WWYD Nick's Pizza & Pub Nick's Pizza & Pub, a Two-Restaurant

Multiple Choice

WWYD Nick's Pizza & Pub Nick's Pizza & Pub, a two-restaurant business in northern Illinois, wanted to open five more restaurants. But expansion wasn't to be. Expenses were high because of an inability to control food and beverage costs. An economic downturn saw guest counts drop. In the end, with costs up, revenues down, and lending standards tightening, Nick's fixed up and grew the two existing restaurants. Following the success of a young employee who asked staff for ways to keep costs in line, Nick pulled together the staffs in both restaurants to share how and where the restaurants were earning revenue and incurring expenses. He then asked for their help on three key issues: pay, hiring, and training. Nick and his people addressed three human resource challenges at Nick's Pizza & Pub. Pay was the first. Nick's takes a sophisticated multipronged approach to compensating its employees. To start, Nick's alters basic pay by one dollar more than minimum wage, and for employees who work at least 30 hours a week, the company pays half the cost of their company-provided health insurance. And for nearly a decade, Nick's has had a profit-sharing plan for all 230 employees. Each month, if the restaurant meets its goals in four out of the five following areas, food costs, beverage costs, guest comments, employee turnover, and labor costs, Nick's employees split 80 percent of the profit sharing pot.
Nick's also takes a unique approach to recruiting. From the start of Nick's interview process, managers are looking for signs of personal accountability. The initial screening interview is strict and eliminates 80 percent of applicants. The 20 percent of applicants who make it out of the first round of interviews then complete two more interviews. This time, however, to increase the reliability and validity of the interview process, two managers sit in on each interview, with one manager sitting in on both interviews for each applicant. Like the first round of interviews, the criteria are strict. One "no" vote, and you're not hired. If you aren't, you still receive a thank-you note and a coupon for a free pizza. During the interview process, hiring managers at Nick's ask each applicant the same job-related questions.
New hires spend two days learning about the company's purpose, values, and culture in a training class called Nick's 101 during which they spend 4 hours in the kitchen learning how to make pizza. The next step is Nick's 201, in which employees are separated by job, kitchen, wait staff, or bar staff, and are trained in their specific job responsibilities. And to prove that they've mastered their jobs, each employee is encouraged to certify their skill level in the tasks contained in their job. For example, it usually takes pizza makers two to four weeks to become certified, whereby they can make a pizza on their own to Nick's standards. Pizza makers, however, can get certified in other kitchen jobs, such as salads and sandwiches. When they've been certified in three jobs, their pay goes up 75 cents an hour. Becoming certified in another three jobs, six in total, increases their ay by $1.25 an hour. And when a kitchen worker is certified in nine jobs, their pay will increase by $2.75 an hour. Refer to WWYD Nick's Pizza & Pub. Nick's profit sharing plan is an example of:

A) an employee benefit
B) an ESOP
C) pay variability
D) recruiting bonus
E) commission