Human Resource Management on Dietitians in Contracted Foodservice Companies

Eum, Young Ram; Lyu, Eun Soon

Abstract

This study was conducted to identify dietitians' position and role by assessing the present condition on management of human resources in contracted foodservice management company. Questionnaires were distributed to 79 contracted companies (eight large-size, 48 mid-size, 23 small-size companies) from March to May in 2002. Statistical analysis was performed with SPSSwin (version 8.0). The data were analyzed in group comparisons using frequencies and percentage for every item in the questionnaires, x2-test, and oneway ANOVA. About eighty-five percent of contracted foodservice companies employed the new dietitians as full time employees, and seventy-five percent of them were promoted the dietitians by evaluation after a given period of time. As a starting payment for university graduates, large-size companies payed an average of 16,260,000 won/year, which was significantly higher (p<0.01) than those of mid-sized (11,320,000 won/year) and small-sized companies (11,620,000 won/year). The mean lengths of dietitians' service were 33.5 months in large-size companies, 26.5 months in mid-sized companies, 26.0 months in small-sized companies. It was less than 3 years in all companies (avg. 26.9 months). Fifty-four companies (68.4%) employed dietitians in each foodservice contract, whereas 25 companies didn't employ dietitians. The ratios of dietitians out of employees in each department of the companies were 42.6% in the department of contracted foodservice management, 19.9% in the department of menu development, 18.1% in the department of food safety, 8.7% in the department of distribution and purchase, 4.2% in the department of business, and 3.9% in the department of customer satisfaction. The dietitians' positions were directors in two companies (2.5%), general managers in two companies (2.5%), deputy managers in seven companies (8.9%), managers in twenty-nine companies (36.7%), assistant managers/chief clerks in twenty-four companies (30.4%), and chiefs in twenty-five companies (31.6%). The frequencies of training for dietitians were 6.2 times/year for the food safety training, 5.8 times/year for the cooking training, 4.8 times/year for nutrition-related training, and 4.7 times/year for service training.