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Just curious as to what other theater owners do to keep their employees busy during shows when not selling popcorn or doing light lobby clean-up. Do you find they are often bored?

Lastly; how early do you require your employees to arrive at the theater prior to opening the box office and concessions?

Thanks,

mannooss

My motto always was, "if there's time to lean, there's time to clean". Keeping these young employees busy during slow times is always a challenge. However, there is always something to clean in the concession stand... We always had an "in-between show checklist", as well as a "daily job list" for each shift. There were the typical sweep the floor, wipe the glass, etc, stock the concession stand, etc type things, then say every Monday, they wiped down all the formica in the vending stand, or totally dismanted and cleaned the butter machine, etc. Just give them any busy work you don't feel like doing. I've had people fold newsletters that were being sent out, stamp the return address on envelopes, decorate for holidays, promote for movies, design flyers, anything...
It really depends on the size of your operation how early you need people to come to work. A half an hour seems reasonable to have the stand stocked, cleaned, fresh popcorn popping, and other food items ready.

We try to make sure our employees are kept busy during any slow times. I created a task list of things that should be done and kept up on whenever there is a slow moment. They are just basic things like restocking items (cups, candy, etc), sweeping floors, vacumming, filling ice bins, cleaning doors, and so forth.

Something else you might want to do is create a list of more labor intensive tasks that should be completed once on a certain day. For example, Friday's job is to clean the seats in empty auditoriums (spray and wipe the backs and bottoms of seats), Saturday matt is clean and mop the back room, Saturday evening is to vacumm the lobby curtains and clean the vacumm cleaner, Sunday matt is to either clean the Slush Puppy machine or clean the candy case, and Sunday evening is to clean the pop machine. These are tasks that should only need to be done once a week and take at least 30 mins to complete, so they should keep your employees busy for awhile.

We usually have our employees come in 30 mins before the first movie. This gives enough time to get the concession stand set up and everything ready before customers start coming in.

cleaning is always a good thing for staff to do.. there is always new dust settling!!
We also have a checklist of tasks. We have a big friday night cleanout of the drink towers, Sunday night clean out the popcorn machine, although now during school holidays the machine is cleaned out daily. They also get to do things such as make up the standees, hang the banners, sort though the old posters, clean out cupboards etc. theres rarely ever nothing to do.. it does happen occasionally tho. i just let them chat!

We roster our staff 45 minutes prior to the first session. As we take reservations and allocate seating, (phone, person, internet bookings) the staff is busy pretty well most of the time. We also completely clean after every session. A reservation service is labour intensive for busy films but it is a point of difference between an independent and a chain.

We have the staff clock in 15 before the door opens which is 45min befor the first show. If we know we are going to be hit hard like a Harry Potter then we start 1 hour before show time and get open early.

Clean Clean Clean. Checklists are a must for the everyday, once a week, and occasionally cleaned things. If they run out then there are always hand prints and foot prints on walls to wash. Stock room to clean. Soda conectors etc......

Do any of you allow your high school or college aged employees to bring in their homework for down time?

Yes we do, and it has never been a problem.

Mostly the projectionist and Boxoffice person can because they have the extra down time and a place to set their books. The concession and usher mostly have stuff to do like clean, stock, and check auditoriums.

I'd say that employees should only be allowed to do their homework during their designated break times or if it's a really slow night, that they can do it after all of their duties are completed and they have the manager's approval. You don't want your employees thinking that they can just do their homework whenever and neglect their job duties.

Being a drive-in, the only place where such activities could be conducted would be in our boxoffice which, after things slow down, only needs one person. However, that's my wife, and she can do whatever she wants!

There's no downtime in our concessions, so this isn't an issue for our younger staff here. It's a short evening... full-speed ahead until the breaks are over, then the shutdown process and everyone goes home.

I usually schedule my employees to come in 15 minutes before we open. I am usually there before that so the popcorn is started and the water is getting hot for the hot dog steamer. When I expect a huge crowd one or two will come in 30 minutes early.

I, too, have lists of things to do. Getting them to review the lists is another thing though. But when it is really slow, I will have them clean the tile walls in the bathrooms, clean the windows, and wax all the woodwork. When they see me looking like that is a possibility, they start looking real busy.

We use lists too but with initials. They daily and weekly lists all have to be initialed so say you did it. Our extra things to do when slow list does not have to be initialed.