Understaffing at Cedar Point hits nightmarish levels...

We are saying the same thing but comkngnat from different angles djDaemon. I agree with you. Read my other posts.

Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don't want to.
- Richard Branson

Instead of aiming for the clouds...
Cedar Point should first try to be more Costco and a lot less Walmart.

It's a good thing I don't come here to get financial advice lol. The reality is that we are currently in an economy with a labor shortage. CP does not provide adequate compensation for many to justify moving or a long commute (and they pay competitive wages based on other parks). Due to the seasonal nature of their work they don't have to pay overtime, and once again, ITS SEASONAL WORK.

As a result, CP is forced to only a hire a narrow demographic of people, who are typically young and unreliable, all in a market with a labor shortage. It is no suprise they have staffing issues.

And yes, some people are not capable of working in the service industry regardless of the training you provide.

I can personally vouch for the importance of compensating your employees well. I work for a pet shop, a smallish chain store. We're no Petsmart, but I can only imagine that the company makes fairly decent money. Regardless of this, the employee wages are PITIFUL. Raises can only be earned in 25 cent increments, via tests that can only be taken every few months, which leads to 5 year veterans like me being paid not much more than someone who just started. Our store manager has tried to improve our wages but has been refused by corporate.

As a result, literally HALF of our store's staff has left in the past month for greener pastures. The only reasons I haven't followed suit is that I like the people I work with, and I'm starting college in a couple months and at very least the schedule is flexible. (Rest assured, once I have my degree in hand I'm splitsville as well.) But the facts remain- if you can't keep your employees satisfied, they'll look for work elsewhere (or, in the case of a seasonal gig, not come back next year or even quit before the end of the season).

How do your wages compare to Cedar Point's? CP pays $9.25 - $12.50 per hour which is $1 to $4 above minimum wage. Not too shabby for a seasonal job. EDIT: In looking at their jobs page, they do list the option now of working as few or as many hours as you want. It seems they are more flexible now than how some of you have mentioned they were in the past.

The amount relative to minimum wage is irrelevant if demand exceeds supply. If I was a college kid in 1994 context, before my last year of school, sure, the wage and opportunity would have sounded awesome. Now, not so much. Kids have better opportunities to work less for the same money.

Especially when you factor in things like internships that are directly tied to the field someone is studying. I worked one summer at CP. It was a fun summer, met some great people, and enjoyed the work I was doing in Live E. But working at CP meant 1 day off a week, no overtime, and still kinda low pay.

The next year, I got an engineering internship close to home making over double what I made at CP per hour, at only 40 hours per week, while getting job experience that would be directly applicable after I finished. So I took that opportunity. And with jobs basically demanding some form of internship experience nowadays, a general summer job is a MUCH tougher sell.

Now I know engineering internships pay way more than some other fields for internships, but the fact still remains that in general internships pay better with less strenuous hours and have the job experience benefits.

Pete said:
EDIT: In looking at their jobs page, they do list the option now of working as few or as many hours as you want. It seems they are more flexible now than how some of you have mentioned they were in the past.

To be fair, no pun intended, that is the general cedar fair site and I wondered if cedar point would say “nope we need people all day long no room for part time”

Went tonight (Friday pm) for a short time. I literally saw something I've never seen before ( this from going to CP for over 40 years). The main French Fry stand (Hot Potato) by the front of the park , to the right of Raptor, was unmanned, dark, and closed. That stand is ALWAYS busy no matter when I've gone in past visits. There were a TON of local high school buses/kids there today! Also MELT was closed but maybe not open yet for the season? I didn't notice on my other 2 visits this year. There were some food trucks on the midway to compensate I guess. Yes, staffing is short until the colleges let out after Memorial Day (:seems to be the case every year lately) but I think some of the workers from the games area can be moved around the park to fill shortages elsewhere, just a thought. Anyone else notice other stands/ rides closed on busy days this year?

Thankfully the Surf Lounge has been fully staffed .

Well, moving games people to food service is probably not worth it. Food service requires specific training in things like food bac., cross contamination, stuff like that. (At least I hope they’re doing that) So it wouldn’t be worth it for a weekend of job sharing.
They could do things like register, stocking, refilling the Boiling Ketchup dispenser I spose.
I’ve never ever seen the main fry stand closed, that sure is odd.

Ok, you’ve all convinced me. I’ll just take my tattooed butt up there and apply. I did it before, I can do it again.

the "training" is watching a 30 minute video.

Some people seem to think this is equivalent to hiring at NASA, smh.

That says a lot.

No, it isn't rocket science, but when I was fast-food shift manager (in the dark ages), the national chain I worked for required 4 hours of VHS training and a quiz before your first shift. It was a different set of tapes for front-line (register, pouring drinks) vs back-line (flipping burgers and dropping fries). Probably 6 or 7 hours if you watched both sets. Food prep, cleaning the fountain machine nozzles, cleaning the friers, cleaning the shake/ice cream machines, and some other tasks were additional hours of video.

That should be a Haunt attraction

Nobody said it was like NASA, I’m not even sure what that means, smh.
What I do know is that county health departments require food workers to adhere to strict handling regulations and cleanliness procedures. Games people take money and hand baseballs to customers. If it was up to me, I’d determine that crossing those people over to food handling for a day or even a weekend would not be worth the time investment or the risk of a violation because somebody didn’t know what they were doing.

That Wendy's training video made me laugh until I had tears. I should search out the ones for Frostys and salads.

Chris

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sycYhOs2qJk

Compared to many years ago, Sandusky has many more attractions, hotels, restaurants and stores that are open all year that I think would deter many from working at a seasonal job. I would think CP and places like it in that region would need to exceed what the average pay rate is for year round jobs.