Attractions Operations Manager

Job Title: Attractions Operations Manager

Job Location: Hershey, PA

Summary:

Hershey’s Chocolate World is the most popular brand experience in the world. Nearly four million guests visit our location in Hershey, Pennsylvania, every year. Guests come to experience attractions, enjoy dining in the food court, and shopping for souvenirs, treats and gifts. Part of what makes our guests’ experience so amazing is the exceptional guest service our team provides.

This position is responsible for managing Create Your Own Candy Bar (CYOCB), Hershey’s Chocolate Tour Ride (TR), Parking, and supporting day-to-day operations of Hershey’s Chocolate World by providing an entertaining and operationally efficient experience for four million visitors annually.  This position supports the overall strategic direction of Hershey’s Chocolate World by optimizing existing attractions, and identifying future attraction development opportunities.

The incumbent supervises team members in the Attractions department and supports training functions to ensure maximum efficiencies, superior guest service, and attraction quality.  Responsibilities include employee management (interviewing, hiring, monitoring performance), labor planning, and scheduling. This position works with both internal and external customers.  The incumbent acts as Manager on Duty (MOD) during, weekends, weekdays, holidays, and evening operating hours supporting Retail, Food Service, Attractions, and Marketing initiatives to deliver sales goals. Responsibilities also include making operational decisions, merchandise display adjustments, and creating or adjusting processes to efficiently and effectively serve guests.

Major Duties/Responsibilities: 

Operations Management of Create Your Own Candy Bar, Tour Ride, and Parking

• Develop a solid understanding of our brands and brings them “to life” to engage our guests. 
• Execute plans to maximize capacity and sales at peak times and deliver a seamless experience by providing fast and efficient guest circulation throughout all attractions.
• Recommend improvements/enhancements for attractions.
• Partner with photo vendor to maximize sales and guest experience at TR and CYOCB.
• Write Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for CYOCB, TR, and Parking.  Revise as needed.
• Be the subject matter expert of CYOCB, TR, and Parking.

Safety & Quality Assurance

• Responsible for safety and develops and maintains safety programs for TR, CYOCB, and Parking; this includes working with management to develop an evacuation plan specific to each attraction and becoming familiar with general facility evacuation plans.
• Act as liaison for CYOCB team with the Quality Assurance (QA) team to ensure compliance and adherence to all food safety standards including Food Defense plans.

People & Labor Management

• Maintain weekly attendance tracking and follow-up actions.
• Conduct weekly payroll review, adjustments and approvals.
• Manage employee availability to ensure appropriate staffing levels to support business volume and service execution.
• Develop monthly/annual departmental schedule templates for TR, CYOCB, and Parking.
• Champion employee engagement by executing employee engagement programming within the department and driving culture by leading with best practices.
• Responsible for overall hiring, scheduling, training and coaching of Attractions.
• Ensure the team is delivering at the highest level of service. 
• Achieve labor goals through the effective use of labor across attraction locations.

Parking

• Responsible for Parking including pricing recommendations and operational plans and implementation for concerts and special events.
• Recommend improvements and optimizations to maximize traffic flow.
• Partner with design team to create all signage needed for parking lots and entry/exit road.

Financial  

• Directly responsible for $6M in Attraction sales annually.
• Develops programs to meet sales and income goals and reports on key metrics (sales, productivity, sat scores, etc.) that drive the business. 
• Accurately communicate progress against key business initiatives.  Leverages these metrics to maintain pricing, margins, labor costs and related expenses to meet profitability objectives. 
• Responsible for Attractions’ financial and business planning components, including sales & expense planning; part-time labor planning; and monitoring progress against planned targets.
• Inventory management directly related to attraction operations including products used in attractions.

Manager on Duty (MOD) 

• Deliver a high level of guest engagement and exceed daily sales goals while maintaining & elevating The Hershey Company brand reputation.
• Responsible for the day-to-day operations of all areas of the Hershey’s Chocolate World facility, including Retail Operations, Attractions, Parking, and Food Service.
• MOD is responsible for overall satisfaction, safety and security of approximately four million guests annually.  MOD is also responsible for ensuring adequate staffing to meet the needs of the business; this includes adjusting schedules to ensure appropriate coverage within budget; making decisions about closing hours based on business levels (i.e. “soft closes”); and monitoring employee performance and attire.
• The MOD functions as the on-site incident commander during crisis events, serves as direct liaison to local emergency departments and corporate security and reports any unusual activity immediately.   
• MOD monitors guest volume & flow throughout the facility and ensures a maximized guest experience; this includes making critical decisions about queue management; parking lot operations; and redeployment of staff to manage business peaks and valleys.
• MOD monitors contract employees to ensure excellent customer service. 
• MODs are required to complete first-aid and CPR training.

Minimum knowledge, skills and abilities required to successfully perform major duties/responsibilities:

• Leadership skills: team work skills, employee motivation, coaching, and time management
• Managerial skills: scheduling employees for peak and non-peak seasons
• Presentation skills
• Project management
• Business analysis
• Communication/customer service skills
• Attention to detail
• Ability to meet tight deadlines/good follow-through
• Work under pressure and maintain problem solving skills.
• Ability to interact with all levels of people
• Ability to handle crisis situations/remain calm
• Ability to organize and handle multiple tasks
• Flexible
• Knowledge of budget, financial concepts
• Computer skills (work, excel, e-mail systems, power-point)
• Ability to work weekends, evening and holiday (special work hours—works a varied schedule)
• Operational background/instincts

Minimum Education and Experience Requirements:

Education:

• High School Diploma or G.E.D.

Experience:

• Minimum of 5 years management or supervisory experience in customer service and operations management preferably in an attraction, entertainment complex, or amusement park.

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