We used Nasi Kandar as our Case Study because we felt that they practice some aspects of CSR but also show a lot of room for improvement. We also chose this company because we felt that our solution model would fit into this company.
Nasi Kandar Pelita, Sungai Dua
Seating Capacity: 212 pax on ground floor
Environment: Special cooling fan for outdoor sitting
Entertainment: Astro / Music / Movies / Documentaries
Business Hours: 24 hours
Menu: 60 items plus a Soup Counter & Mee Goreng Counter.
As for Employee Training with CSR in Perspective:
- CSR Based Training.
From our observation, we noticed that the cashiers there sold cigarettes to the public without asking for their identification cards. We feel that this practice is bad because it encourages smoking among the youngsters around the area. In addition to this, the shop is located beside a computer café so many youngsters meet up there and smoke with their friends because they think it is cool. We feel that the management should ban the sale of cigarettes to minors as it encourages bad habits which are bad for health. The people at the cashiers should make it a protocol to ask for identification before selling cigarettes.
We also noticed that many customers were often annoyed by other customers who smoke while eating in the restaurant. We feel that the management should create smoking and non-smoking sections and the workers should be taught to make sure that people sit in right sections to make sure that everyone stays happy. Those who sit at the wrong sections should be asked to go to their respective sections. This is also good for people who have health problems such as Asthma or allergies to dust because they would be able to enjoy their food without any breathing problems.
- Attitude Training
Some of the staff at the restaurant gave very bad service to their customers and some of them were very selective to whom they wanted to serve nicely. Most of the time they would treat ladies very nicely but later they would make them feel uneasy by staring at them. They were also rude to some people in the restaurant.
We feel that the workers should be trained or briefed to serve their customers equally and not harass some of the customers. They should attend a course to explain about customer rights and also rights as workers so that both parties are given proper treatment. In addition to this, workers should also be rewarded for their good behavior to encourage them to be nice. This would make the customers feel comfortable there and visit the place more often.
- Workforce Safety and Hygiene Training
In the kitchen, we saw that the floor was wet and had oil on it. It would be very unsafe for the staff to walk on that floor because they might slip and fall.
There should also be rules put up in the kitchen and wet places to make sure that the floor stays dry and clean to avoid accidents. The workers in the kitchen should also be given safety clothing like slip free shoes to wear to avoid them from falling.
From our observation, we noticed that the workers were very unhygienic when handling the food. They wore hats which stopped their hair from falling into the food which was good but there was no sanitization in the restaurant. They would use their bare hands to clean the tables and later handle food without washing their hands. They would also rub or scratch their body parts such as their noses and later handle straws and utensils without washing their hands. We feel that this practice is very unhygienic and can cause sickness to the public. The people preparing the food such as Roti Canai and the curries did so without wearing masks or gloves. In addition to that, the workers do not sanitize the tables when they clean them. They used the same cloth to wipe the tables and the chairs.
To resolve this problem, we suggest that the management come up with a sanitization method practiced in many places such as Mc Donald’s where workers have to sanitize their hands every hour and also every time they touch anything dirty or their own body. They should also be trained to cover their mouths with masks and wear gloves when preparing food. They should also be taught to hold the straws at the centre and not at the tip or only one person should be appointed to place the straws in the cups. This would reduce the chance of customers and workers themselves falling sick because of dirty food or hygiene. There should also be cleaning cloths meant for tables and separate ones for chairs to make sure that germs and dirt do not harm the workers and customers.
- Skills and Knowledge Training
We noticed that most of the workers spoke poor English and very little Malay. This causes a language barrier especially when they get the orders wrong; they do not understand what the customer says and both parties are frustrated because they can’t understand each other.
To overcome this problem, the restaurant management should give basic language classes to their workers because this helps them to converse better with the customers. This would make the workers feel good about themselves and they would strive harder to learn more and also work harder because they would learn to enjoy their work.
We also found out that only a few of the workers knew how to cook the food such as frying noodles or making the Roti Canai. They also did not know what ingredients were used in the food which is a bad thing because people with allergies would not know what they ate.
More workers should be trained to cook or prepare the food so that the restaurant would not have to rely on only one person and the restaurant would not face difficulties if he were to get into an accident as there would be more people able to cook the food. This makes the workers multi-skilled and they would be more marketable in the future. They should also be taught the basic nutritional values in the food to make sure that customers do not consume things that they are not supposed to eat. There should be an extra menu for the workers that show the basic ingredients in the various foods. This makes the customers trust the restaurant and they will frequently come back because they would feel more secure eating the food.
The Employees Involvement with CSR in Perspective:
1. Social Welfare
From our observation, Pelita Nasi Kandar collects charity for the blind, also called Tabung SAB (Society Advancement of the Blind). We felt that the restaurant did a good job in that because they placed a donation box at the cashier which is a very strategic location. This is because people would donate their loose change to charity.
To further better this act of charity, the restaurant should organize visits to the centre which they are donating too. They could also donate curries and rice to the centre so that the disabled get to enjoy the curry that the company made specially for them.
2. Environmental Welfare
The restaurant should be more active in environmentally friendly events because this raises the company’s status in the public eye and they would feel more confident to eat there. For a small start, they could change the Styrofoam boxes to paper boxes to reduce wastage and pollution. They should also not supply plastic utensils. They should also start using induction cookers rather than normal gas stoves. This not only saves money and cooking time but it also reduces air pollution. In the long run, customers would visit the restaurant because they know that the food is produced in a way that doesn’t pollute the environment.
3. Education
The restaurant should help the society by either giving loans to students or subsidizing the price of food for needy students. Doing this, students would be able to afford to buy books and materials used in their classes.
The restaurant should also give scholarships to the staff’s children who are back home in their hometowns. This would make sure that they have a good education because the staff would not be able to afford that kind of education for their companies.
4. Nourishing Employees
The restaurant gives its workers free meals and this shows that they care that their workers eat enough to make sure that they have enough energy. Unfortunately, the workers can only select from the selection of food sold in the restaurant. This means that they would not get the proper amount of vitamins and too much of Nasi Kandar and sweet drinks can cause obesity and also diabetes. This would later lead to even more health problems.
The company should show interest in the workers health by giving them vitamins or letting them choose healthier foods. This can be done by introducing healthier food in the company which still tastes good. This makes sure that the workers are eating balanced diets. Furthermore, the healthier dishes introduced into the company would encourage customers who are more health conscious to go to the restaurant to eat, thus increasing revenues.
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