News: Cedar Point raises wage, lowers bonus

http://www.pointbuzz.com/news.htm?id=1075

How in the world is this a news story. (No offense to Walt...but the Register should think about it.)

They raised the hourly wage a whopping .10/hr, in effect, and it is newsworth? The average employee will make approximately $6/hr more each paycheck which doesn't quite by them a ticket for a movie, let alone the popcorn and soda, and it is news? Slow news day in Ohio, eh?

The $1/hr bonus was effective (not very effective...but effective in many cases) at getting employees to stay through the end of their contract. Once late August comes around employees are getting tired and are ready to go home. As a manager, if I could look up their bonus and say, "he...if you stick it our another couple of weeks you are going to be getting $1,000 plus"...well...that made the employee at least think about it.

Now, you are cutting that carrot in half. While this might mean more kids will take interest in a Cedar Point job...I think you are going to see bigger problems at the end of the season.

This is yet another example of Kinzel being shortsighted on matters. It is too bad you can't measure how much money you DON'T make at the end of the season when you are running with a skeleton crew, food and merchandise stands are closed, etc.

I've never doubted the good he can do...but I often question the harm. I'd be willing to bet there is a significant number of full-time staff members who weren't thrilled to hear he is sticking around for a while.

I don't think the real story is the 10¢ increase, but rather the change in the bonus structure.

If you need a bonus to keep employees in line at the end of the year, then you probably have other things to adjust. I'd be interested in hearing how common a bonus is in this industry, or other seasonal industries. My first impression is that this isn't that big of a deal.

That's just it. Kinzel is unwilling to adjust any of the other things that lead to difficulties at the end of the season. And, the one thing that COULD make a difference (and I can assure you that I had many experiences where it DID make a difference) has now been significantly watered down.

The bonus in the industry is fairly common amongst seasonal parks. I had even seen it trickle over into other retail. I've seen some McDonald's stores where they offered a bonus if the employee made it X months and then they were given a raise at the end of that period as well. It weeds out the kids that are in it for a short term gain from those you can depend on for a while.

There is a reason they have to recruit 1,000+ kids each year from outside the US. And, as I've said before, at some point that is going to dry up. Whether it is due to economies or security or something else, I don't think they are going to be able to forever rely on the foreign worker program.

Then what?
*** Edited 1/31/2007 1:56:08 PM UTC by Chief Wahoo***

I think the Register will print anything they possibly can about Cedar Point. Sandusky isn't exactly a metropolis.

I'm with Chief here... I don't think the $.50 per hour is going to be enough to keep really exhasperated employees around until the end of their contracts.

I think bonuses have been a staple in the seasonal themepark business for a long time. When I was in college in the late 80's my roommate worked for Kings Island in food service. I know he received a bonus for completing the summer. He worked in food service and also received a second bonus for having a nearly perfect cash register.

Part of the need for the bonus could be the seasonal nature of the business. Colleges are normally either on Semesters or Quarters. Semester schools get out in May and go back in August. Quarter Schools get out in June and go back in September. So you are already losing employees in August because many of them returning to school. If you lose too many of employees who attend schools on quarters you end up being short staffed at the end of the season.

Mental note: don't attend CP at the end of the season this year if you want to have good service. LOL!! Its bad enough WITH the bonus. I can't imagine how its gonna suck this season.

They should have at least split the difference and made it 75 cents.

This will mainly help those who get fired or can't/don't want to stick around until the end of their contract.

I agree that it is very likely to cause problems at the end of the season, and that 10 cents per hour raise isn't going to do much to help recruit workers.

I don't know that this is a worse situation, as much as it may replace one problem with another.

If you listen to seasonals, they complain that the bonus is held in their face to be bullied. I mostly think that's a load of crap, save for the inevitable personality conflicts that arise in any company. That said, it's still a pretty powerful perception, regardless of how true it is. This change softens the blow in terms of that fear, real or not.

On the other hand, working 50 hours a week for 16 weeks, you'll gross $400 as a bonus. I don't know what that's worth to college kids these days. Is it enough to retain them? I think the bigger challenge is getting them to agree to the late contract in the first place.

But yeah, I guess I'll concede that they're still not doing a good job at figuring out how to attract and retain good people.

Unless the park is soooo slow we never work just 50 hours a week. Last season it was always in the middle to upper 60's. I few weeks it was up to 70+ hours a week.

I think that the bonus plays a HUGE role in retaining employees at the end of the season. People need to leave before their contracts are up sometimes, it happens. I would much rather see a $800 bonus at the end of the season to keep me there than a $400 bonus.

Don't get me wrong I love Cedar Point and working for Cedar Point, its an amazing place to work.
*** Edited 1/31/2007 7:18:45 PM UTC by wickeddragster88***

70+ hours a week would equate to working open to close 6 days out of the week, that's giving a half hour before open and after close and assuming the park's open from 10-10.

That would come out to 78 hours a week. I have some doubts as to how often, if at all, this happened.

Also, I'm sure Jeff was using that as an average.

*** Edited 1/31/2007 7:23:44 PM UTC by Loopy***

Loopy said:
70+ hours a week would equate to working open to close 6 days out of the week, that's giving a half hour before open and after close and assuming the park's open from 10-10.

That would come out to 78 hours a week. I have some doubts as to how often, if at all, this happened.

Also, I'm sure Jeff was using that as an average.

*** Edited 1/31/2007 7:23:44 PM UTC by Loopy***

Trust me when you get closer to the end of the season it happens often. Short staff= longer hours for everyone.

I understand what you are saying with Jeff I was just making a point that you almost never work only 50 hours a week.

The whole hours thing just really depends on what department you are working in. For example, when I worked in Merchandise, people were averaging far less hours than those working in Park Operations.

I'll share a little inside information with you here (though the information is going on 10 years old). I sat on a committee in the mid-90's that was put together to specifically address recruitment and retention. The committee came out with a whole slew of ideas to address the problem both short term (that, and the upcoming season) and long term (5+ years out).

Out of that, the Power That Be was given a recommendation which he flatly rejected. The long term ideas weren't even given a second thought and the short term ideas were paid some lip service.

A particular individual took it upon him/herself, on behalf of the committee, to write a memo to the Power That Be suggesting he reconsider the committee's proposals. After all, what is the point of having the committee meet if the suggestions were going to be flatly ignored anyway?

Though that individual was writing on behalf of the committee...he/she was specifically targeted and, when all was said and done wasn't about to write a memo like that ever again. (The individual wasn't me and I am not a disgruntled employee out to prove anything as I willingly left the company for greener pastures.)

The lesson in all of this? Well, there are a lot of smart, creative, talented people who work for Cedar Fair that are completely and utterly hamstrung. As I've said countless times, for as successful as the company is...I wonder what could be?

Let's put it into perspective. Assuming 4,000 employees at 60 hours a week...we've got 240,000 hours/week. Multiply that by 20 weeks and you've got 4,800,000 hours in the season. Multiply THAT by .10 an hour and this revised wage/bonus program is going to cost Cedar Point $480,000.

That $480,000 is probably not far off from what Cedar Point will make off of admission tickets on ONE operating day. In 2005, Mr Kinzel's bonus was $404,250.

And again, what is the cost to the park of a staffing shortage at the end of the year? I would bet it is pretty significant. Forget the money, the emotional cost on an overworked staff is no picnic either.

*** Edited 1/31/2007 9:07:23 PM UTC by Chief Wahoo***

"I don't think it will hurt; employees will be getting more in their weekly paychecks," Edwards said Tuesday.

If only they hadn't gone to bi-weekly paychecks... ;)

Frole said there are also opportunities for people to be promoted throughout the summer and to work overtime.

If only there was real overtime though.

While I do not like the loss of $.50 from the bonus, I hate even more that they still don't offer an incentive for coming back season after season. I know other Cedar Fair parks do. Some have pretty good incentives for coming back. That is a good way to retain good employees.

I think in any job you look at, it depends on the employee. There are those who go to work expecting to work. For that industry, you expect those long hours so you can't go in and complain about it (there are obviously those who will, but hey, what can you do).

For example, I work in a kitchen in a large banquet hall. May - September is busy, and then December is also busy. We can work up to and over 60 hours per week. On any given Saturday night we may have up to 4 functions, with a total of up to 1500 people. There are only 8 of us who work in the kitchen who organize and serve the food to all of those people. We have gone through so many employees because they can't take the hours. We are paid over time (time and a half) for each hour worked in a week above 44. I know some of my friends who work other places are paid over time (some get double time, some even get triple) for every hour worked above 8 in a day. In terms of a bonus, we get one for Christmas. I can't speak for the rest of the cooks, but I got $100 for the past 2 years. We have about 100 servers, and I know they get about a $30 bonus. From what I see, we offer the servers no real reason to stay, but the difference between Cedar Point and where I work is that servers come a dime a dozen.

Certain people are just cut out for certain jobs. There will always be those who complain and eventually, but there will also be those who do a great job and don't complain about anything. Unfortunately, the complainers outnumber the good workers.

I would actually disagree with Jeff on the being bullied part...I worked there for a few seasons myself and yes, it was used to a degree that might be taken as bullying, it all depends on the employee.

I agree with the lack of incentives for coming back season after season, the bonus was always a great thing to have, especially helpful in the offseason. Employees dont usually focus on being paid x amount of cents more an hour, when you have incentives like a contract fulfillment bonus, cutting it in half usually doesn't result in positive outcomes.

But, thats just me.

no one is going to like the new bonus and management will find that out when people start to leave. then they'll realize that $500 ISNT that much to a college student (well it is, but not to stay working for a company)

I wonder if they maybe have to pay actual overtime now. Doubt it, but isn't the reason CP didn't have to was because it allowed them to be competitive and they were seasonal. I know castaway has to pay overtime, maybe the state is making the park pay now. After all, there is no competition now (in Ohio at least).