Base Schedule

Centerplate in conjunction with sales and expense budgets, develops wage budgets for each specific store on a weekly basis.
The Base Schedule for your store is developed to:

• Meet minimum sales per labor hour productivity requirements
• Maintain a minimum of two people in the store per shift. During busy periods stores may have as many as 8 on the shift
• Allocate hours for administrative duties not assigned to the administration manager
• Stocktaking is conducted semi annually. In January and July, weeks scheduled for stocktaking have specialized budgets that increase the base schedule to accommodate the extra hours required to complete the inventory count.

Base schedule hours cannot be “banked” for use in a subsequent week. Any changes to the base schedule must be approved by your Regional Director.  Additions to the base schedule typically occur when:

• Stores encounter relocation or renovation
• Market conditions have generated higher or lower than anticipated sales levels
• A special promotional event

Staff Profile Policy

Over the years, Centerplate has used The Retail Institute’s Employee Profile System. The system is easy to administer to new applicants and interpretation by the manager is instantaneous.
Centerplate has determined that a specific personality profile fits best into our retail culture and environment.
Managers must ask applicants to complete the one page Employee Profile System form and interpret the results. Applicants who fit the right profile for us may be considered for employment provided other elements such as qualifications, experience, interviews and references are satisfactory.
Employees who do not fit the approved profile have proven to be unsuccessful in our organization and should not be hired. If a manager feels that an applicant has solid potential but fails to meet the profile, approval for hiring must be obtained from the Regional Director.
Upon submission of a new employee file to the Support Office, include the completed and interpreted form in the file, along with the application form, resume, interview forms and reference checks.

Minimum Hours for Staff policy

Centerplate stores are staffed by a combination of part time and full time employees in order to meet customer service needs. The minimum hours that employees must commit to is:

• 40 hours for full time staff per week
• 18 hours for part time staff per week

Managers are prohibited from hiring an array of part time employees who cannot commit to this minimum. Part time employees who do not make this minimum commitment prove to be out of touch with what’s current in the stores and are not able to deliver optimal customer service.
As a condition of employment all employees must be available for two Saturday evenings per year after store closing to participate in semi-annual inventory stock taking. This is typically a 6 to 8 hour exercise.

Schedule and Productivity

Schedules are generated to meet the requirements outlined in section D.1  As part of the criteria, Centerplate sets and periodically adjusts sales productivity per labor hour.
The current target rate of productivity is set at:

• $100 per labor hour in the Fall Retail Season (August to January)
• $80 per labor hour in the Spring Retail Season (February to July)

Senior management may adjust these targets to reflect changing market conditions.
Although our policy on staffing at a minimum of two employees per store at any time over-rides the productivity policy, all schedules to date have met both criteria without conflict.

Productivity Evaluation- Focus on the Individual

Centerplate stores strive for leadership in customer service.  Productivity will only be realized when individual goals for employees are set and fulfilled.
Sales and wage budgets are developed each season for every store based on previous history during the same period last year. New stores receive budgets based on historical data from existing stores that are similar in market, size and demographics.
Weekly wage budgets and schedules are driven by sales budgets for the particular week and then fine tuned to meet corporate productivity standards. Our current rate of sales per labor hour is set for $100 per hour in the Fall season and $80 per labor hour in the Spring season.
When we calculate sales productivity per hour on a proposed budget, we aim to be close to these current productivity standards as a minimum, however too few hours will predict a high sales per labor hour rate. Although this looks good on paper, this implies that floor coverage will be too sparse and customer service levels will be compromised.
All employees should be cognizant of our current productivity standards. Employees should be trained to set personal sales objectives at the start of the week by multiplying their weekly labor hours by $100 in the Fall and $80 in the Spring retail season.
For example: If a part time employee is scheduled to work 20 hours this week, (in the Spring season) they should set a sales objective of at least 20 x $80 or $1600 in sales for the week.
A full time employee working a 40 hour week should set sales objectives of 40 x $80 or $3200 for the week. Although we would initially expect sales per hour standards to be higher for full time employees, they tend to work a wider array of hours that include slower periods. Part time employees typically work during brisk evening and weekend periods. These factors offset each other and support uniform productivity standards between part time and full time employees.
The Bookmaster system can generate a report that summarizes employee productivity by tracking their sales generated under their employee number and dividing it by their labor hours. Bookmaster can generate the report in several formats. A manager can select all employees, some employees or an individual employee and specify the start and end dates for the report. This is particularly useful if sales history by employee is tracked to determine productivity improvements or deterioration by employee.
If sales are not meeting weekly budget targets, a manager can use this report to examine personal productivity levels and identify poor performers. Once identified, remedial training and coaching can be implemented to improve personal productivity.
Through the course of the week managers and customer service associates are encouraged to discuss weekly sales objectives and their current status. Often, productivity that is missing daily targets can be corrected by extra effort in the remaining days of the week by the associate.

Weekly Timesheets

Weekly timesheets are posted two weeks in advance specifying shifts and hours for every employee in the store.
Employees who are unable to attend a shift must immediately advise their store manager so that other staff may be contacted to work the shift.
Timesheets are completed by the administration manager and reviewed by the store general manager.  Store managers must ensure that the schedule meets the weekly budget guidelines before they are posted.

Cash Advance Policy

Centerplate is not equipped to offer employees cash advances.  Funds may be taken from the float fund for petty cash expenditures and reimbursed at day’s end from the bank deposit. Petty cash advances must only be related to the direct operation of the store and must be approved by the store general manager.

Overtime

Staff may occasionally be asked to work overtime. General store managers will make every effort to give ample notice if this will be required. Overtime pay follows labor statutes by state or province. As this can vary, consult your general store manager or administration manager to determine the labor statutes for your location. Typically overtime pay is paid at the rate of time and a half for labor hours in excess of 44 hours per week.
Overtime pay applies only to hourly non-management employees. Salaried management employees are not eligible for overtime pay. Under certain circumstances your Regional Director may approve time off in lieu of overtime pay for salaried employees. This may apply where for example, when managers work many extra hours relocating a store.
Our weekly wage budgets are scheduled to ensure that employees are not required to work in excess of their standard work week.

Position Descriptions

The Operations Manual is an ideal document for outlining the overall objectives and responsibilities of the various positions within the company. If you have a Human Resources Manual, complete job descriptions can be included within. However, you can use the templates that have been included in this manual to create job descriptions for your various positions.  At the very least, outline the prime responsibilities of each position:

Example: Store General Manager

To build business and brand equity within a specified store business unit(s) in accordance with corporate objectives and policies.  This will be accomplished through delivering the optimal customer experience.  An effective and efficient operation will be realized through:

• Sales that meet or exceed sales budgets
• Building Brand Equity
• Building a store team in accordance with store specific human resource plans
• Controlling costs in accordance to expense budgets
• Securing store assets and sensitive information

Job descriptions used to be extremely task specific, going into great detail about job functions from the important to the trivial.  This sent the wrong message to the employees:

• They believed that their jobs were purely task oriented regardless of the outcome of these tasks. Today we are results driven.
• They worked within the confines of a wide array of tasks, with little flexibility to work outside of their job description.

The retail environment is continually changing.  Employee Job Descriptions in 2010 should be more objective based and conceptual, as opposed to listing an array of tasks. Moreover, although some support positions may be more task oriented, as part of your company’s culture, ALL employees are Customer Service Representatives first, including Home Office staff. A statement reflecting this philosophy should be included in every Job Description.
Use the template to create a series of Job Descriptions.  Note that the template includes classic S.M.A.R.T. objectives that are:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Realistic
• Time Based

Bulletin Boards

The bulletin boards are located in the employee area at the rear of the store. These boards contain announcements or notices regarding:

• Weekly work schedule
• Company updates
• Job postings
• Health and safety notices
• Product information
• Upcoming employee activities
• Other matters relating to employment policy.

Staff are encouraged to read the boards upon the commencement of each shift. All employees can also post messages for other employees however avoid posting any information that may be deemed personal or sensitive in nature.
Under no circumstances in compliance with Provincial or State privacy statutes should personal information be posted on any store bulletin board.
Staff are free to post notices on personal items for sale that are not consider “adult” in nature.

Human Resources Helpline

All Centerplate employees have the right to be treated with respect, and the right to work in an atmosphere of trust.  If you have any questions or concerns, talk to your manager first. If a resolution is not reached call Human Resources at the Support Office. The Centerplate Help Line number is  1-800-123-4567.  This toll free line is available 24 hours a day.  All calls will be handled with as much discretion as the caller feels necessary.
Calls are received by staff in our Human Resources Department only.

Computer Helpline

The Computer Hotline (Helpdesk) is a group function within the Information Systems (IS) department at the Support Office.  The IT Department is part of our Finance Department.
The IT staff handle all computer related problems in the stores and the Support Office.
The Helpdesk provides in-office coverage Monday to Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, and Saturday and Sunday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The Helpdesk is available via pager from 8:00 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. Monday to Friday and from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. Saturday and Sunday. After hours calls to the Helpdesk give the caller the option to leave a non-critical message, or to leave an urgent message which will page the technician to call.  The technician will call the store back as soon as possible.  Non-critical calls are answered the next business day.  The computer Hotline Toll Free number is 1-800-987-6543.
Do not leave an urgent message after hours, and then leave the store. On-call Hotline staff return all urgent calls within 10 minutes.
Each call is assigned a priority.  The following is a breakdown of the priorities and how they are assigned:
Priority 1: The store is down and cannot operate at all or is operating with extreme difficulty.
Priority 2: Store is operating under difficulty, but customers can still be served.
Priority 3: The problem is identified and normal store operations can continue with a workaround.