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More Staff Redundancies Ahead of 2017 Season

Sounds as if they're after a more 'flexible' workforce. Along with lots of other companies they would probably like to cut as many permanent contracts as logistically possible. I think they started the process last year and this may be just another continuation of this. Not great for staff morale though, really, knowing that even if you escape the chop this time, they'll probably be gunning for you next year.
 
I'm sure some one at Towers HQ know what they are doing.
Yes ?
They must have a master plan somewhere.
Staff loyalty goes along way. If you have people working for you that know you don't care about them and are expendable. Then why should these employees care about your business.
Why should they go above and beyond to work harder for you.
A theme park full of staff that just are not bothered ... that's the theme park spirit
 
I really feel sorry for all those staff that has been part of the team for many years, I know a lot of these staff have given 100% to the park, only to be told just before Xmas that they could be losing their jobs :(

It seems like the recent surge in gate numbers over the Scarefest and Fireworks was too little too late.

Personally I feel that it's Merlin that are tightening the purse strings and budget, and that the Towers are doing their best to run the park on the limited budget that they are allocated.

How much more cuts can the park take, surely the park has suffered enough over the last few years from these cuts. The cuts have been killing the place.
 
The article makes reference to hotel staff. Interesting considering that they are actually increasing their accommodation capacity next year when Ceebebies opens. It also looks like we may not be seeing any ride reopenings other than Hex next season. Very disappointing.

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I hope this isn't a sign of more cuts next year across the park itself. I was expecting things to get better next year, with rides reopening, but this is not a good sign.

I suppose though, there is very little demand for the hotels over closed season, so if the main cuts are to the hotel, and they're being replaced with seasonal staff, hopefully it won't have too much of an impact on overall guest experience.

Still a shame people are loosing jobs though :(
 
Haven't Towers always let staff go? I thought, most seasons, a lot of staff were only employed seasonally to begin with. Obviously this is very different, being it the job positions themselves that are being cut. But I always thought it was rare for a lot of staff to last more than a season or two.

Cuts will continue until visitor numbers rise, it's as simple as that. As popular as Scarefest and Fireworks were, the park has still been far quieter than usual for pretty much the whole season. Of course, they are cutting their noses off to spite their faces, as visitor numbers are far more likely to improve if everything is open, especially considering how little their was on offer this year for kids too old for CBeebies and too small for the coasters, effectively isolating an entire demographic. Ultimately, I think they've been surprised at how slow the recovery has been. Varney forecast several times last year that 2017 was the year where they expected everything to return to normal, yet that's already changed to 2018.
 
I think we all need to be realistic here. It was inevitable that there would be more redundancies this year. Visitor numbers are still way below the level they were at before the accident - I think we've all experienced that in the last 2 seasons. Merlin are just reacting to the fact that Towers is now a smaller business and requires less resources.

Also, although I have sympathy for anybody who loses their job, of course this is going to be announced around this time due to the seasonal nature of the industry - it is always going to be just before Christmas.

Furthermore, yes, like most businesses, they will try to get rid of the more experienced staff first as they are likely to command the highest wages and will probably opt for temporary contracts due to the ongoing uncertainty surrounding the business.

I think we all have to accept that is the way things are going to be until SW8 opens in 2018.
 
One thing I'm wondering about is if they cut back on staff and then next year numbers start to increase dramatically (could happen) and the park still manages to operate in a somewhat "reasonable" state. Are Merlin then going to re-hire more staff? Because although the park will need the extra team members, they'll realise that they can run the park with a smaller team.

From personal experience in the past two jobs I've had this has been the case. Cutting costs, then realising it works anyway when making more and then management refuses to hire more people.

It's bad on the people already working there but from a business perspective it works.
 
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ThatAlexGuy said:
One thing I'm wondering about is if they cut back on staff and then next year numbers start to increase dramatically (could happen) and the park still manages to operate in a somewhat "reasonable" state. Are Merlin then going to re-hire more staff? Because although the park will need the extra team members, they'll realise that they can run the park with a smaller team.

From personal experience in the past two jobs I've had this has been the case. Cutting costs, then realising it works anyway when making more and then management refuses to hire more people.

It's bad on the people already working there but from a business perspective it works.
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This isn't so much about reducing the operational staffing for rides as that is predominately seasonal work and they always evaluate their operational staffing budget on a yearly basis. It's cutting permanent staff who support things in the background, so management posts, gardners, non safety critical maintenance posts and I would guess marketing etc. They will then either move those jobs to seasonal or contract out the roles to external providers.

It's bonkers as they are losing experience and this fireworks showed how valuable past experience is as what was once a slick operation on crowds became a farce but they only care about the huge profit margins in Merlin HQ.
 
Let me take some of the Daily Mail vibe out of this thread.

It was announced post incident that up to 190 jobs would go. 98 positions were lost. This 70 brings the number up to 168, still below the original estimate.

Stuff happens. It is of course sad for the individuals and families involved, but the short term security and long term prospects of the park have to precedence.

I think the number of staff won't massively change, but the legal framework that is used to employ those people will.
 
You have to assume that those in charge know what they are doing when it comes to making cuts like this and I am sure it is not an easy decision to make. I agree with points made regarding trying to gain a more flexible workforce by having less permanent positions. But is all of this good for what is probably already low staff morale? I doubt it.

My biggest concern is how Merlin seem determined to reduce the whole scale of Alton Towers as a theme park. It's as if they have accepted that they can no longer command between 2 and 3 million guests per year and are setting in at between 1.5 and 2 million for the long term; turning Alton Towers into a smaller park with less rides, food and staff. Then slowly over time numbers may creep up. It is the cautious approach but is it the right approach? When I think about success and failures in theme parks I feel it is not.

I hope for Alton Towers' sake that there aren't too many busy days next year if cuts like this are to continue. The park struggled to cope at times this year.

:)
 
Rob said:
I hope for Alton Towers' sake that there aren't too many busy days next year if cuts like this are to continue. The park struggled to cope at times this year.
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Yep, looking through TripAdvisor, there are a lot of unhappy reviews about Fireworks weekend, the park really struggled and need to ensure they fix that for next year, particularly when working out what went wrong in the car park. I've never thought it was an issue to leave before (but they we have always left at 9:15pm).
 
Sorry to go off topic, but what exactly did happen in the car park? Some major incident or just gridlock?
 
DiogoJ42 said:
Sorry to go off topic, but what exactly did happen in the car park? Some major incident or just gridlock?
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The car parks on the Saturday weren't much worse than any other year, we got out in 25 minutes which is fine. Apparently things didn't work quite so well on Sunday straight after the show though. There were no incidents that I know of.

:)
 
I think from reading reviews they just let too many cars out from certain directions without letting other car parks move.
 
At the risk of repeating myself, less staff on the payroll doesn't necessarily mean less staff on the park.

There is an opportunity to have flexible staffing and pay staffing costs via capital instead of revenue, providing multiple advantages.
 
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Rick said:
At the risk of repeating myself, less staff on the payroll doesn't necessarily mean less staff on the park.

There is an opportunity to have flexible staffing and pay staffing costs via capital instead of revenue, providing multiple advantages.
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No one is disagreeing with you, in fact a few people said the same thing before yourself.

The issue with the policy is experienced staff leave and this was evident at fireworks when things that used to be slick wheee not so. The general consensus when you spoke to staff was that the people who knew how to run the park at capacity had mostly lost their jobs.

Good staff with drive and experience will take job security elsewhere if it is offered to them, that is where you suffer when you get rid of permenant staff in certain positions.
 
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