Theme Park Staffing Issues

[Secret Weapon]

I think an increase in gate prices to reduce demand would not only improve guests days but improve staff morale and retention.

True, but this is a double-edged sword as higher gate price = higher guest expectations

 

[Poisson]

And the fixes have the issue of OpEx being decided remotely, not locally. The specific issues relating to Towers are not felt in Chessie/Thorpe/Lego or in Poole.

True, but this is a double-edged sword as higher gate price = higher guest expectations

Towers has most of what it needs to be a quality park, it just needs allowing to be one.

 

[Thameslink Rail]

The specific issues relating to Towers are not felt in Chessie/Thorpe/Lego or in Poole.

Sorry to be pedantic, Merlin head office moved to London in 2024

MERLIN ENTERTAINMENTS LIMITED filing history - Find and update company information - GOV.UK

MERLIN ENTERTAINMENTS LIMITED - Free company information from Companies House including registered office address, filing history, accounts, annual return, officers, charges, business activity

find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk

 

[Secret Weapon]

I thought there was a big push for companies to move companies away from London?

Apparently not!

 

[Bert2theSpark]

I think another aspect that shouldn't be overlooked is the abuse front-line staff get when the system collapses. "Be nice to our staff" posters aren't going to cut it when guests are angry that they've only got on three rides all day. For that reason, I think an increase in gate prices to reduce demand would not only improve guests days but improve staff morale and retention.

Customer anger has always been an issue and since COVID it’s only gotten way more prevalent due to the amount of emotionally stunted adults (of all ages) who have the expectation that anyone wearing a uniform is there to serve their exact needs whenever they want.

This has exploded even in public sector (councils, NHS, transport etc) roles, it is crazy that so many adults that seemingly have everything have the emotional awareness of a high school student, putting up signs reminding people saying “please be nice to our staff” is useless wherever you go because the people who have temper tantrums will not even read them. Only way to deal with them is to remove them from the situation entirely for poor behaviour, because they do not capability to process their anger in the moment.

 

[Matt N]

Very informative posts @GooseOnTheLoose!

One question I do have, however, is; why do you feel that JCB is a factor now in a way that it may not have been in prior decades? JCB has operated out of Rocester for decades.

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

Very informative posts @GooseOnTheLoose!

One question I do have, however, is; why do you feel that JCB is a factor now in a way that it may not have been in prior decades? JCB has operated out of Rocester for decades.

An excellent question as always!

The difference between then and now essentially boils down to the fact that the local talent pool has shrunk, whilst JCB's requirements have grown.

In the 1990s and early 2000s, there was simply a large enough pool of local, working age tradespeople to happily feed both the theme park and the digger factory. Today, as we've established, that demographic pool is extremely shallow.

JCB also requires significantly more mechanics than they used to. They've expanded their Staffordshire footprint massively over the last two decades to meet global export demand. When a corporate giant scales up its operations that aggressively in a shrinking local labour market, they vacuum up all of the available talent.

The role of a theme park maintenance engineer has also evolved. Keeping the Corkscrew or the Blade running was predominantly a heavy mechanical endeavour, whereas modern rides are incredibly complex; relying heavily on PLCs, intricate sensor networks and advanced software systems. Alton Towers desperately need highly qualified, multi-disciplinary electro mechanical technicians. JCB need the exact same, highly specific tier of advanced engineering talent to run their newly automated, robotic assembly lines.

When both employers have to fight over the exact same, very small pool of highly skilled candidates, the company that can offer the most lucrative, year round, secure and comfortable manufacturing contract wins. Every single time.

JCB was always a competitor, but they used to be a competitor Alton Towers could coexist with. Not really so much any more.

 

[Poisson]

JCB have also responded well to the financial challenges faced by their staff and pay a good wage for the economic conditions. They demand a lot, but give a lot in a better environment.

 

[Secret Weapon]

For what it's worth, I can't currently see any AT vacancies on the Merlin website (other than a few minor jobs in the hotels, etc).

If AT fail to recruit enough staff before the season begins, then do they continue hiring during the season itself, or do they draw a line under it and make do with what they have (running rides on a limited capacity if required), due to having to arrange training and shift patterns in advance?

The long, unpaid commute essentially extends the working day without compensation. In the 90s, youths accepted this friction. Today, they do not have to.

AT must be unique in this regard, as the conventional wisdom is that people in Britain are finding it more difficult to find jobs today than during the 1990s

Remote locations often struggle with recruitment, though, as I know that the Dounreay power plant (at the northern tip of Scotland) struggles to recruit and retain staff

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

For what it's worth, I can't currently see any AT vacancies on the Merlin website (other than a few minor jobs in the hotels, etc).

If AT fail to recruit enough staff before the season begins, then do they continue hiring during the season itself, or do they draw a line under it and make do with what they have (running rides on a limited capacity if required), due to having to arrange training and shift patterns in advance?

AT must be unique in this regard, as the conventional wisdom is that people in Britain are finding it more difficult to find jobs today than during the 1990s

Remote locations often struggle with recruitment, though, as I know that the Dounreay power plant (at the northern tip of Scotland) struggles to recruit and retain staff

The UK hospitality and leisure sector currently has some of the highest vacancy rates on record [1, 2]. It's infinitely easier to find an entry level service job today than it was in the 1990s, largely because, as we've established, the foundational labour pool has vanished and the European safety valve closed.

The careers site is so barren right now, because Merlin Entertainments doesn't operate like your local pub, sticking a "Help Wanted" sign in the window whenever someone calls in sick and never comes back. HR and recruitment for the parks are highly centralised at the corporate level. They hire in massive, highly orchestrated, cyclical batches, not piecemeal.

When you're dealing with a seasonal workforce of that scale, economies of scale are everything. You cant trickle feed new hires into the system throughout the summer. It's a logistical and financial nightmare. Think about what is legally and operationally required to onboard a single theme park employee:

• Right to Work Checks: - These are heavily regulated and must be processed through corporate HR.
• Health and Safety Compliance: - Every employee requires rigorous, documented safety inductions before they can even step onto the park in uniform.
• Operational Training: - Ride hosts require specific, heavily documented training to ensure compliance with ADIPS and internal protocols.
• Logistics: - Uniform ordering, payroll setup, IT systems provisioning and safeguarding checks (for those in the hotels or CBeebies Land).

You've got to spin up an entire corporate training apparatus to do this. It requires dedicated trainers, empty ride cars for practical testing and days of classroom time. It's highly efficient to put 300 people through this machine in February and March, and again toward the end of the season for Scarefest. It's completely financially unviable to spin the same machine up in June because you are short of three ride hosts on Galactica.

So, to answer your question, yes. They draw a line under it.

If the recruitment drive in the spring falls short, if they need 500 seasonal staff and only manage to hire 450, they don't keep the adverts running all season. The training window has closed. The corporate HR apparatus has moved on to the next quarter's objectives.

The local park management is simply told to "make do" with the headcount they successfully onboarded, and they make do by triaging the operation. They open the park later. They stagger the ride openings. They shut down an Aramark food kiosk or two.

They cannibalise the guest experience to fit the operational reality of the staff they have on the books.

 

[Secret Weapon]

Very useful information again

I have a few quick additional questions:-

1) If a staff member returns the following year then do they still have to complete the training again? Or is it generally only done once (until / unless anything changes) ?

2) If training is not required each season then can AT contact past staff members in an emergency and bring them on board mid-season if required?

3) I'm guessing that there's no way of knowing this, but has AT managed to recruit all of the staff that they wanted for the 2026 season?

(Out of interest, I will monitor the website later this year to gauge whether they have potentially filled all of their vacancies)

A few further ancedotes:-

A) Amanda Thompson said that she frequently hired EU staff at Blackpool, but I don't personally recall ever having encountered any European ride operators; my guess is that perhaps many of the foreign staff worked in the restaurants etc?

B) I am surprised that Amanda needed EU staff, as there surely should have been enough local staff in Blackpool?

C) Almost everybody at AT (and other parks) seems to be under the age of 30; I'm not sure if this an intentional policy by AT (to keep the park looking 'young'), or whether the job simply attracts younger applicants?

D) I'm guessing that Thorpe Park don't struggle with recruitment as much, because - for what it's worth - I remember overhearing somebody on a bus ride there implying that he had applied but was unsuccessful (although this may have been down to his personal unsuitability rather than lack of vacancies)