Learning Activity #2 Forecasting and HR Demand Worksheet

Preamble: The Family Coffee Shop

In these challenging times during the pandemic of 2020, small and medium size retail businesses have been hard hit in determining supply and demand requirements.  In this scenario you have a friend who owns and runs a small privately run coffee shop that specializes in specialty coffees and homemade pastries that are made daily. At capacity, the coffee shop requires four staff to serve all the customers. While the coffee shop has been getting busier and busier prior to the pandemic. Since the pandemic began in March 2020, your friend had found it challenging to have the right number of staff working depending on current restrictions for entry into the shop. Sometimes when only one person is working, they may be overwhelmed with takeout orders, and other times when pandemic restrictions are loosened the three or four people working stare into a mostly empty (25% of occupancy) coffee shop. When staff aren’t working, the coffee shop is losing money, and the staff aren’t earning wages and tips. Without a full income from servicing clients, the better serving staff move to more established and busier coffee shops in the area, so the quality of workers is suffering from this poor scheduling.

Using what you know about forecasting demand answer the following 3 questions.

The Delphi technique and the nominal group technique (NGT) are often used to facilitate creative and innovative solutions to HR demand issues. Answer the following 3 questions.