Training Materials for Panda Express Restaurant Company - Paper Example

Purpose and Scope of the Project

The primary purpose of this project is to develop new training materials for Panda Express Restaurant Company located in the Woodlands to develop better internal communication systems. The primary goal of the company is to improve service delivery thus the internal communication system of re-training employees will be encouraging this goal. Development of learning modules is one of the strategies to be used by upper management in Panda Express to improve the store. Learning modules are essential for the improvement of store operations. This project is entirely related to technical communication because of the creation of training modules. In the field, technical communicator usually develops training material most applicable to that session.

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In the panda express upper management both instructional modules and training manuals are used. Pamphlet, PowerPoint and assessments will be the three main instructional models. The purpose of the powerpoint is to have natural reading materials that summarize Ms. Sherry Li's store goals and expectations for each employee. The pamphlet or pocket learner will be necessary for each employee to learn the 7 steps of effective sharing. While the assessments will be gauging mechanisms to show whether the employees are learning the reading materials. Each Panda Express Restaurant Company location has different sales numbers and the Woodlands location is not selling as much as it should, although it is in a great location. The proposed capstone project will fulfill essential training needs for employees at Panda Express to improve their operations, customer service, marketing, and leadership.

Ms. Sherry Li, just to name a few, was a trained manager from a corporate organization, in the store she was managing it was unsuccessful. In that organization, there were low sales and poor performance of the employees which translated into negligence and inadequate training of the employees. In Panda Express she has been given a store that was also unsuccessful and it's expected from her to make it successful. Due to the managerial skills she has, it's believed that she has all it takes to make the store better. Ms. Sherry Li is confident that she has all it takes to improve the store in months. Among other things, she has proposed creating training modules as the first significant step in improving the store. Only current employees will be exposed to the training materials. Maybe in the near future, other departments will be included depending on the need and importance of the training. The training will be done weekly or during the daily meetings, this will depend on the availability of the managers and their assistants. The weekly meetings on Sunday and daily brief meetings in the morning to start the day or at night, the end of the day closing time, are the best times to talk to employees about the learning materials or training.

Ms. Sherry Li has also formed a template that any store can use to be successful which she can hand over to whoever is willing. These training modules will cover how to properly handle customers, complaints, catering, fundraising, employee development, money handling, improve drive-through operations, properly cook items to not waste food, save money on food, environmental operations, hygiene operations. Additionally, it will also cover proper cooking technics, faster service, improve speed, how to properly use equipment, safety rules, cross train everyone so they know how to do everything and many other issues.

Summary of My Background/Experience/Knowledge

My academic experience will come in handy with this capstone project. I have an Associate of Science degree from Lone Star College, Associate of Liberal Arts degree from Lone Star College, a Bachelor's degree in Safety Management from the University of Houston Downtown, and I am on my last 2 semesters in my Masters in Technical Communication of the University of Houston Downtown. I have also been working in safety management in writing training manuals and instructional modules for employees, the job market has given me first-hand information on the project am carrying out. I also have the experience from my Technical Communication classes to effectively write modules that are clear, easy to understand, straight to the point, and without the jargon. The education background plus the working experience are two significant inputs that will lead to the success of this project.

Statement of the Proposed Methods

Client Situation

Panda Express has dozens of restaurants across the Houston area. Each store brings in different amounts of money on a daily basis. Each Panda restaurant makes an average of $1,500 to $7,000 per day. The Woodlands/Conroe location is making $1500 per day and ranks among one of the lowest in the Houston area. The restaurant is new to the area which opened back in January of 2017. Top management officials believe the store should be making at least $2,500 per day considering the location of the store with the high population and the vast opportunities.

Currently, the general manager in Woodlands is under pressure to bring the store sales up and make profits as expected. According to the manager, the store is not operating productively. The culture operating in the store needs to change. After an extensive discussion with the manager, she believes the store is improving although at a slow pace but eventually it will catch up. She believes the methods she has implemented will work out according to the planned future projection. When the operating methods and culture have changed the store will automatically change. Although the top management is lacking confidence in her in a way she believes in putting all her words into writing will change their perspective.

The goal will be to improve the store and document the methods Ms. Li used to improve her operations at this particular location. At the end of this capstone project, I will take these documented methods and deliver them to Panda Express upper management. Within the instructional modules and training manuals, Ms. Sherry Li and I have provided easier methods for employees to do their job so the store can offer better services and better store operation. The outlook has been to take the complicated Panda Express policy store operation expectancies from the company and translate them to the Woodlands store employees in an easy to learn training modules.

I believe this is an opportunity for me to take what I have learned in this Technical Communication program at UHD and apply it to this particular project. One of the duties of a technical writer is to take complex information and translate it into a clear, simple, and easy-to-understand material. Technical writing can be used to translate policies, instructions, and training material. In this instance, the audience I have written for has been for the employers of Panda Express, the general manager, and Panda Express upper management. I have taken into consideration to aim at the audience's level of knowledge when creating technical documents.

Methods Development Background

For my research my research methodology, I used the Instructional Design Model - ADDIE for constructing instructional modules and training materials for Panda. The reason for this is, ADDIE has been reliable in creating learning material and it is so simple to use to create any kind of learning materials (Jones, 2014). The analysis, design, development, implement and evaluate (ADDIE) model of instructional design is appropriate for the proposed instructional modules and training materials. The five phases represent a great guideline for building training and instructional tools.

In the analysis phase, in this stage the problem is identified, the fixing methodologies, and the position of employees regarding the problem (Holden, 2015). For this case the problem at Panda has been discussed, the goals Ms. Sherry Li and I used to fix this problem via instructional material, what the employee currently know, identify the learner's skills, identify behaviorism of staff, and other information data. In the design phase, Ms. Sherry Li and I discussed the learning objectives, exercises, lesson planning, and assessment instruments for Panda express. We went over the planned strategies targeted at attaining the project's goals and later documented the instructional and visual design strategy.

In the development phase, changes and assembling process is done based on the feedback received from the employees or the organization in general (Holden, 2015). With this knowledge, Ms. Sherry Li and I assembled the content and revised according to any feedback given. In the implementation phase, Ms. Sherry Li and I implemented learning outcomes, methods of delivery, preparing the facilitators/learners. In the implementation phase, which has three parts namely: training the instructors, preparing the learners, and arranging the learning space. Here Ms. Li trained her assistant managers, prepared the learners for the instructional materials, and arrange the learning space where the learning would take place.

In the evaluation phase, Ms. Li showed the materials to her two assistant managers and her chief cook. She asked them questions regarding the effectiveness or thoughts on the training materials. She wanted to understand where the instructional material had achieved their primary goal of making the material clear and easy to understand. She also asked them about the impact of the material or if they think the materials have helped to reach the store goals. The more people that are asked about the material, the better of an idea one will have to identify the most or least productive parts of the material and improve upon it. The evaluation stage also gives future changes that can be implemented to any store or organization.

The ADDIE Model: A Literature Review

Introduction

The ADDIE model is a generic process that has been previously used in instructional designing and creation of literature materials for training employees in businesses. ADDIE means Analyze, design, develop, implement and evaluate. As stated by Hess and Greer, "The model is made up of five phases from the analysis and designing to the development, implementation, and evaluation of performance and outcomes" (Nichols & Greer, 2016). The model is based on effectiveness in training and performance tools especially in businesses and other related fields. The ADDIE model is an example of the Instructional System Design (ISD) model (Van & Kirschner, 2017). The analysis phase involves clarification of the problem and establishment of the goals and aims of a given instructional tool. The design phase is primarily meant for designing the instruments for assessment, the content, analysis of the subject matter and planning the lesson (Jones, 2014). Development is the third phase and involves the creation and assembly of the assets of the content that have been created in the design phase. Implementation phase involves the whole activity and procedure of training both facilitators and the target audience. The evaluation phase has two main parts the first part is a formative evaluation that is present in all the phases of the model and summative evaluation that assigns tests that are designed for obtaining feedback from the users (Seel et al, 2017). Different literature sources have supported the use of the ADDIE model in designing of instructional materials.

Promotion of Information Literacy

As supported by many scholars the ADDIE model instrumental in the development of information literacy (Kang, 2015). This is attained through the integration of its five phases in knowledge acquisition. For its efficiency, there should be proper identification of the problem, goals, and objectives well set for the...