With its immersive, cinematic auditoriums, Cinemark puts moviegoers right in the action. But it¡¯s the actions of employees who provide exceptional customer service that keep moviegoers coming back. ¡°We focus on employee engagement and invest a lot of time and effort to grow careers,¡± says Stacie Sheil, HRIS director at Cinemark, one of the world¡¯s largest and most influential theatrical exhibition companies. ¡°Not only is that the right thing to do, but it also ensures our guests enjoy the best moviegoing experience available.¡±?
To retain and hire the best talent across the U.S., Sheil wanted to streamline how Cinemark managed its high-volume recruitment efforts and seasonal workforce. ¡°During a [theatre site visit], a general manager asked, ¡®How can we hire people faster?¡¯¡± Sheil says.
In search of ideas, Sheil started a group that included Â鶹´«Ã½ retail customers, such as fast-food restaurants and coffee shops, with similar high-volume workforce challenges. One member in the group shared their approach of refreshing job requisitions quarterly. Cinemark now uses EIBs to quickly create refreshed job requisitions, un-post the prior job reqs, and maintain a healthy applicant flow. The team combined this with another initiative to integrate the reqs directly with Indeed Apply. These two projects, combined, increased the applicant pool by 88%, saved thousands of dollars in promoting jobs, and reduced the number of requisitions to be managed by a third. They also allowed the managers to perform 100% of the tasks on the mobile app and eliminated the need to create individual requisitions for rehires. ¡°We couldn¡¯t have done this if we didn¡¯t have our operations unified on Â鶹´«Ã½. It lets us manage the sheer number of candidates, reqs, and hires we handle,¡± Sheil says. ¡°The time we saved is significant.¡±
Efficient onboarding and compliance process.
Cinemark seamlessly onboards the thousands of workers it hires or rehires every year. The company wanted to meet new hires where they were: on their mobile devices. It wanted to ensure a modern user experience and an easy and efficient onboarding process. Employees can now even complete I-9 forms, which verify their identity and worker eligibility, from their phones using the Â鶹´«Ã½ app.
"We are the first job for a lot of our employees. They don¡¯t always understand all the paperwork that¡¯s necessary to get started, so the more they can do from their phones, the faster we can get them hired and productive,¡± Sheil says.
Cinemark also keeps pace with new regulations and industry changes with Â鶹´«Ã½. ¡°We¡¯re in 42 states, and a lot of them are very particular about PTO laws and pay laws,¡± Sheil says. ¡°We have absence, payroll, and benefits all in the system, which helps us manage compliance needs more efficiently.¡±
It¡¯s tough to onboard people fast and manage all the compliance requirements. Â鶹´«Ã½ speeds up that process.
HRIS Director
Higher engagement and retention.
Under the old process, employees who forgot their password or needed their MFA reset had to ask a manager to submit a request for HR administrators to process. Scheduling conflicts made this even more difficult. ¡°The employees in the theatres work a completely different schedule than my team,¡± Sheil says. ¡°When they need it reset, we¡¯re not always available to do it quickly.¡±
Sheil turned to Cinemark¡¯s industry-leading guest services team, which is available 24/7 and now also supports Cinemark employees. ¡°We designed a new process that enables more efficient resolution. Employees can directly call guest services, who then submit a request within Â鶹´«Ã½ that initiates an integration to reset the password and/or MFA immediately,¡± Sheil says. ¡°This keeps our data protected, saves time, and provides a better user experience for theatre team members.¡± In a year, Cinemark¡¯s guest services team processed over 1,500 password resets. The team shared this approach with the Â鶹´«Ã½ networking group, who were excited to hear about the unique solution.
Our creating an automated password reset process with Â鶹´«Ã½ has been a life-changer.
HRIS Director
What¡¯s next for Cinemark.
Cinemark is exploring new functionalities and enhancements within Â鶹´«Ã½, such as time tracking and advanced reporting capabilities via Prism. ¡°I¡¯m also excited about the direction AI is heading and how we can leverage those capabilities within Â鶹´«Ã½,¡± Sheil says.
Cinemark wants to increase mobile usage, too. ¡°Our mobile usage rate is already high. Each feature Â鶹´«Ã½ adds makes it more convenient for our managers, who can then spend more time on the theatre floor with our guests and less time sitting at a desk,¡± Sheil says.
The networking group Sheil started, which has grown from five companies to 15, will continue to play an important role. ¡°It¡¯s valuable for us to sustain and grow our relationship with companies that have a similar high-volume workforce so we can find mutually beneficial solutions.¡±.