and Expense Management. This program has receipt capture and has an automated expense report creation, which means as employees are on business travel, they can ensure to upload all of their receipts to ensure it is timely record keeping. In addition, they will have to create a policy that is simple and addresses meals, travel, entertainment, and telephone usage. In each of these categories, especially travel, they need to  have set per diem that each employee will adhere to. This process will set the foundation and guarantee that future employees know exactly what the process and policy are for expenses.

 Succession Planning

Since MFHA is focused on the future they also need to focus on their pipeline. Gerry, the CEO and Founder has been in place since its inception, however, there is no plan of succession should he step down. This is another opportunity that the organization should identifying the hiring process. Gerry mentions that they have found a lot of people through Craigslist and have even built a culture that when people leave they give him more than enough notice. However, they should deploy other methods of finding qualified individuals because they plan to build out their sales department. Since they have such a huge network, they should use referrals as an additional recruiting strategy. Through the use of referrals, they will not only receive candidates who are passionate about the brand but the referrals will  also  serve as  marketing tools

Marketing Services

One of the most critical aspects of MHFA being successful is the marketing of their services. Most of their services are advertised through word of mouth and their website lays out the different levels a company can engage. As their organization grows and they bring in more experience people to generate revenue, they should focus on other small companies that could use their services and diversify their portfolio. Their strategy could be working with large, mid-size and smaller companies and then diversify their services based on the size of the company instead of having many services that could benefit everyone. Overall, if MFHA starts to understand what vulnerabilities they have as an organization, then it will aid them in any growth they will have in the future.

THREATS

Ethical Hiring Practices  

As mentioned above the recruitment and selection process in MFHA is collaborative effort between the CEO and his team members. Although they have opportunities to use other methods of finding people, as they grow as a company it can still greatly impact their organization. Gerry has mentioned in the past the hiring of families and friends into the organization. Although

“a team made up of several different compatible personalities that complement one another can be more productive than a team made up of those who are so similar they cannot work productively together(McFarlin, N/A).”  The practice of hiring friends and family can be frowned upon not only with current employees but nepotism can encourage unfriendly feelings of inequality in the workplace. Also, this can lead to an impact on the continued revenue of the company. If nepotism is seen as a way that business is conducted at MFHA, it could also lead to un-renewed contracts which in turn would lead to a loss in revenue.

            Code of Ethics

It is vital for every company to have a written Code of Ethics. Even though MFHA has a mission statement they are missing a written Code of Ethics.  Due to their lack of a Code of Ethics it poses a threat to their primary and secondary stakeholders. Without a defined Code of Ethics “the main threat is that when employees fail to behave ethically, the company acts swiftly to corral the bad behavior. If not, the inappropriate behavior might spread throughout your business, causing further problems(Mack, N/A).” For example, when it was found that MFHA’s employees were not filling out expense reports, the CEO of the company just warned them not to do it again. Unintentionally, the CEO created a precedent of impunity. The impunity always encourages other individuals to act unethically. The reason is simple-they believe that other unethical behaviors will not be punished either. So MFHA’s foremost threat is that without defined Code of Ethics there is a possibility that other unethical behaviors will happen. If, this is not established the organization could be sued for discrimination and also their culture may  not thrive with new employees. In addition, a Code of Ethics will help develop policies to protect whistleblowers and ensure the company is protected and other employees are as well if issues arise.

Conclusion

In conclusion, MFHA is in a pivotal moment in their organization . They have many positive attributes such as focus work-life balance, great employee selection and a collaborative team. However, the organization needs to grow in their onboarding process and establishing systems for expenses.  Yet, through the assessment of the organization it is clear they need more foundational aspects in place before growing their business. If, Gerry continues to focus on his ability to identify talent with the balance for onboarding and ultimately the creation of the Code of ethics, it can lead to more opportunity for the company.

References

Brookins, M. (2018, June). „Ways to Prevent Unethical Behavior in the Workplace“. Small

business chron.

Hamlett, C.(2018, May) “Nepotism in the Workplace With Friends.” Small business chron.

Jonson, S. (2015, March). “Importance Of Work-life Balance in the Workplace”. LinkedIn.

McFarlin, K.  (N/A). “Importance of Different Personalities in a Workplace

Tracy, T (2018, February). “5 Unconscious Biases That Every Recruiter Needs to Recognize “.

Recruiting daily.