Read the give description of Cinema business.

1) Prepare SWOT for the business from HR perspective.

2) Write the HRM strategy for the company. Which strategic approach (universalism, contingency or configurational) you recommend. Why?

3) Which are 3 key focus areas for HR? Provide an action plan for 1 year how to approach these focus areas.

Cinema chain overview

Magic Screen is the company which owns and operates 35 multi-screen cinemas across the country. Company was established in 1995 and since then has expanded the business in biggest towns. In total Magic Screen has 100 000 seats and attracts 25 million attendances every year. Every cinema has 6- 10 screens of differing capacities. In addition, each cinema has fully licensed cafe/bar and few shops selling ice cream, popcorn, confectionery, soft and hot drinks, various toys and products with movie heroes.

In total Magic Screen employs 1312 employees - 1248 are cinema based and the rest are based in HQ above one of the cinemas in the center of capital. All cinemas look almost the same, having the same layout, decoration, seating, carpets, logo, eating and toilet facilities.

Recent changes in cinema business and cinema-goers expectations

Magic Screen is operating in very tough market as some other cinema chains were expanding in biggest cities and shopping malls. In addition to that, cinema is not the only media platform where people can watch films - due to internet technologies development many other platforms offer the same service (DVD, streaming etc). Cinema business should find ways how to survive and promising news are that people who loved to go to cinema still want to use this service as they have specific expectations which cannot be replaced by internet technology. Cinema-goers interest in watching movies exactly in cinema is determined not just by the quality of the film and actors, but also by the atmosphere and the place where those movies can be seen. Cinema visitors see these factors as important: location, show-times, quality of sound, atmosphere in the waiting room, ticket queue, cleanliness and comfort of the place, polite and customer oriented employees, speed of service, choise of snacks, special offers and loyalty cards. It is important to make the audience of cinema to feel comfortable because this is the place for socializing and spending the leisure time.

The Strategy

Magic Screen is still the second largest cinema chain and has ambitions to continue to grow in spite of recent challenges brought by variety of movie watching options. Magic Screen management believes that cinema is still a very popular place of entertainment for families with kids, youngsters and also senior audience, providing the biggest income on evenings and weekends. Company has introduced various additional services such as birthday party celebration, corporate events organization, loyalty card distribution, special ticket offers during mornings, and these have been proved to be a solid source of additional income on top of cinema tickets and snacks.

Company`s senior leadership team has set the target for each cinema in the chain to review their current operations, to maximize performance and revenue, to improve profitability and customer satisfaction. New strategy claims that Magic Screen becomes #1 in the country by offering best movie selection for all audiences, best show times, best ticket deals, best catering offering and best staff and customer service. It is clear that cinema staff can contribute to this strategy by improving customer experience and atmosphere in cinemas, increasing sales in cafe, increasing sales of additional products (e.g. products with movie heroes - T-shirts, hats, mugs, stickers) and promoting sales of loyalty cards.

Management team has required all department heads to review their operations and processes, to come up with analysis of current situation, provide recommendations to improve their areas of responsibility, present how these initiatives will contribute to achievement of strategic goals.

Staffing

Majority of Magic Screen staff works in cinemas, in customer facing roles. Average tenure of employees is 1,5 years and majority of them are students. They appreciate the opportunity to combine work with studies, as during working days their shifts often take place at afternoons and evenings. Many of them usually leave this job as soon as they find another job which is more related to their field of studies. Some of them find a similar job with higher salary and better benefits such as health insurance, additional free days, bonuses, company paid meals and training opportunities.

Due to high attrition rate cinema managers are heavily involved in recruitments. Labour market is very active and it is not easy for Magic Screen to attract good employees, so their hiring process usually is one interview and there are no strict requirements towards candidates.

Onboarding process is quite fast as new joiners are learning their tasks on the job starting from day one, under supervision of someone more experienced. Customer service standard has been implemented 10 years ago, however due to high rotation of employees, there is very low attention to these guidelines. No measures are in place in regards to compliance to customer service standard and cinema managers hardly can find the time to review reports on customer satisfaction and reasons for complaints.

Salary rate for cinema employees is average comparing to customer service roles in similar companies like retail, cafeterias, grocery stores. There are no bonuses for cinema staff and their salary depends only on actual number of hours worked in particular month.

Cinema managers are responsible for their cinema business results, for staff and smooth operations. Cinema managers usually are promoted internally from most experienced employees, as they know operations very well. Company believes that it is enough to have experience in the company to be promoted to the managerial position and as soon as these employees get the new role, they start to lead the team of 30-40 employees in average, having some shift leaders who oversee operations in cinema main hall on daily basis.

Once per month all cinema managers visit HQ for the meeting where they report their results and learn about any changes or news in cinema operations. Some cinema managers are doing their work better than others and this can be seen in cinema monthly results. These results include financial target achievement in terms of income and costs, as well as customer satisfaction level and number of complaints, employee turnover. Cinema management see the link between employee turnover and income level and can say that more experienced customer service employees are able to generate higher level of sales, as they tend to offer some additional products on top of tickets while chatting with customers.

Customer feedback

Magic Screens employ a research agency who interview customers when they leave the cinema. This is done randomly and based on findings the monthly report is prepared and presented to the management.

Recent results show the trend of decline in customer satisfaction:

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HR Manager has been collecting information about current situation and is worried that without any changes in HR policies and practices the strategic goal of becoming #1 cannot be achieved. It is clear to HR Manager that behavioural changes are needed and it requires upskilling of cinema customer facing staff and cinema managers.

Annual employee survey results showed that 43% might leave the company within the next year, every 2nd employee feels disengaged at work and just few would recommend Magic Screen as a good place to work. In comments section employees have mentioned that they do not see promotion opportunities within the company, they wish to earn higher salary and have more flexibility in choosing working hours. Some of them have shared concerns about uniforms which are worn out and they have not received new parts of it yet. Some employees are not happy about working very late as they need to get home and during night hours they do not feel safe. Employees are glad about the opportunity to watch newest movies for free, to buy some tickets and products in cafe with employee discount.

HR Manager has observed that new employees are very positive and open, but after a while they lose the excitement and motivation, they start to complain about long working hours, low salaries, shifts on national holidays. HR Manger has observed that teams tend to lose the sense of belonging as team members are working in various shifts, sometimes do not even meet each other, and the whole team never can participate in summer team building activities.