Recommendations

During our interview with Mr. Jason Yanni we asked him what part of the HR process he felt was the least effective. While the hiring process was smoothly able to process hundreds of applications, the problem arose with an out dated scheduling system. 

Scheduling Process 

The scheduling process is essential for AMC theatres at Menlo Park. The scheduling process works as follows: once an employee submits their availability and a manager accepts it, work brain will fill out the schedule based on the staffing needs. If an associate has any problems with the shift or wants to switch shifts they must go speak to a manager because employees have no control over scheduling in work brain. Therefore with a staff of over 400 employees this process takes a lot of time that could be better utilized by the HR managers. Work Brain can only add one job code per employee therefore there is very limited flexibility with scheduling. This only adds to the workload of the HR staff and makes their jobs even more difficult. While Workbrain has worked well in the past, a new more efficient and improved system would make the hiring and scheduling process easier for the HR department.

Software Upgrade

We would like to recommend Hot Schedules as a solution to the outdated Workbrain system. Hot schedules is a commonly used system in many restaurants around the country. Because AMC of Menlo Park is a theatre as well as a restaurant we feel as if it would be beneficial to move to Hot Schedules because it allows for more flexibility and has a more efficient way of swapping and canceling shifts. Scheduling is also easier, Hot schedules will automatically warn management when associates are going over their designated number of hours as well as providing a similar template as Workbrain. Employees also have the option to release shifts for which they won’t be able to work. When the shift is released any other employee working the same position can request to pick it up. Some days are busier than others; if there is a need for more employees to work a certain day the management team can release something called house shifts, these are extra shifts that any employee can pick up. 

This system can also assign specific tasks to each scheduled employee; Workbrain can only assign shifts by one job code while Hot schedules has a schedule code and a job assignment for that particular shift. Therefore with Hot schedules employees know even before they come to work exactly what they are going to be assigned to do for that particular shift. Hot schedules also helps send out messages more efficiently. Workbrain messages could only be sent out as blast emails or a manager would have to manually assign each associate they would want to message. With Hot schedules they can send messages to a particular position; for example if they need a server to pick up a shift they could send it to only servers.Now if they need servers within a specific skill level, they could send out a message to only their top ranked servers.