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Human Resources Project Gillians Wonderland Pier

Participants: Sindile Andrei Stamate Victor Stanescu Andrei Group 135

Academy of Economic Studies Bucharest Faculty of Business Administration

Series A, group 132

The story of a job on the Ocean Shore

Ever since we were children, we enjoyed listening to fairytales and stories. And even now, when we are almost adults, we still like to hear one occasionally. We believe the reason for this desire lies in the fact that a good story will open our minds, enrich our imagination and give a sense of well-being. For this project, we have a story that we hope youll give some insight into a world created solely for one thing and one thing only: the happiness of children. In February 2009, we were given the possibility to register into the Work and Travel program provided by the American Experience agency which consisted in a job in the USA during the summer holiday. After considering more options, we decided to choose our employer and job position; working as a ride operator in Gillians Wonderland Pier, an amusement park on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean, one of the three facilities owned by the Gillian family along with Gillians Island Waterpark and Funland. The experience of working in another country with different people, mentalities and traditions was truly amazing and we will remember it for the rest of our lives. Our three month stay in this workplace allowed us to gather important information related to the internal environment and also understand better the unseen face of a business. In the next few pages, we are going to try to analyze this working experience from the HR perspective and at the end we will try to formulate some recommendations for the managers of the place. Gillians Wonderland Pier-the fairytale Gillians Wonderland Pier is foremost a family business with a rather unusual history which was founded by David Gillian in 1930, in Ocean City, New Jersey. He first came in this town in 1914 and started working in an orchestra on the boardwalk, but after a fire destroyed his workplace he decided to build a Fun Deck with main attractions such as a Ferris Wheel and a Merry-Go-Round. He passed the family business in 1957 to his sons Bob and Roy, who passed it on to his children also, Jim, Steve and Jay. After 70 years of putting smiles on peoples faces, the Gillian family has secured a name for itself in the community. They have managed to do so mainly because of the American way of life which assumes spending holidays with the entire family and returning to same vacation place over and over again, hence the large attendance over the years. Another reason is the fact that the Gillian family has led a very powerful social campaign, meaning they have involved themselves in various charity programs such as scholarships for the Ocean City High school students, the After Prom Committee which offers educational guidance, as well as establishing the First Night Angle Fund and participating into the Give Kids the World Village program. The reputation of the place is hard to equal and the huge number of people who come here each year certify for this fact. Gillians Wonderland Pier is a unique place to visit because it is situated on the boardwalk next to dinners and all kinds of boutiques perfect for shopping and

it also has an amazing view of the beach and the ocean. The park has four sectors, each with its specific ride: the indoor deck (Carousel, MonoRail, Balloon Race, Crazy Submarine, Fire Engines, Dune Buggies, Jumbo, MiniTele Combat, Wet Boats, Bear Bounce , Alien Invasion), the midway deck (Giant Wheel, Musik Express, Wacky Worm, Raiders, Trabant, Tilt-A-Whirl, Swings, Galleon, Bear Affair, Raceway Whip, Mini-Scooters, Wonders LilExpress, Little Wheel), the lower deck (Canyon Falls Log Flume, Runaway Train Coaster, Sling Shot, Skooter Bumper Cars, Moby Dick, Bumper Boats) and the fun deck (Fun Slide, Kite Flyer, Minner Mike, Sizzler, Glass House). The people in charge of each of these rides are called ride operators, but there also a number of other positions created in order to achieve the proper working of the park such as the cashiers, the food and game concessionaries, the emergency medical technicians, the costume characters, the party coordinators and the park maintenance. All the efforts of the wellorganized staff and the excitement offered by all of the rides have generated important revenues which multiply each year since people keep on coming back with their children who grow up and who in turn, bring their own children. The all-year round staff which is made up by people with a lot of experience is helped out by the seasonal staff, meaning mostly the ride operators, the ones that deal with the customers of the park. These people, mostly teenagers, are the ones whose main job is to keep the customer happy and safe. They are polite, helpful, friendly and do their best to ensure that the experience offered by the time spent here is the best one possible. The staff is mainly made up by American teenagers, however, a large proportion is also made up by foreigners who seek to fulfill their American dream on the Atlantic shore, such as Mexicans, Spanish, Lithuanian, Turkish, Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Romanian. This diversity makes Wonderland Pier a unique one to work in. Friendships are easily made and usually kept over time, regardless of the nationality. The fact that you see a lot of people having fun, enjoying themselves on rides that you operate, makes you feel accomplished and happy because you were capable of inducing happiness. From our point of view, working for this park was a very benefitting experience: we were able to see what hard work is all about while having fun with our colleagues. Another special aspect related to working for this park is the management team. Being a place where happiness needs to be induced and maintained, managers always try to make the employees feel as happy as the guests. It is well-known that only happy employees can create happy customers who will be more willing to spend more money in the park, in the same time increasing the profits and the other financial indicators, which are important for any business. The managers from this park cannot be seen as leaders, because they do not intend to make you better, to improve your way of thinking or anything else, they are just eager to make you feel important, happy and relaxed. They can afford this because the staff is changed each year, so continuous improvement is not necessary. The induction training is held out by other employees who have the experience of a certain ride and it consists of some general safety procedures and basic elements that need to be respected by each employee. Although managers do not tell you what to do specifically, they

expect you to be the best you can be, to respect all the requirements of the managerial staff and those of the clients, to continuously innovate in what you are doing and to transmit your knowledge regarding each ride to your colleagues and to the clients who might request this information. The clients usually want to know general stuff, like how many seats there are in a ride, when was the ride built, whether it is it safe, how tall they need to be in order to ride and how do they need to buckle in. Just like in any other business, it is important to transmit the information, but it is always important to explain everything while having a smile on your face. From our experience, we can tell you that this is the difference between a great result and a disastrous one, with consequences such complaints, injuries or serious accidents. The people occupying positions in the middle and top management are doing their best to ensure the fact that the employees are enjoying themselves while doing their work by being kind and sensitive to their needs. They are also trying to create an organizational culture and put a strong emphasis on the importance of being part of the team. Gillian management has decided to call the customers guests and the employees Gillian family members because they are important parts of the team. At the end of each year, among the last days of the season, all the employees are gathered in a predefined place to see the team video. This video presents briefly all the things that happened in the park during the current season, most of the employees being photographed or filmed while they were doing their work, without knowing it. After seeing all the movies and pictures, most of the employees cry, because they know that this suggests that the season is over, that the park is going to close and that they will not be members of the team anymore. For us, that night suggested that our American Experience had come to an end, that we will now go back to Romania to see our loved ones again, back to our usual lives. Following this relatively sad moment, the superlatives competition results follow. This event represents the rewarding of the best employees through money, t-shirts and diplomas. Some of the sections are best smile, best eyes, best couple and best looking employee. There is also an Employee of the year award, that comes with a 1000$ check and a Rookie of the Year award, with a prize of 500$. Afterwards, everybody is invited to eat pizza and drink juice, the managers speak about the performances obtained this year and employees offer their own feedback regarding the direction in which they feel the park is heading. Gillians Wonderland Pier the true story (fairytale gone bad) We believe that the best asset a company has got is its employees. A CEO, no matter how good he is, cannot run a company by himself; he needs a large staff consisting of managers, HR specialists, accountants, technicians, even a cleaning department, to help him achieve the goals of the company. The HR term refers to the way people are managed by organizations and it is a more modern approach of the employee-employer relation. The fact that employees are not to be treated only from an administrative point of view has been demonstrated and finally understood by companies which strive to achieve success by embracing change from the inside out. It was also shown that the existence of people with talent and passion for what they do within a company is closely related to the organizational success. The need of having

a closer relation with the employee has led to the creation of the HR departments. They are in charge of hiring, training and dealing with personnel issues such as conflicts in the internal environment of the company. However, at Gillians Wonderland Pier, the well-being of the staff was not the main priority and this showed throughout the summer in numerous situations as we will present it in the following pages. Having worked in this place gave us the possibility of experiencing the darker part of the industry, the part that most people are not aware of. The truth is that with minimum effort from the middle and top management, the situation of the staff would improve substantially. However, Americans tend to stick to their traditions and their policy is if nothing bad has happened before, why change it? . As long as the revenues are not affected, all other issues concerning the running of the business become of secondary importance. If only the people in charge would realize that a few changes are needed, then the profits that they are so interested in would become even larger. Unfortunately, no steps have been taken to improve the current situation and this is bound to have serious consequences in the not so distant future. We believe that the motto for Gillian Wonderland Pier has become, in time, repair if possible, if not, replace or forget, otherwise, we could not possibly understand the lightness with which they approach important issues. 1. General strategy of the company The general strategy of the general manager of Wonderland Pier is to minimize costs at any cost. One main aspect is the fact that 90% of the rides are old, (some are even 50 years old, for example the Fire Engines and the Dune Buggies which are rides for kids) and therefore the quality of the services is vey low. However, the customers, or guests, rarely complain about the fact that the rides in which they put their kids are the same ones in which they used to ride as children. As we have mentioned before, tradition is more important than safety or satisfaction. Another aspect that suffers from this cost minimization is related to personnel. Apart from the staff employed all year round, such as the Chief of personnel, Brian J. OConnell, the manager assistant, Bill Kelley, the manager, John Kavchok III and the maintenance team in charge with repairing and painting the rides, the seasonal staff (working during the summer, starting in June and finishing the latest at the end of September) makes up for more than 85% of the entire Wonderland Pier payroll. People hired during the summer are not very satisfied with their jobs mainly because of their paycheck. The hourly rate is the smallest one possible, of only 7.25$, and still they must be friendly and smiling all the time. As part of the Gillian policy, a smile is part of the uniform and you must wear it everyday. However, there are not so many reasons to keep you smiling all day long. In order to reduce costs, the managers of Wonderland Pier have decided to give up the emergency medical technician position and instead send one of the permanent staff employees to medical courses. Also, instead of having a costume character, the lovable Wonderland bear, as a seasonal job, they have decided to make one of the ride operators wear the costume from time to time. 2. Job description A ride operator position assumes performing routine maintenance and safety inspections of the ride, maintaining it clean, collecting tickets, operating the ride, ensuring safety to all

passengers and trying to create the best experience for the guests. The ride operator must have good communication skills, be tactful, diplomatic and know the general safety procedures as well as the attraction and local area in order to provide the customers with complete information in case they ask for it. It may appear as an easy job. Why else would they normally hire teenagers if it were demanding? The truth is, they hire teenagers because they are the only ones who accept being paid minimum wage and who do not complain. The job description only gives you an idea about what you have to do, but nobody tells that there are other things also which are part of your responsibility, such as taking care of children who cry or clean up after the customers or arguing with disgruntled parents. The policy of the park is that if a child begins to cry during the ride, you must stop it, take the child out, offer the parents a refund and then start the ride again. However, once you take a child out, parents assume that the ride is over and they begin collecting their children, so you have to explain the situation, make sure that the safety procedures are being met one more time and then start the ride again. If a customers throws garbage on the floor you must pick it up and dispose of it with a smile on your face. There are issues concerning the parents also; there are certain rides which require a certain height for children to be able to use it, however, parents do not understand this and they start arguing or pleading to let their kid go, although you are not allowed. 3. Best candidates profile A ride operator must have certain skills required for this job, such as communicational skills, mechanical skills, he or she must be serious, safe-oriented and alert. No prior experience is needed since training will be held on the grounds of the facility. The age should be above 16 years old and below 40. 4. Recruitment process Attracting people willing to accept to job is fairly easy. The majority of the seasonal staff is re-hired every year, some even worked for 10 years in a row, or attracted through the Internet (www.gillians.com, www.facebookcom), word-of-mouth from former employees and specialized agencies. Since Ocean City lacks job opportunities, young people decide to work here, even the ones living in nearby towns who would rather commute than find a job in their home town. As for the foreign people hired, there are specialized agencies in their home countries which use programs such as the Work and Travel one to give students the possibility to work in the USA. The employer has a tax deduction from state taxes if he hires foreign people so he is more than happy to do it, even if the language skills of some are very low leading inevitably to dissatisfaction from the guests. 5. Selecting Unless you have a criminal record, a poor hygiene or mental problems, anyone can get hired. 6. Induction training and training sessions Employees are trained using procedures established by the facility working together with manufacturers and insurers, and in accordance with relevant public laws and the IAAPA

(International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions). Operators of simple rides are brought along step-by-step before graduating to more complex rides. Training is on a continual basis and includes: operations, admissions, ride systems, accessibility for guests with disabilities, maintenance, and emergency procedures. In addition to hands-on instruction with more experienced staff, ride operators commonly receive training through case studies, structured drills, group discussions and seminar presentations. However, this is not the case with Wonderland Pier. The training is being done on the spot, in 5 minutes, by a fellow colleague who knows the ride or by a more experience worker. 7. Organizational structure The organizational structure includes the top and middle management teams as permanent staff of the amusement park and the ride operators, cashiers, food and game concessionaires and the costume characters as seasonal staff, during the summer.

John Kavchok III General Manager

Bill Kelley The Manager Assistant Brian J. OConnell Chief of Personnel

Permanen t Employee s
Food Concessionaires

Ride Operators

Maintenance Personnel

Cashiers

Costume Characters

As you can see from the organizational chart presented above, the top management team consists of one person, the middle management team of 2 persons, while the rest of the employees do not have leading positions. If we take into consideration the fact that the seasonal staff is composed of about 400 employees, it can easily be observed that the management team will not be able to assist all the members of the staff in the activities they carry on for the well being of the park. Due to the fact that managers do not carry on periodic evaluations and do not observe each employees performance, some of the employees prefer to work the best they can only when managers are nearby, or when they feel that somebody might observe the wrong things they are periodically doing. 8. Conflict management Although it is a place where everybody should have a smile on their face, Gillians Wonderland Pier also has some people that will not be happy with their current status. For example, there is a constant conflict between Bill and Brian if Brian starts sending people home because it started raining or because they are not needed in that moment, Bill will more

than definitely interfere, suggesting the opposite solution, which is either to let the employees wait, because maybe it will stop raining or to ask them to do something else. If Bill considers that an employee is not doing his job in an appropriate way, Brian will definitely disagree, saying that the employee needs more time or that the situation he was placed in was a tough one and that he handled it the right way. 9. Motivation, engagement, commitment In this domain generally and in this park specifically, motivation is not one of the important issues. This results in unsatisfied and uncommitted employees, who will not be eager to smile each time a person approaches their ride. The management is not interested in correcting this faulty issue, because the seasonal employees may or may not come back, but the park will definitely have enough employees in order to continue its existence throughout the following season. This way, the park will generate great revenues, while not doing anything in order to motivate the employees. 10. Leadership Because of the fact that they were not able to inspire, to become models for their employees, to motivate and to encourage them to come back the next year, committed to what they do and feeling that they are not alone, we cannot consider that Gillians Wonderland Pier managers were leaders. They were formal leaders, because they could tell employees what to do and correct them in case they did something wrong, but they were not real leaders that could innovate and create a better and improved place from what they found when they started working here. 11. Team work, team building As in any other company, team work was one of the key factors in this amusement Park. Although there were a lot of employees from different countries, having different lifestyles and different cultures, most of the people at Gillians were team players, being willing to help their colleagues in case they needed help. In order to maintain this element, managers organized events in order to make the team work as a whole, such as basketball games, picture gatherings and parties where they would serve pizza. This is one of the aspects at which all the managers seemed to agree upon. 12. Performance appraisal As we mentioned earlier, performance is not evaluated at this working place, allowing employees to get away with bad behavior since they are not punished for it. The only night in which the performance of the employees was appraised and rewarded was the day in which the managers showed us the film they had made during the season, with pictures and short movies from all the team gatherings and from the day to day work. This was the moment in which the managers thanked all of us for working there, for helping them achieve their goals and for continuing the tradition of family fun on the Ocean City boardwalk.

13. Career management Although this place is one of fun and games, there are not a lot of possibilities for the employees to advance in their carriers. You have to work in this place for at least 4 years during the summer, to be able to get a position as a chief of personnel or manager assistant. Loyalty is paid well within this company, but for the 85% of the staff, this chance will never be offered to them since there target is a seasonal job. 14. Managing diversity Employees of all ages, nationalities and races work in this place, but usually they are all treated the same way, either with indifference or with friendship. However, we must mention the fact that when too many people showed up for work, the foreigners were always the ones getting sent home. This situation only happened to those who would not speak up, usually the Turkish people and the Ukrainian, but the Romanians managed to stand up for their rights and avoid being sent home ever again, after discussing the situation with the manager. Conclusion Having worked within an American company helped us understand the mentality of a nation, however, we found it quite strange. Tradition seems to be far more important than the quality of the services provided or the friendliness of the staff. The managers from this park cannot be seen as leaders, because they do not intend to make you better, to improve your way of thinking or anything else, they are just eager to make you feel important, happy and relaxed. They can afford this because the staff is changed each year, so continuous improvement is not necessary. The induction training is held out by other employees who have the experience of a certain ride and it consists of some general safety procedures and basic elements that need to be respected by each employee. Although managers do not tell you what to do specifically, they expect you to be the best you can be, to respect all the requirements of the managerial staff and those of the clients, to continuously innovate in what you are doing and to transmit your knowledge regarding each ride to your colleagues and to the clients who might request this information. The teenagers who are usually hired during the summer do not complain since they have minimum wages. The job description only gives them an idea about what they have to do, but nobody tells them that there are other things which are part of their responsibility, such as taking care of children who cry or clean up after the customers or arguing with disgruntled parents. This results in unsatisfied and uncommitted employees, who will not be eager to smile each time a person approaches their ride, unless they see members of the management nearby. The managers, when they are not busy contradicting each other, do not waste time with performance appraisal, since they know that a seasonal job is not the proper environment to carry out such an activity. However, the employees feel that they are part of the staff, part of a team and even part of a bigger family. Our recommendation is that Gillians Wonderland Pier should hire an HR specialist who will ensure that everything runs smoothly within the company, mainly by taking care of the internal conflicts between employees and managers.

Annexes- The history of the amusement park David Gillian first came to Ocean City in 1914. He has probably spent more time on Ocean City's Boardwalk than any other living individual. His first job was playing the trap drums in the orchestra at C. Elwood Carpenter's Dance Club, sometimes called the Casino. It was located over the Moorlyn Theater on the old Boardwalk. In 1917, Mr. Gillian transferred to the Hippodrome, Ocean City's largest pier. Here he played with Robin Robinson's Orchestra. The Hippodrome was a variety pier with movies, vaudeville, dancing and amusements for children. At the close of the summer seasons, the Gillian Family always returned to Philadelphia where Mr. Gillian played with hotel orchestras. The October 1927 fire in Ocean City destroyed the Hippodrome and changed Mr. Gillian's career. The pier was never rebuilt and when the burned boardwalk was replaced in 1928 there were few amusements. David Gillian decided in 1930 that it was an opportune time to open a Fun Deck at Plymouth Place and the Boardwalk. It's to main attractions were a Ferris Wheel and a Merry-Go-Round. Little did he realize at the time that he would live long enough to be able to donate a horse from that Merry-Go-Round to the Ocean City Historical Museum in honor of his 100th birthday in 1990. The Gillian family is now celebrating over 70 years on the Ocean City Boardwalk. Thanks to the hard work of David Gillian in 1930, Bob and Roy Gillian at the Fun Deck from 19571977, and now Roy Gillian with his three children; Jim, Steve, and Jay continue to provide safe family fun. They, along with their wonderful full-time staff, continually strive to create an atmosphere with a personal touch for every guest that visits the piers. In the future, the fourth generation of Gillian's including Jim's children: Ryan and Lauren, Steve's children: Ashley, Christine and Tyler, and Jay's children: Joshua, Emily and Noah, will be watching their fathers' and grandfather's success in the amusement industry while getting themselves prepared to continue a family business that has put smiles on so many peoples faces. With the Gillian Family continuing to grow, the future will hold many new and exciting adventures and we hope that you and your family will be there with us. Wonderland Pier is a "pay as you go" type amusement park. Each ride or attraction requires an appropriate amount of tickets for admission onto the ride or attraction of your choice. Wonderland Pier has 35 different rides and attractions to choose from, ranging from small rides for the little kids, to rides for the kid in all of us.

References www.youtube.com www.amusementparks.com www.gillians.com www.metrotravelguide.com http://www.coastergrotto.com/reviews http://www.americantowns.com/nj/oceancity

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