Executive Summary:

Applebee’s International, Inc. is a United States company which develops,

franchises, and operates the Applebee's Neighborhood Grill and Bar
restaurant chain. As of November 2010, there were 2,000 restaurants operating
system-wide in the United States, one U.S. territory and 16 other countries. [The
company's headquarters are in Lenexa, KS

The Applebee's concept focuses on casual dining with mainstream American

dishes such as salads, shrimp, chicken, pasta, and "riblets" (which is considered
Applebee's signature item). All Applebee's restaurants feature a bar area and
serve alcoholic beverages (except where prohibited by law).

Type : Wholly owned subsidiary

Industry : Restaurants

Founded : January 1, 1980 in Decatur, Georgia

Founder(s) : Bill and T.J. Palmer

Headquarters: Lenexa, Kansas, U.S.

Key people :Julia Stewart, CEO, Dine Equity

Mike Archer, President

Revenue : ⌂$1.216 billion USD (2005)

Net income : ⌂$101.802 million USD (2005)

Employees : 32,260 (2006)

Website : www.applebees.com

The Applebee's chain was started by Bill and T.J. Palmer who opened their first
restaurant, T.J. Applebee’s Rx for Edibles & Elixirs, in Decatur, Georgia on
January 1, 1980. After opening their second restaurant the pair sold their
company to W. R. Grace and Company in 1983. As part of the transaction, Bill
Palmer was named president of the Applebee's Division an indirect subsidiary
of W. R. Graceand Company. In that capacity, Palmer guided the operation

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from its entrepreneurial beginnings to a full-fledged franchise system. He
became an Applebee's franchisee in 1985 and today owns more than three dozen
Applebee's restaurants.

In 1986, the name of the concept was changed to Applebee's Neighborhood

Grill & Bar to reflect the Palmers' original concept of a place people could call
their own. In 1988, Applebee's International, Inc. became the restaurant chain's
franchiser when Kansas City franchisees Abe Gustin and John Hamra
purchased the rights to the Applebee's concept from W. R. Grace.

Today, with more than 1,900 restaurants, Applebee's is the world's largest
casual dining restaurant chain. From 1993 to 2005, Applebee's opened 100 or
more new restaurants each year. The company estimates the development
potential of the Applebee's concept in the United States to be at least 3,000
restaurants.

Key Words:

a) Call-center

b) Outsource

c) Travel System

d) Quality Agent

e) Web-based System

f) Airline-Reservation

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Case 1: Reducing Travel Cost at Applebee's

Case Summary:

Applebee's international is a large restaurant chain, with roughly 2,000

restaurants in the US and two other countries. The business is growing over

time opening 100 restaurants per year. For monitoring purpose Applebee's staffs

have to travel a lot. For that traveling purpose applebee's HR manager

introduced a system which was to control the travelling booking system. But the

clash is, the employees don`t follow the company policy for booking and also

not encouraged to use the system. For that reason the travelling cost of

Applebee's is increasing day by day. In this case it was to figure out how should

the HR manager Andrew Face, motivate the employees to use the booking

system in the former way maintaining all the policies of the company and

minimize the cost.

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Q#1: Consider the variable pay programs discussed in this case, of which

type of program is Applebee’s program an Example? Explain.

Ans: Price-rate plans , merit-based pay, bonuses , profit-sharing, gain-

sharing , & employee stock ownership plans are all forms of Variable pay

programs. Instead of paying a person only for time on the job or seniority , a

variable pay program bases a portion of an employee’s pay on some

individual and /or organizational measure of performance . Earning’s

therefore fluctuate up & down with the measure of performance.

Variable pay is a team or group incentive plan that ties pay to some measure

of the firms overall profitability & profit sharing plan. It has some classes to

the pay the benefits.

Applebee’s example is an example of ‘piece-rate plans’. Piece rate plan have

been popular for more than a century as a means of compensating production

workers. In piece rate pay plans, workers are paid a fixed sum for each unit of

production completed . When an employee gets no base salary & is paid only

for what he or she produces, this is a pure piece-rate plan.

For example, people who work in ballparks selling peanuts & soda are

frequently paid this way. If they sell only 40 bags of peanuts ,their take is only

$ 40. The harder they work & the more peanuts they sell , the more they earn .

The limitation of these plans is that they are not feasible for many jobs.

According to the system of Face , he decided to give a pair of domestic air

ticket if an individual fly’s for 6 or more times. It is certain a piece rate plan of

profit sharing, and the standard of cost minimization was established at

$100,000.
.
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Q#2: If you were asked to revise the Applebee's program to include more
individual incentives, how might you do that?

Ans: Employee motivation is a vital process to increase a company's

profitability. To motivate employees there is lot of ways . We can use financial
or intrinsic rewards to motivate the employees. In some extend financial
rewards fall back, and intrinsic rewards get the employees motivation. In this
case, motivating the employees to use a proper system and fly more than six
times a year is a great deal of management. For this purpose we have to develop
a incentive system that will motivate the employees individually to fly
according to the system.

For individual incentive, if an employee fly more than five times a year they
will get discount in their next flight tickets. And the discounted price will be
added in their salary. By this approach the employees will be motivated more to
get the financial reward and use the system voluntarily.

Employees will get ticket of business class rather than economy class.

Some employee incentive ideas include:

 Vacations- this can be used as a long term bonus or even as a sales

achievement goal. This vacation does not need to be for weeks at a time
but can be a 3 or 4 day vacation.

 Grills or other cooking needs for both the inside and outside of your
home. This is great for both the male and female employees in your
business.

 Passes for local area attractions. You can make this incentive even better
by making it a pass for the employee's family. These passes would
include water parks or golf clubs.

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  Sporting equipment including golf clubs or tennis rackets.

 Jewelry for either the male or female employees.

Anything that has to do with technology. These incentives are great for
employees that have just started with your company or have spent many years
with your company. These can include digital cameras, DVD players, video
cameras or even cell phones.

 Watches with the company logo.

 Clothing with the company logo or gift certificates for local stores.

Paid time off from the job. This is also known as sabbatical and can be
given to an employee after so many years with the company.

 Plan a day out with employees of a team, when an important project has
been completed, or a deadline has been met. It could be an office picnic, a lunch
together, or just a round of drinks. Ensure you as the employer are a part of the
group and make it an unprofessional, unofficial time where all of you can get to
know each other.

Have a party, just because. You don’t have to have a good reason to party, so
make something up. Hold a favorite t-shirt or sports team event, even if there
isn’t a holiday in sight to celebrate. Put employees in charge of the snacks and
take an hour out of the day to celebrate, just because.

Have coworkers award each other. Ask each employee to write something
they admire about a fellow coworker. Frame the award with a small photo of the
employee and hang them in the break room or hallway.
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Q#3 How would you react to such a program? Explain your reactions.

Ans: The individual incentive system is mainly a financial reward. So there can

be a confusion regarding such system. But if we communicate the program in

detail with the individuals it would be effective beyond the concept. We would

send mail to every single individual of the organization through the intranet and

the internet regarding the incentive payment system in detail so that they can get

it at anywhere in anytime. There would an opportunity to consult with their

respective supervisors about the system's conditions and benefits.

As an owner:

Be Open and Up Front with Your Employees

Introduce Cost Saving Measures Gradually

Get Employees Involved in the Process

Ask Employees for Feedback

Some individuals fast track changes; others need to handle each step
deliberately.

-As employees become aware that there is a change brewing, communicate to

them as soon as possible.

-Make a list of all your employees and assess who is potentially impacted and
how they may react to the change. Find your champion, as well as your greatest
resister. Both of them will be your partners in creating change...though for
different reasons. Your champions will help promote the change. Your resisters
will help you with the design of the change and communication.

-Try to include your staff members in the process...gather their concerns as soon
as possible. They may also have important points to add to the change process.

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-Create a communication plan right from the beginning and keep adding
important messages to send out.

-Let them know that changes will evolve and you will inform them along the
way.

-Stress the benefits to them and let them know how this change will make it
easier for them.

-Listen to them...listen to their concerns, their fears, their input.

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Q#4: Why do you think more companies do not use these sort of

incentives?

Ans: Companies have different chain regarding their business strategy and

decision making process about their incentives. In this Case Applebee's is a

international and a huge chain restaurant which has a large number of branches.

Though it is a food business so proper monitoring is mandatory. That is why the

travelling is so frequent as well as the cost is remarkable. So it is the nature of

business that indicates the monitoring purpose and the incentives paying system.

Other companies might has different business strategies, different business

purpose. So most of the companies don’t follow this type incentive system for

travelling to motivate the employees more.

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Conclusion:

The travelling cost of Applebee's is increasing day by day. In this case it was to

figure out how should the HR manager Andrew Face, motivate the employees

to use the booking system in the former way maintaining all the policies of the

company and minimize the cost.

Annexure:

Organizational Behavior- Robbins Judge, 13th edition

www.applebee.com

www.google.com

www.scribd.com

www.post-gazzet.net

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