Live Case – Project
Develop Impactful & Sustainable Employee Retention Strategies for Donatos Pizza
A Collaboration Between
Like many other food and beverage companies in the post-COVID economy, Donatos needs to adopt different and better strategies for improving employee stability and retention.
-Become familiar with the organizational structure and existing employee and retention initiatives -Review existing data on employee satisfaction, attrition, retention, stability -Research best practices, curate evidence and exemplars -Make recommendations for immediate and long-term intervention
We need a flexible, innovative, relevant, and sustainable plan that follows best practices in areas of recruiting, hiring and engagement and produces measurable improvements in employee satisfaction, stability and retention.
-Become familiar with the organizational structure and existing employee and retention initiatives -Review existing data on employee satisfaction, attrition, retention, stability -Research best practices, curate evidence and exemplars -Make recommendations for immediate and long-term intervention
We need a flexible, innovative, relevant, and sustainable plan that follows best practices in areas of recruiting, hiring and engagement and produces measurable improvements in employee satisfaction, stability and retention.
Project Topics
Corporate Social Responsibility
Operations
Company Information
| Company | Donatos Pizza |
| HQ | Gahanna, OH |
| Revenue | N/A |
| Employees | 500-2500 |
| Stage | Large Enterprise |
| Hiring Potential | Follow-on Projects, Formal Internship, Entry Level Full-Time |
| Website | https://www.donatos.com/ |
Company Overview
Donatos Pizza is a pizza delivery restaurant franchisor headquartered in Gahanna, Ohio, United States. It has nearly 200 locations in eleven states, with the majority of locations in Ohio.
Experiential Learning Program Details
| School | Northern Illinois University (NIU) |
| Engagement Format | Live Case - Think "Hackathon" or Case Competition with a whole class of students! This learning format allows educators to deliver experiential learning to students at scale. Students are often split into groups to work on a live case (or a series of cases) from a real host company that directly relates to key learning objectives. |
| Course | Business in Action, Fall 2022 (Collum) – Donatos |
| Level |
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| Students Enrolled | 40 |
| Meeting Day & Time | Online MW 6:00 - 8:40 pm CT |
| Student Time Commitment | 4-7 Hours Per Week |
| Company Time Commitment | 1 Hour |
| Duration | 7.57 Weeks |
Program Timeline
Key Project Milestones
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September 19, 2022 - Deep-dive on Donatos
- What is the company’s product and business model?
- Who are the target demographics and customer segments?
- How does the company’s products/services meet their needs? What do customers say about the company?
- Who are the company’s key competitors and how is the company differentiated from their competitors?
- What are the company’s employee retention goals? What resources are available to support employee retention?
- How would you describe the organizational structure? Which positions/employee categories are the focus of the retention strategy?
- For each of these positions:
- What are the roles and responsibilities? What’s a typical day like?
- What are the required qualifications for these positions? Are there different ranks within a given position?
- How are persons in these positions managed? Who do they report to?
- What is the total compensation (direct, indirect) currently offered to paid employees?
- How are they evaluated? Is there room for upward mobility in the organization?
- What is the attrition and/or retention rate, and how are these measured?
Suggested Deliverable:
Descriptive Report on Donatos’ Organizational Structure & Retention Data
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September 28, 2022 - Define Best Practices for Employee Retention
Conduct secondary research on employee retention and “best practices” for retaining employees.
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- What are some metrics you find on retention or attrition? Which ones are appropriate for the given task?
- What do you find about the challenges of retaining these employees? What are the top reasons they leave? How, if at all, do these differ by:
- Position within the organization?
- Generational membership (e.g. Gen-Z, Millennial)
- Other factors?
- What do you find about what helps to retain employees? What are the top strategies or practices?
- Position within the organization?
- Generational membership (e.g. Gen-Z, Millennial)
- Other factors?
- What innovative, proven retention strategies used by competitors in the industry? Companies outside this industry?
Gather any existing data on employee satisfaction and engagement.
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- What do the results suggest about employee satisfaction and engagement?
- How does your research using secondary sources help you interpret/add meaning to the results of your survey?
- What benchmarks can you use to evaluate the status quo and set goals for improvement?
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Suggested Deliverable:
Curated, Annotated Resources. Visualization (e.g. tabled results) of key findings.
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October 10, 2022 - Make Recommendations for Employee Retention Strategy
- What are your recommendations for boosting employee retention?
- Short-term, low-hanging, immediate strategies/tactics
- Long-term strategies/tactics
- What are the estimated costs associated with your recommendations?
- What are the key performance indicators you recommend using to assess the success of these strategies?
Suggested Deliverable:
Employee Retention Strategy “Playbook” Report & Presentation
- What are your recommendations for boosting employee retention?
Project Resources
There are no resources currently available
Industry Mentors
Academic Mentors
Assigned Students
There are currently no students assigned.