A Big part of the Big Problem... Staffing

[DisFanDad]

Hey all - not sure if this is news or rumor, or, whatever. I might get the chance to write an actual article about this, I intend to write a couple after the experiences of this trip, but who knows. I've got about a dozen summer projects I am supposed to start when I get home as well...

This is day 10 of our Trip, I have had 5 CMs tell me directly the reason things are going slowly (food services, transport, rides) is because they are short staffed. I have overheard a two other CMs telling other guests the same thing. There are also people earning their ears every-dang-where.

I also have a feeling this is having a major impact on the crowds, or the feeling of crowds in the parks, as food services, entertainment, even rides are not functioning at 100%, leaving a LOT of people will little to do.

More thoughts later, just an update and a thought to share here.

 

[PalmettoPath]

It definitely takes time to re-staff to past levels. For us it is understandable as there were a lot of CMs who lost their positions or otherwise left or retired during covid. We were told that's why certain boat routes on Bay Lake are not currently running etc. (actively training new captains). So yes, staffing is one of the current significant issues, but we have seen progress made on our most recent weeks spent there over the past year.

 

[MassJester]

Staffing is a CONSTANT problem with our business. Raising wages has helped, but has not been a cure. The fact is that new jobs have been created, the baby boomers are (finally) leaving the workplace, and birth rates + immigration hasn't filled the hole. Being short staffed is going to be around for a while.

 

[loves to dive]

You see help wanted signs all over our town and the service (which has never been good, college town) has gone way down. I'm one of the baby boomers who is retiring this year but I've worked for the same company the last 33 years and it is shutting down so I'm not leaving a gap. I've considered working part time somewhere just to have something to do but frankly, at my age (65) I would only want to do something I really enjoyed instead of something to just bring in income. Now, if I lived in the Orlando area, I would definitely apply for a job at WDW as long as it wasn't custodial, I'd be fine with whatever I got.

 

[TiggerBouncy]

Staffing is a CONSTANT problem with our business. Raising wages has helped, but has not been a cure. The fact is that new jobs have been created, the baby boomers are (finally) leaving the workplace, and birth rates + immigration hasn't filled the hole. Being short staffed is going to be around for a while.

I get into this argument all the time. People tell me that there are plenty of workers and there is not a staffing problem. But I sit in meeting after meeting where we can not find yard workers, and the ones we can find generally don't stay. We can not find truck drivers.... the ones we do find are generally newly licensed and really do not have the experience that our rigs require to properly get into and out of spaces, and they do not have or understand the complexities of the job - our drivers do not just sit while someone unloads the truck - they have to be competent on a forklift as well. We can find some - but none with experience. Mind you, we pay market rates - we are not undercutting. We have tried offering incentives; but they generally get people in the door, but they don't stay.

Even the fast food places around me - a lot of them have their lobbies closed because they can't get enough workers to cover it - and again those they they can get don't stay.

Staffing right now is VERY DIFFICULT.

 

[Narcoossee11]

Orlando Sentinel just had a story about the lack of workers at all parks, small to huge.
It is just not worth the gas to work at the parks any more for the wages.

 

[TiggerBouncy]

Orlando Sentinel just had a story about the lack of workers at all parks, small to huge.
It is just not worth the gas to work at the parks any more for the wages.

And they are competing with McDonalds and Walmart which have similar pay, but less of a commute. They are also competing with jobs which offer you the opportunity to work from home. Unfortunately, Disney does not yet have the technology to allow a CM Dressed as Mickey to work from home and still hug the little kiddies.

 

[HIRyeDVC]

Hawaii is the same. The entire state is a one giant Help Wanted sign and yet, international travel isn’t even fully back yet. We either need robots or increase immigration

 

[fla4fun]

I am looking for work and there are a lot of WDW job ads and scheduled WDW job fairs right now. Unfortunately they are not the type of work I am looking for right now, but it’s obvious they are needing a lot of people.

 

[xipotec]

Hey all - not sure if this is news or rumor, or, whatever. I might get the chance to write an actual article about this, I intend to write a couple after the experiences of this trip, but who knows. I've got about a dozen summer projects I am supposed to start when I get home as well...

This is day 10 of our Trip, I have had 5 CMs tell me directly the reason things are going slowly (food services, transport, rides) is because they are short staffed. I have overheard a two other CMs telling other guests the same thing. There are also people earning their ears every-dang-where.

I also have a feeling this is having a major impact on the crowds, or the feeling of crowds in the parks, as food services, entertainment, even rides are not functioning at 100%, leaving a LOT of people will little to do.

More thoughts later, just an update and a thought to share here.

 

[xipotec]

There is a simple solution. Pay people….a …..decent……wage.

Not too many jobs open out there that pay 20-25 an hour or more.

 

[HIRyeDVC]

There is a simple solution. Pay people….a …..decent……wage.

Not too many jobs open out there that pay 20-25 an hour or more.

I agree. But it’s also a catch 22. If Disney increases wages, that means more price increases, which fans already hate.

 

[xipotec]

I agree. But it’s also a catch 22. If Disney increases wages, that means more price increases, which fans already hate.

unfortunatly true, cause cant decrease profit projections without:

 

[maya213]

Many international workers are coming back to work this summer, maybe it will help a bit.

 

[mistysue]

Yes, getting the CP really rolling and all the international workers for the showcase should take a huge dent out of it.

The craziest part of the current job market is that many place have both a lack of workers AND simultaneously a high number of applications. It's like they are taking applications and sitting on them, refusing to hire because it costs money while screaming that they have to cut services because there aren't any workers... In my area there's a help wanted sign on every door, but all the teens running around trying to fill those minimum wage jobs are being told "it takes a while" or "we just hired and don't need anyone" - and it's been that way for close to a year.

 

[NotUrsula]

The thing is, there is also a really large cohort of people out there who are willing to work but cannot get hired because the threshold experience level written into the job description excludes true entry-level workers. The bots behind the job boards toss those applications out, and hiring managers never get to even look at them.

The key to getting over this hump is to give the no-experience folks a chance whenever you can. Yes, no one *wants* to have to train from scratch, but OTOH, these folks are a blank canvas. What makes more sense, sitting in meetings grousing about the quality of workers you attract for the pay you can afford, or spending that same amount of time training a rank newbie who is eager to learn and grateful for the opportunity?

I get the safety reasons why a truck driver might absolutely need a certain number of hours of experience, but not so much when we're talking about someone doing data entry, or a cashier. If you can train, then accepting people with no experience in the particular field is the best answer. If experience is nice to have but not absolutely necessary, then take it out of the ad, and the number of decent candidates you'll get will go way up.

Also, for G-d's sake, be open to hiring and working with people on the Autism spectrum. Right now the unemployment rate for Autistic college graduates is estimated to be 85%. (Yep, you read that correctly.) That's a pool of upward of 1 million college-educated Americans who have little to no work-experience because they can't get past the social expectations of the conventional hiring process, but they have skills to offer, and usually are very dependable employees if they do get hired.

PS: Someone up-thread mentioned the cost of gas. It's true that's a big issue for low-wage workers, but it's one that Disney is big enough to easily solve. Two options come to mind: 1) Busing. Deploy regular express buses to central pick-up locations around Orlando and the Osceola/Polk suburbs that will take CMs to work for free or at reduced cost. This might require regularizing hours more than in the past, but that's not impossible, especially for food-service & housekeeping roles. 2) Fuel benefits: For those that can run their own vehicles, provide backstage CM fueling stations using fleet debit cards sold to CMs at a discounted price (you can require a Cast ID as well to prevent resale), &/or provide gas discount cards that can be used at commercial stations on-property for fuel only. Disney has enough bargaining power in their fuel contracts for this.

 

[TiggerBouncy]

The thing is, there is also a really large cohort of people out there who are willing to work but cannot get hired because the threshold experience level written into the job description excludes true entry-level workers. The bots behind the job boards toss those applications out, and hiring managers never get to even look at them.

The key to getting over this hump is to give the no-experience folks a chance whenever you can. Yes, no one *wants* to have to train from scratch, but OTOH, these folks are a blank canvas. What makes more sense, sitting in meetings grousing about the quality of workers you attract for the pay you can afford, or spending that same amount of time training a rank newbie who is eager to learn and grateful for the opportunity?

I get the safety reasons why a truck driver might absolutely need a certain number of hours of experience, but not so much when we're talking about someone doing data entry, or a cashier. If you can train, then accepting people with no experience in the particular field is the best answer. If experience is nice to have but not absolutely necessary, then take it out of the ad, and the number of decent candidates you'll get will go way up.

Also, for G-d's sake, be open to hiring and working with people on the Autism spectrum. Right now the unemployment rate for Autistic college graduates is estimated to be 85%. (Yep, you read that correctly.) That's a pool of upward of 1 million college-educated Americans who have little to no work-experience because they can't get past the social expectations of the conventional hiring process, but they have skills to offer, and usually are very dependable employees if they do get hired.

PS: Someone up-thread mentioned the cost of gas. It's true that's a big issue for low-wage workers, but it's one that Disney is big enough to easily solve. Two options come to mind: 1) Busing. Deploy regular express buses to central pick-up locations around Orlando and the Osceola/Polk suburbs that will take CMs to work for free or at reduced cost. This might require regularizing hours more than in the past, but that's not impossible, especially for food-service & housekeeping roles. 2) Fuel benefits: For those that can run their own vehicles, provide backstage CM fueling stations using fleet debit cards sold to CMs at a discounted price (you can require a Cast ID as well to prevent resale), &/or provide gas discount cards that can be used at commercial stations on-property for fuel only. Disney has enough bargaining power in their fuel contracts for this.

I do not disagree with this at all. Obviously with the truck positions I was referring too, we require a certain amount of experience for safety reasons. A new driver can tell us that they can handle it all day long and ask for the opportunity..... We just had one have an unfortunate crash.

For our jobs that do not require experience, like Disney, a lot of them take place outside. New people who apply believe they can handle an outside job. We train them. We give them a good salary. But they do not anticipate the stress of working outside in the hot sun all day, day after day. They quit after only a short time because it's not as easy as they envisioned (a lot of people believe they can work outside on their feet all day until they try it). Yes, yes - we have free water mixed with gatoraide, and places to cool down, and as much of the nicities as we can.

I can not at all disagree about Autistic kids. As a father with a son on a spectrum - one who is currently in college - it's a challenge that I know he is going to face soon. There are positions I would not put him in. However, he obviously has some great skill sets for the right position. Breaking into that position however will I know not be a small feat.

 

[Dcgc28]

I do not disagree with this at all. Obviously with the truck positions I was referring too, we require a certain amount of experience for safety reasons. A new driver can tell us that they can handle it all day long and ask for the opportunity..... We just had one have an unfortunate crash.

For our jobs that do not require experience, like Disney, a lot of them take place outside. New people who apply believe they can handle an outside job. We train them. We give them a good salary. But they do not anticipate the stress of working outside in the hot sun all day, day after day. They quit after only a short time because it's not as easy as they envisioned (a lot of people believe they can work outside on their feet all day until they try it). Yes, yes - we have free water mixed with gatoraide, and places to cool down, and as much of the nicities as we can.

I can not at all disagree about Autistic kids. As a father with a son on a spectrum - one who is currently in college - it's a challenge that I know he is going to face soon. There are positions I would not put him in. However, he obviously has some great skill sets for the right position. Breaking into that position however will I know not be a small feat.

Yep! Topgolf here, I work in maintenance and it’s a cake job. It really is one of the best entry learning maintenance jobs I’ve ever been apart of. But unfortunately we lose associates, especially younger ones 18-21 range, when they find out 60% of the job is in the elements. Especially the heat, with wasps, rain and other things that come along with being outside. I’ve got a freezer full of popsicles and a cooler full of Gatorade. An office that’s 73 degrees and people are encouraged to come take breaks in.

The reality is for us unfortunately that even with as easy as the job is, associates seem to have issues with the elements.

 

[New Mouse]

Disney could very easily reinstate many of the benefits they cut as well, but why reward your workers when you can try to milk them as well?

 

[Boopuff]

My DD was a CM (before lockdown) and all her friends in Orlando didn't return to WDW. Most are working in other jobs. Interestingly, Disney keeps calling them with offers!