Instructional Designer
Needs Assessment
Challenge
Tlayuda Querida (a pseudonym) is a traditional Mexican restaurant, located in Oaxaca de Juaréz, a small city in southern Mexico. The city is a popular tourist destination, mostly attracting tourists from the U.S., Mexico and the rest of Latin America. The restaurant is located in the Centro neighborhood, near a famous landmark. This desirable location means a high rent and intense competition with other restaurants.
The owner of the restaurant is a local. About ten years ago, he opened a café in another neighborhood in the city. Following the success of that café, he decided to open a second location in the Centro neighborhood. However, in December 2022, after two years of disappointing sales, he decided to pivot and Tlayuda Querida was born.
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Over the past nine months, the restaurant has had an average gross income of 300,000 MXN (Mexican pesos) per month, with about 60,000 MXN pesos in profit. This average income may be less than the annual average, as the restaurant has yet to be open during the high season, which is from October to December. The restaurant’s reputation has grown through social media and word-of-mouth, and it is starting to be featured in travel blogs.
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Our client and main contact is the owner of the restaurant. Besides the owner, the organization consists of an assistant manager, a chef, three cooks, three servers, two baristas, one bartender, one shopper/maintenance person, and one host as of September 2023. Several staff members of the restaurant are also shared with the café, including the assistant manager, a barista and the shopper/maintenance person.
Figure 1. Tlayuda Querida Organization Chart
The restaurant has been struggling with a high turnover rate across all roles. The current willing turnover rate, monthly, is 8.62%. Annually, it is 103.47% (extrapolated from the past 9 months). The desired annual turnover rate is 15-20%. This high turnover rate negatively impacts the business in several ways, which include:
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Lost investment of time and money training employees who leave.
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Insurance is paid for employees for a week after they leave.
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Time and money to hire new employees, onboard and train them.
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In the case of newly hired cooks, a lot of ingredients are wasted during training and the first months of work. In turn, inconsistent food makes customers unsatisfied.
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New cooks and bartenders are much slower in preparing food and drinks, making customers unsatisfied.
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When a new chef is hired, the menu has to be redone and kitchen staff tend to leave as well.
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When a manager leaves, there is a lot of associated staff turnover. In the past year, there have been three managers.
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The goal of this needs assessment is to uncover the causes of the high turnover rate to suggest interventions that will lower this rate.
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One of the limitations in this project was lack of data, both about Tlayuda Querida and other restaurants in the area. The NA team was not able to compare the calculated turnover rates to similar restaurants in Mexico or border towns in the US. Consequently, it was not possible to confirm that the restaurant’s turnover rate was unusually high for restaurants in this area.​​​
Methods
The NA team conducted a systemic and systematic needs assessment to make recommendations to help the restaurant improve its turnover rate.
The team used four performance improvement models and tools to aid in the assessment.
Data Collection
The NA team used two primary data collection methods: semi-structured interviews and an online survey.
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The needs assessment began with a structured interview with the owner, using questions drawn from Chevalier’s Updated Behavior Engineering Model, Rummler & Brache’s Nine Boxes Model, and Harless’ Front-End/Cause Analysis. These frameworks provided a basis for identifying organizational, environmental, and individual factors influencing performance. Insights from this interview guided the focus of subsequent questions and shaped the direction of the assessment.
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Unstructured interviews with the owner were conducted to construct a list of all employees who had worked at the restaurant between December 2022 and September 2023. This information was used to calculate the average willing turnover rate and to extrapolate an annual rate. Additional conversations with the owner helped gather data relevant to Judy Hale’s Dynamics of Performance model, clarifying how external market, economic, and governmental factors impact the restaurant’s operations.
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Structured interviews were then conducted with seven employees, including five current and two former, to better understand job satisfaction, workplace environment, and performance barriers. A final interview with the owner and supervisor confirmed preliminary findings and provided insight into limiting factors likely to affect the feasibility of proposed interventions.
An online survey was then distributed to validate the findings and refine the prioritization of potential interventions.
Analysis
A codebook was created based on the performance improvement frameworks mentioned previously. After the interviews were complete, the team worked on transcribing and coding the data. Interview and survey data revealed the following:
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Current employees
100% (n=5) interviewed were satisfied working at the restaurant.
100% (n=5) interviewed said that the working environment is respectful and/or has a family atmosphere.
75% (n=3) interviewed who worked while the former manager was in charge mentioned that the manager created a bad work environment.
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Former employees
100% (n=2) interviewed mentioned the former manager as one of the reasons for leaving.
Both:
100% (n=7) surveyed said they were given regular feedback on their performance.
43% (n=3) interviewed said that the working schedule impacts their personal life negatively.
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Some employees mentioned that they needed more tools and resources, such as: an assistant, a food runner, an extractor fan for the kitchen, tools to make preparation of food and drinks more efficient.
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Our systematic and systemic analysis of the organization, its environment, and the individuals within uncovered several contributing factors to low employee satisfaction and therefore the high turnover rate. The most impactful factors include: a former manager who created a toxic work environment, a lack of employee guidance during downtime, a lack of pre-training and onboarding for new hires, poor communication across departments, and a lack of knowledge about how employees can obtain raises and/or bonuses.
Findings and Interventions Considered
We used a SWOT Analysis to categorize our findings into strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities (see Table 2). This helped us identify areas in need of interventions and possible interventions. After discussion, we arrived at a list of possible interventions.
We used a Multicriteria Analysis to rate each intervention in terms of their necessity, potential efficacy, affordability, and feasibility. The survey data and the final interview with the owner and his right hand supervisor helped us accurately rate the interventions per the listed criteria. We ranked the interventions based on their final ratings.
Recommended Solutions
The key finding of the cause analysis showed that a poor manager was a key reason for turnover in the past eight months. Furthermore, there is a mismatch between the employees’ strong motivation for professional development and the lack of continuous training offered by the restaurant. Additional factors that may contribute to turnover include no onboarding or formalized training, a lack of structure during down time, a lack of knowledge about raises and promotions, poor communication across departments and inadequate staffing. These key findings have helped us formulate recommendations to help the restaurant prevent high turnover.
The NA team recommended that the following three interventions should be given the highest priority:
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A team lead or a checklist (that must be initialed as tasks are completed) during downtime to make sure people know what they should be doing
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New approach to hiring/monitoring managers (behavioral interview techniques and/or hiring from within, 360 feedback system on manager performance) so that managers maintain a healthy work environment
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Onboarding and/or periodic training (includes disaster/safety, roles and expectations, a guided tour, introductions) so employees have the opportunity for improvement and know that the restaurant is investing in them
Based on the results from the Multicriteria Analysis, these interventions are the most necessary, effective, affordable and feasible ways to improve the turnover rate and help the restaurant meet its business objectives.
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The full final report for the project can be viewed in the Appendix.
References
Boise State OPWL. (2020, October 6). Useful questions for starting a project and conducting an
environmental scan [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMHT5U9HwmE
Chevalier, R. (2003). Updating the behavior engineering model. Performance Improvement, 42(5), 8–
14.
Harless, J. H. (1973). An Analysis of Front-End Analysis. Harless Performance Guild, Inc.
Mind Tools. (2022). SWOT Analysis. Mindtools. https://www.mindtools.com/amtbj63/swot-analysis
National Restaurant Association. (2023, September 1). Restaurants added nearly 15k jobs in August.
Retrieved December 5, 2023, from https://restaurant.org/research-and-media/research/economists-notebook/analysis-commentary/restaurants-added-nearly-15k-jobs-in-august
The Nine boxes model. (2020, October 15). RummlerBrache.com.
https://www.rummlerbrache.com/nine-boxes-model
Van Tiem, D., Moseley, J. L., & Dessinger, J. C. (2012). Fundamentals of performance improvement:
Optimizing Results through People, Process, and Organizations. John Wiley & Sons.
Watkins, R., Meiers, M. W., & Visser, Y. (2012). A guide to assessing needs: Essential Tools for
Collecting Information, Making Decisions, and Achieving Development Results. World Bank Publications.