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Amberly Marston is director of people operations at Alamo Drafthouse, the movie-theater chain that lets patrons eat dinner and drink wine while watching a film. Although she initially left Alamo Drafthouse in 2020 in search of a more secure position in the midst of the pandemic, she’s one of a number of US workers who’ve now boomeranged back to a former employer. Marston is currently part of a lean Alamo HR team of less than 10 people supporting 1,800 employees globally.
How would you describe your specific job to someone who doesn’t work in HR? Helping people be real adults (HR) by making sure they have the information and everything they need to get their job done and balance support in their life.
What’s the best change you’ve made at a place you’ve worked? Helping to implement jeans as OK in the dress code at an office environment where some employees made less than $20 an hour, and dry cleaning and a work wardrobe were too costly an expense!
What’s the biggest misconception people might have about your job? That all I do is investigate complaints or handle employee relations. I actually rarely do that.
What’s the most fulfilling aspect of your job? Being able to solve problems and implement new programs based on employee needs or statutory changes. For example, being able to extend a travel allowance for anyone who may need to seek healthcare safely out of state.
How long have you been with Alamo? I actually just came back to Alamo a little over a month ago. I say “came back” because I was with Alamo for nine months prior to Covid. And it was a role I had relocated my family for, was super excited about, and then, just due to Covid and its impact on the theater industry, the job security was not great at the time.
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Can you explain why you think that people, such as yourself, are boomeranging back to their previous employers? Oftentimes, you can feel super connected to the brand, to your team, to the company and be incredibly bought in to what they offer, but you’ve still got to continue growing in your career path. And so sometimes we’ve got to take a jump away, learn, fill those gaps, and then that can make you even a better fit for the company you left. As long as you leave on good terms and have been a [good] performer.
What trend in HR are you most optimistic about? Why? Flexible working, but I’m most excited about the hope that flexible working will help bring opportunities to places and people, including moms who thought working out of the home wasn’t an option [and] who may not have had the option before. The changes that will be forced in the talent marketplace that make companies do better to keep the best talent and open up the ability to hire the best talent regardless of geographical area.
What trend in HR are you least optimistic about? Why? DE&I. While it continues to be a need, I’ve never seen an organization really get it right. Employees deserve more than just empty words and we all still struggle with helping opportunity, belonging, and equitable compensation. We have so much more to do, and I’m afraid it will never be enough.
Tell us one new or old HR tech product or platform that’s made your life easier, and why. Employee referral software. The least-leveraged recruiting tool is our own people, and the gamification and technology being released in employee referral tools that integrate with our HCMs is really neat to leverage to compete in the current talent marketplace.
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