Food services are the most commonly outsourced functions in the business community for several reasons. To start with, it is important to appreciate the fact that the preparation of food is a very involving task and if at all businesses are to provide their employees with nutritious and healthy meals, then they need to leave this work to professionals. In addition, once the business community has outsourced the food services function, it can now be able to concentrate on its core business activities.
This helps to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of business functions. Moreover, food service departments in organizations are required to adhere to various federal nutritional guidelines and because of the lack of professionals in the business community, businesses risk failing to comply with these rules. This means that the business community can face prosecution by the federal government for violation of the rules. In order to avoid such problems, outsourcing becomes the most logical thing to do.
Describe the advantages of outsourcing food services to a management
Contractor
When a business community decides to outsource its food services function to a management contractor, there are a number of benefits associated with such a decision. To start with, such a decision will more than likely reduce the operational costs of the business in question.
This is because a lot of resources usually go to the process of acquiring, processing, preparing, and serving food. Such process requires money and when the company outsources these functions, it can save on some of these expenses. In addition, food services do not constitute a core process of a business community, unless it is in the hospitality industry. Therefore, the company is likely to record improve efficiency in its operations because all the resources of the firm are directed towards achieving its core objectives.
The business community is also likely to save on the money that would otherwise have been spent in the purchase of new food equipment, as well as in replacing other equipments. In this case, the outsourced company has to assume this new role. This also goes for the salaries and wages of the employees working at the food services department in a business entity.
Once a management contractor has been tasked with the responsibility of providing food services functions to a business entity, he has to pay his own workforce. Therefore, the company is able to save on employee salaries.
Explain the unique aspects of food service operations that drive these
Advantages
Unlike the production of other products, foodservice is characterized by certain unique characteristics and these can affect the decisions made regarding production and services. To start with, there are certain peak periods when the demand for food tends to be high (for example during lunch, supper, and breakfast).
In between the demand is somewhat erratic. Also, the demand for food can be affected by competitive events or time of the year and this can result in the modification of food production to suit the demand. We also need to note that food production is by and large, labor intensive, often requiring unskilled and skilled labour.
At the same time, the perishable nature of food means that there is need to have professionals handling food during production, while preparing it, and during serving. A change in food production can also affect the menu planning. The aforementioned unique aspects of food service operations are therefore the driving force when a business entity decides to outsource the food services function to a management contractor and in the process, it can benefit from the associated advantages.