Enhance the value of Seasonal Employees

About the well-known challenges and obstacles, connected to employing seasonal and part time labour in the Attraction industry. How modern technology can enable and enhance the individual staff member, heightening the value of their work for guests, company and themselves.

The Attraction, Theme- and amusement park industry is traditionally considered labour-intensive, making it the overall top industry for the use of seasonal and part-time employees. One of the largest and oldest Amusement parks in the World, Cedar Point in Sandusky Ohio, employees 46,000 people, 42,000 of them being seasonal employees. Euro Disney employs a total of 14,600 approximately 12,000 of them being seasonal workers. 

Managers, HR-employees and recruiters in the venue and attractions industry, all point to the same major challenges when it comes to season labour: 

• Staff training and education cost. 
• Recruiting new and recurring staff. 
• Maintaining desired company culture. 

Seasonal workers are no different from any other employee when it comes to the need for a feeling of accomplishment, a desire to succeed. No matter the pay or the actual interest in the work they are hired to do, any worker will heighten his or her job satisfaction if successfully meeting a tasks requirement.  

DIGITIZED PRIDE OF WORKMANSHIP 

The renowned Dr. Demings principle “Allow for the pride of workmanship” are well-known and internationally acclaimed as the foundation for effective modern management, changing from Taylorism blue worker paradigm, to agile and human focused management. The way most modern leaders obtain this, is by removing barriers and obstacles for the employees, and modern leaders are by far the best in history to create a work efficient environment when it comes to letting the professional worker excel in his/her line of work. 

Seasonal workers rarely bring proper relevant training and educational background to the table, even though they often operate heavy machinery, are first in line to meet the guests, handles precarious customer related situations and being the hands-on responsible for health and security handling, a rapidly growing issue of importance. 

How can the use of modern technology and a general digitalization mindset meet these challenges? How can it empower seasonal, parttime and voluntary staff members, so they succeed and experience pride of workmanship, for benefitting guests, customers, visitors and thereby the business. The technological contribution should overall be seen from the perspective of enabling, directly and indirectly.  

DUMB AS A DOORKNOP OR MR. KNOW-IT-ALL 

Be neither, there is a fine line in between, and technology should enhance the employee so they can walk that fine line. When a guest adresses a staffmember they need help, and they expect that you know more than they do, although often it does not seem so. 

Knowing who you are dealing with enables you to handle and service . The Data profile of a dedicated app and customer management system, makes it possible for any employee to known a lot more about the customer than normally, and thereby being able to deliver a personalised and relevant service, that takes the entire customer journey into consideration. 

For instance if a customer os disgrundled with the waiting line,  

ENTRANCE & EXIT CHALLENGE 

At venues, arenas, stadiums, theme parks and likewise, getting in and out is crucial. At a Theme Park you do nothing but entering and exitting, from the entrance of the park, getting in line for rides, getting of rides, getting in line for bathroomvisits, food, giftshop and getting out again. These are stressful situations for most guests, of stressful for the employees aswell, and therefore a trigger for conflicts, bad service, bad experiences etc. Things will not always run smooth thats a certain, but employees patience and indulgence determines how guest experience the situation.  

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED 

Digitalization can’t solve everything, but it does provide useful solutions empowering the employees and creating more room for them to deliver personal direct and thoughtful service and care for guests. 

• Boarding & Capacity Management – Mobile ticket solutions provide the nessecary means to guide and manage where, how and when guests enters and exits. This result is a reduction of queues, avoidance of bottlenecks, empowered staff that are informed enough to guide guests in a better direction with confidence. 
• Food ordering app – Order your food at any foodstand in advance through an app. Get info on when it will be ready, info on delays if so. Do the payment trough the app, recieve confirmation, make sure that any allergyissues are taken care off etc.