Day 150 - 07 Jul 95 - Page 23


     
     1        so, students who would come back at summer time, come back
     2        at Christmas.  So in that respect, my impression is that it
     3        was relatively low.
     4
     5        I certainly -- I would think in terms of one of the things
     6        that are taken into consideration when I got Store Manager
     7        of the Year for my time at Leicester was not only financial
     8        and profitable performances, but the individual performance
     9        of the restaurant and the team at the restaurant.  It is a
    10        very, very good team; not just one person -- in this case
    11        one person was recognised, but that one person cannot
    12        operate a restaurant that is that busy on one's own.  So,
    13        it was a real team affair.
    14
    15   MR. ATKINSON:   If we now go on to the question of hours of
    16        work:  As you have said already, you were involved with
    17        scheduling hours of work.  What is the aim of a Manager, in
    18        your view, and when you were doing the scheduling, what is
    19        the aim of scheduling?  What would you consider to have
    20        achieved the goal when it comes to scheduling?
    21        A.  The way I approached it then (and probably tell people
    22        now) is to get a balance, a balance between the, I suppose,
    23        the service requirements based on customers coming in, and
    24        those availability or flexibility, whatever you would like
    25        to call it, of the crew.
    26
    27        So that again we would be looking towards -- if we thought
    28        we were getting busier on a Saturday, then I would need to
    29        look towards more part-time people.  It is balancing up
    30        those requirements that people have as individuals; whether
    31        they need time off to go to dentists' appointments, they
    32        need to pick up the children earlier from school, the
    33        beauty of the system is that we can balance it all out, so
    34        that everyone feels like there is not just one rule and
    35        that is it, come in, work -- so it is incredibly flexible.
    36
    37        So I would -- I just sort of teach people to get the
    38        balance between anticipating business, business that is
    39        already there that we know that is coming, if there is a
    40        late night shopping during Christmas, for example,
    41        carnivals would generate more business, and we would be
    42        well prepared for those types of situations.
    43
    44        So, it is just achieving a balance on it; there is not one
    45        skill that someone is going to have.  It is a matter of
    46        matching up one individual's requirements with those
    47        requirements of the restaurant.
    48
    49   Q.   Does it matter, broadly speaking, whether the crew are
    50        happy with the scheduling then, the scheduling of the hours 
    51        they get? 
    52        A.  Yes, because if they are not, I would presume they 
    53        would not turn up, because they would have other
    54        commitments, or again it would result in higher turnover.
    55        Again, working alongside people, I have got a certain
    56        amount of pride to be able to look to people and be able to
    57        give them the hours that we agreed upon and that they want
    58        to work.
    59
    60   Q.   So are their views, in practice, taken into account, in

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