Data Analysis Portfolio of Work: Working Party Forum Questionnaire Canteen and Staff Shop - Coursework Example

DATA ANALYSIS PORTFOLIO OF WORK: WORKING PARTY FORUM QUESTIONNAIRE CANTEEN AND STAFF SHOP by Physical address Date STATEMENT OF PROBLEM The Mars Company Staff Canteen was established on 14th July, 1999 to provide selected goods and services to the staff. It is the only shopping point located within the premises of the company. The canteen mainly sells packed food to staff during breaks. It is managed by the staff welfare committee on behalf of all Mars company employees. Each year, the committee tables the canteen financial reports during the annual employees’ party. It is at this forum where members approve the report and dividend, scrutinize the budget and make suggestion on how to improve services offered by the canteen. As part of social welfare arrangement, the canteen strives to provide a cheap alternative feeding programme to employees on duty. However, profitability is a key requirement as it a collective investment. People engage in business ventures to make profit although it is not important that you realize profit yearly (Stephen 2011). To boost sales and increase profits, the committee proposed to members to allow it starts selling hot food and open a staff shop during a working party forum held on 23rd December, 2011. As a tradition, such new venture is subjected to research after which the members deliberate and acts on findings and recommendations of the report. To this end, the committee sought my services in conducting a survey on the proposal with core intention of finding out the opinion of workforce regarding the proposals. Besides, the study had the following objectives: To gauge the support for or against hot food and staff shop To determine appropriate time for serving hot food To determine the cost likely to be incurred by staff buying hot food To find out the preferred type of hot food and other categories To establish the time to open the shop and commodities to sell COLLECTION OF DATA The random sampling technique was used to select a representative population. In random sampling individuals are picked from study population based on chance (Leonard and Leonard 2009). This technique ensured that each employee has an equal chance of taking part in the survey and therefore not biased. The sample was deemed to be a true representative of the population because in this method the process of coming up with a sample was based on probability and not predetermined. The employees were assigned numbers 1 to 510 according to the way the names appear in the payroll. The numbers were keyed in online sampling software called randomizer (randomizer.org), which generated 142 unique numbers. The numbers were matched with payroll numbers to select employees who represented the other workers in the survey. The following numbers were generated by randomizer: 290, 133, 42, 201, 181, 175, 369, 431, 39, 239, 445, 2, 150, 296, 67, 8, 6, 387, 308, 167, 25, 90, 444, 408, 266, 203, 208, 292, 1, 122, 97, 284, 101, 477, 34, 92, 93, 85, 155, 457, 193, 301, 306, 396, 79, 191, 270, 246, 38, 162, 134, 354, 96, 437, 390, 264, 281, 27, 447, 209, 169, 412, 501, 194, 312, 21, 280, 195, 158, 176, 83, 46, 33, 388, 438, 410, 110, 368, 321, 50, 329, 365, 115, 434, 339, 318, 479, 17, 88, 508, 229, 61, 361, 440, 95, 156, 343, 311, 424, 382, 331, 421, 327, 124, 154, 373, 453, 187, 330, 493, 397, 200, 293, 372, 336, 119, 126, 407, 159, 47, 143, 87, 254, 89, 4, 459, 64, 15, 358, 392, 252, 225, 65, 400, 352, 462, 433, 500, 232, 30, 40, 230. The employees corresponding to a selected number were given questionnaire to fill and then return it to Forum Representative within 7 days. Out of 142 questionnaires issued, 123 were returned to the committee. As the researcher, I scrutinized the filled questionnaires and accepted 114 to be used for analytical purpose. This number translates to 22.4% response rate corresponding to 8.1% error margin at 95% confidence level. This figure was calculated using online application (surveysystem.com) by feeding the sample size and required confidence level to give confidence interval in percentage. The confidence interval gives a range within which the estimated value is expected to be (Ruth 2011). The 9 questionnaires were disqualified because of inappropriate filling, misinformation and lack of correlation between time off duty and time filled in the form among other reasons. The questionnaires are very important in obtaining opinions regarding any subject (Importance of feedback questionnaire). The following questionnaire was used in the survey: Working Party Forum Questionnaire Canteen Facilities 1 Which shift pattern do you work? 4 on / 4 off 4 on / 3 off Mon-Fri 2 Would you like the option of having hot food available to purchase from the canteen? Yes No 3 What times of the day would you be likely to purchase hot food from the canteen? Pre 7am AM tea break Lunch break PM tea break Post 7pm 4 If hot food was available, how many times per shift would you purchase it? 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8+ 5 If hot food was available, how much would you expect to pay for the following: a) Main meal Below £2.00 £2.00-£3.00 £3.00-£4.00 £4.00-£5.00 £5.00+ b) Snack Below £1.00 £1.00-£2.00 £2.00-£3.00 £3.00+ c) Dessert Below £1.00 £1.00-£2.00 £2.00-£3.00 £3.00+ 6 What type of hot food you would like to see? Breakfast Main meals Desserts Baguettes Sandwiches Salads Snacks Meal deals Other (Please Specify) Staff Shop Please complete all questions by circling / highlighting one of the options. For question 6 you can add your own comments. If you need extra space, please use the back of the questionnaire. 1 Which shift pattern do you work? 4 on / 4 off 4 on / 3 off Mon-Fri 2 Would you use a staff shop if one were provided? Yes No 3 What times of the day would you be likely to use the staff shop? Pre 7am AM tea break Lunch break PM tea break Post 7pm 4 What fruit or vegetables would you be interested in buying? Tropical Vegetables Stonefruit Citrus (FT) Dried Fruit Topfruit (FT) 5 Would you prefer to buy your fruit and vegetables by the pack or loose Pack Loose 6 As well as fruit and vegetables would you be interested in having available to purchase: - Flowers Fresh meat Local produce Snacks Plants Bread Toiletries Other (Please Specify) Thank you for taking the time to complete this questionnaire. RESULTS AND ANALYSIS Most of the values were expressed in terms of percentages. A percentage is computed to determine the proportion of total a specific value represents (De Vaus 2002). Canteen facilities 1. Which shifts patterns do you work for? Pattern 4 ON/4 OFF 4 ON/3 OFF MON/FRI Size 44 17 53 Percentage 38.5 15.0 46.5 2. Would you like the option of hot food from canteen? Option YES NO Size 98 16 Percentage 86.0 14.0 3. What times of the day would you likely to purchase hot food from Canteen? 4 ON/4 OFF 4 ON/3 OFF MON/FRI AGGREGATE Size % Size % Size % Total % Pre 7AM 1 2.3 0 0 0 0 1 0.9 AM Tea Break 20 45.4 5 29.4 5 9.4 30 26.3 Lunch Break 22 50.0 11 64.7 47 88.7 80 70.1 PM Tea Break 0 0 1 5.9 1 1.9 2 1.8 Post 7 PM 1 2.3 0 0 0 0 1 0.9 4. If hot food was available how many times per shift would you purchase it? Time Response 0 Non 1 time Non 2 times Non 3 times Non 4 times Non 5 times 8 6 times Non 7 times Non 8+ times Non 5. If hot food was available, how much would you expect to pay for the following? Main meal % Snacks % Desserts % Below £2 21 18.4 Below £ 1 40 35.1 Below £ 1 30 26.3 £ 2-3 50 43.9 £ 1-2 65 57.0 £ 1-2 73 64.0 £ 3-4 35 30.7 £ 2-3 6 5.3 £ 2-3 8 7.1 £ 4-5 3 2.6 £ 3+ 3 2.6 £ 3+ 3 2.6 £ 5+ 5 4.4 6. What type of hot food you would like to see? Type of food Size Percentage Breakfasts 25 21.9 Main meals 80 70.2 Desserts 86 75.4 Baguettes 90 79.0 Sandwiches 95 83.3 Salads 52 45.6 Snacks 65 57.0 Meal deals 46 40.4 Other types of foods listed 4 ON/ 4 0FF 4 ON / 3 OFF MON/FRI Soup Jacket potato Pizza Fish/Pie chips Paninis Curry’s English breakfast Stews Sandwiches Pasties Roast dinner Lasagne Bacon/Sausages/Butties Spag bowl Beans/Toast Hot wraps Chilli Salads Toasties Burgers Cottage pie Vegetarian Pasta BBQ Staff shop 1. Would you use staff shop if one was provided? Option YES NO Size 50 64 Percentage 43.9 56.1 If Yes, 2. What times of the day would you be likely to use staff shop? Time Pre 7AM AM Tea Break Lunch Break PM Tea Break Post 7PM Size 0 0 8 13 29 Percentage 0 0 16.0 26.0 58.0 3. What fruits or vegetables would you be interested in buying? Fruits/Vegetables Size Percentage Tropical fruits 30 60.0 Stone fruits 44 88.0 Dried fruits 25 50.0 Vegetables 22 44.0 Citrus 13 26.0 Top fruits 22 44.0 4. Would you prefer to buy fruits/vegetables by pack or loose? Type Size % Pack 35 70.0 Loose 43 86.0 5. As well as fruits vegetables, would you be interested in having? Commodity Size Percentage Flowers 5 10.0 Local produce 29 58.0 Plants 38 76.0 Toiletries 7 14.0 Fresh meat 25 50.0 Snacks 46 92.0 Others Medicine, Salad, Sweets, Bread Average spending on hot foods To determine the spending on the three types of foods namely, main mean, deserts and snacks, the averaging method was employed using the grouped data. The average is a measure that indicates the centre of spread of values (Sandra 2007). Main mean µ = ∑fx/∑f where f = frequency and x is the midpoint (1.5 X 21) + (2.5 X 50) + (3.5 X 35) + (4.5 X 3) + (5.5 X 5) 31.5 + 125.0 + 122.5 + 13.5 + 27.7 320.0 ÷ 114 £2.80 Snacks µ = ∑fx/∑f (0.5 X 40) + (1.5 X 65) + (2.5 X 6) + (3.5 X3) 20 + 97.5 + 15.0 + 10.5 143 ÷ 114 £ 1.30 Desserts µ = ∑fx/∑f (0.5 X 30) + (1.5 X 73) + (2.5 X 8) + (3.5 X 3) 15 + 109.5 + 20 + 10.5 155 ÷ 114 £ 1.40 PRESENTATIONS 1. Mon/Fri shift is the most popular shift followed closely by 4 On/ 4 Off. 4 On/3 Off shift is the least preferred by staff 2. The proposal to sell hot food in the canteen is supported by majority of staff members. 14% object to the proposal. 3. 70.1% of staff prefers to purchase hot food during lunch break. Pre 7AM and Post 7 PM are the times when staff are not likely to purchase hot food A bar graph showing times the staffs are likely to purchase hot food 4. The staffs are willing to spend more on main meal than on snacks and desserts A pie chart showing how staffs are likely to spend on different types of hot foods 5. Sandwiches is the most preferred (83.3%) hot food while breakfast is the least preferred (21.9%) 6. Majority of staff (56.1%) are not likely to use staff shop if one is provided 7. Of the staff who are willing buy from staff shop, 58% of them prefer to do so after 7PM 8. Of the staffs who are willing to use staff shop 88% are interested in buying stone fruits. Citrus fruits closes the list with 26% 9. Staffs who are willing to use staff shop have no clear preference for buying vegetables in pack or loose. Those who want them packed and loose stand at 70% and 86% respectively 10. Snacks top the list of commodities the staff would want to be sold at the shop garnering 92% while flowers closes the list with 10% CONCLUSIONS The research was carried out in form of structured survey where respondent were expected to answer a variety of same questions which were common to all respondents. This method was considered appropriate because a lot of information could be extracted from respondents. Surveys produce volumes of information within a short time (Craig 1991). In addition, this method is cheaper than experimental techniques. On the other hand, the success of structured survey depends on respondent hence subjective. People interviewed must meet eligibility requirements so that they reply as respondents (Ian 2008). Some respondents may provide wrong information to appear privileged. Others may also not answer some questions properly because of time factors Recommendations 1. The committee should implement the proposal to sell hot foods in the Canteen as majority of staff members support the idea. 2. Hot foods should be sold during AM tea break and lunch break because 96.3 % of the staff are likely to buy them at these times. They should not be sold Pre 7AM, PM tea break and Post 7PM to cut on energy cost as 3.7% of employees are likely to buy them at this time. 3. There should be greater investment on main meals because staffs are willing to spend more on this category of food 4. All meals should be served hot because of more than 50% approval by staff except breakfast 5. There should be a variety of hot foods served at the Canteen because there is no overlap of foods among the three groups 6. The committee should go ahead and establish a staff shop. Although 43.9% of staff approves this proposal, when 8.1% margin of error is considered, the value falls within a range of 35.8% to 52%. The upper limit of 52% represent the majority hence the decision can be implemented. 7. The staff shop should be opened from lunch time through the afternoon when 100% of the staff are willing to buy stuff from it 8. The shop should stock variety of goods such as fruits, vegetables and medicines except citrus fruits and flowers 9. The shop should pack almost equal quantity for loose vegetables both are preferred by staff References Craig, S. 1991. Management research handbook. New York: Taylor and Francis. De Vaus, D. 2002. Surveys in social research. 5th ed. London: Routledge. Ian, B. 2008. Questionnaire design: How to plan, structure and write a survey material for effective market research. 2nd ed. London: Kogan Page Limited. Importance of feedback questionnaire. [Online]. Available from: http://www.samplequestionnaire.com/importance-of-feedback-questionnaire.html. [Accessed on 20 April 2012] Leonard, J. and Leonard, K. 2009. Schaum’s outline of business statistics. 4th ed. McGraw Hill Research Randomizer Formv4.0. [Online]. Available from: http://www.randomizer.org/form. [Accessed on 19 April 2012]. Ruth, D. 2011. Practical statistics for educators. 4th ed. Playmouth: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. Sample size calculator. [Online]. Available from: http://www.surveysystem.com/sscalc.htm#one. [Accesed on 20 April 2012]. Sandra, D. 2007. Elementary statistics using Jmp. Cary: SAS Institute. Stephen, F. 2011. Working for yourself. 8th ed. Nolo. Read More