Cut down time spent on routine tasks, eliminate confusion about
who’s working and streamline communications with staff;
we look at how apps are making life easier for operators
By Kath Hudson | Published in Attractions Management 2015 issue 1
Interview: Dominique Cocquet
Euro Disney’s Villages Nature is
a next-generation approach to
park accommodation with leading
eco credentials. Resort manager
Dominque Cocquet tells all
Rides: The Ride Makers
In the second part of our series,
industry-leading manufacturers tell us
about the latest trends in family-friendly
coasters and child-friendly rides
Workplace Apps: Work Mates
Apps that manage an attraction’s
workforce make life easier for operators.
Could this software help you?
3D/4D/5D: New Dimensions
From zombie-themed dark rides to
3D films about supersonic cars, its the
latest news, products and launches
from the world of 3D/4D/5D
When I work Astaff scheduling app that manages holidays and shift trades, When I Work eliminates the human error and miscommunication that can occassionally lead to understaffing.
When I Work uses communication technologies – web, apps, text, social media and email – to make teams more efficient, accountable and better prepared. Spreadsheet tasks can be carried out quickly and easily and any employee can log into the system from their tablet or phone to find out his schedule.
“It’s a simple, intuitive, mobile-first solution that owners and managers can implement and start using in five minutes, with no IT training required,” says Rob Wormley, When I Work content manager.
Functionality includes creating, updating, cancelling and publishing shifts; filling open shifts quickly via SMS alerts to staff; sending SMS reminders about shifts, and monitoring time off requests and shift trades. When I Work is used by 500,000 people in 50 countries.
Face Amusement Group introduced the app in 2013 at its Big Top Arcade. The management was so pleased with the response to the app that it was introduced to four other attractions, including 7D Adventure and Rockin Raceway go kart track. It will continue to roll out the app.
“With five sites in a small area, we wanted to share our employees and managers. We were doing five different schedules weekly, with several accounts, but When I Work helped us to consolidate this information into one account and showed us how to use job sites instead of locations,” says area manager William Cohen. “Now when we share employees between locations they’re all visible on one schedule. Scheduling used to take days, but now it’s done in hours. We also use the training videos to help train new employees. Staff no longer come to us with requests for holidays or shift changes, but use the features on the app.”
Face Amusement Group manages staff across diverse sites using While I Work
The employee scheduling software
is available on iPhone and Android
Park check Park Check helps with the maintenance of a visitor attraction by measuring safety and quality routines. It issues daily reports on safety and quality procedures, provides mobile task management, organises work flow and gives a real-time overview of hot and cold areas in the park.
Each member of technical staff has a digital checklist on their phone or tablet detailing the work to to be done on each ride. Defects are documented, instantly created as ad hoc tasks and forwarded to relevant team members, and made available on an online portal.
Every time a checklist is completed by a member of staff, the data is processed by the online portal. There are live updates on what needs to be done, dynamic charts and historic data.
As the information is centralised, communication is improved. Nothing is missed and it saves time on paperwork.
Last year, three parks were running the system and for the coming season five more European parks are introducing Park Check. Jens Holm-Möller, director of business development at Park Check, anticipates this will result in increased cost savings for the parks as ongoing task management is streamlined. Another advantage is that the app can be used to share technical manuals and inform decisions about replacing units.
“The historical data which can be tracked on each unit in the park informs the operator about previous solutions and lets them monitor exactly what’s repaired on each unit and how frequently it’s done. In the future this improved overview supports more qualified decisions about replacements,” he says.
Danish theme park, Fårup Sommerland, introduced the app in 2012 and has found the documentation of morning checks in the park far more effective and accurate.
“The documentation is available to our administration in real time, which provides a great overview of what we’ve already completed and what’s yet to be done,” says general manager Niels Jorgen Jensen. “From a management perspective, it’s much easier to organise our daily task management. Tasks no longer disappear on sticky notes, but are kept and tracked in the system until they are completed.”
Fårup Sommerland uses the Park Check system to schedule and monitor ride safety checks
Defects can be documented with
the phone’s camera
Parim A new kid on the block, PARiM launched last year and although it’s yet to debut in the attractions industry, client director David Duncan says its ease of use and success in staff engagement makes it a good fit.
A cloud-based workforce management software programme, PARiM offers an efficient way of creating shift patterns and a staffing schedule which is emailed to staff and posted on the self-service portal.
The easy to use drag-and-drop scheduling system tracks qualifications, training, absence and availability, as well as company assets like uniforms and mobile phones. It automatically communicates with staff and management and produces timesheets. The site can be split down into components, by ride or facility, so that staffing levels in a particular area can be easily checked.
“PARiM is striving to minimise the mundane tasks faced by operations departments within the leisure sector,” says co-founder Riko Muttik. “With certificate and position match, you can ensure the right people, with the right qualifications, do the jobs. People can make their businesses more efficient.”
PARiM encourages staff engagement by combining visibility and transparency with automated communication and a self-service portal. “The system allows management to create open shifts which staff can apply for. Some of our clients find the staff completely self-schedule, freeing the management from what was a time-consuming and paper-heavy task,” he says. “Attractions can manage and monitor staffing at sites in more detail.”
An iPhone and Android app is about to be launched, with GPS to locate staff and automatically clock them in, preventing timesheet errors.
There are no upfront costs, licence fees, ongoing support charges or contracts. Customers are billed per staff or site entered, so for companies with less than 500 staff, the front loaded bill is £0.015 ($0.023, €0.019) per shift hour. For larger companies the prices are negotiable and PARiM can build bespoke programmes.
Cut down time spent on routine tasks, eliminate confusion about
who’s working and streamline communications with staff;
we look at how apps are making life easier for operators
By Kath Hudson | Published in Attractions Management 2015 issue 1
Interview: Dominique Cocquet
Euro Disney’s Villages Nature is
a next-generation approach to
park accommodation with leading
eco credentials. Resort manager
Dominque Cocquet tells all
Rides: The Ride Makers
In the second part of our series,
industry-leading manufacturers tell us
about the latest trends in family-friendly
coasters and child-friendly rides
Workplace Apps: Work Mates
Apps that manage an attraction’s
workforce make life easier for operators.
Could this software help you?
3D/4D/5D: New Dimensions
From zombie-themed dark rides to
3D films about supersonic cars, its the
latest news, products and launches
from the world of 3D/4D/5D
When I work Astaff scheduling app that manages holidays and shift trades, When I Work eliminates the human error and miscommunication that can occassionally lead to understaffing.
When I Work uses communication technologies – web, apps, text, social media and email – to make teams more efficient, accountable and better prepared. Spreadsheet tasks can be carried out quickly and easily and any employee can log into the system from their tablet or phone to find out his schedule.
“It’s a simple, intuitive, mobile-first solution that owners and managers can implement and start using in five minutes, with no IT training required,” says Rob Wormley, When I Work content manager.
Functionality includes creating, updating, cancelling and publishing shifts; filling open shifts quickly via SMS alerts to staff; sending SMS reminders about shifts, and monitoring time off requests and shift trades. When I Work is used by 500,000 people in 50 countries.
Face Amusement Group introduced the app in 2013 at its Big Top Arcade. The management was so pleased with the response to the app that it was introduced to four other attractions, including 7D Adventure and Rockin Raceway go kart track. It will continue to roll out the app.
“With five sites in a small area, we wanted to share our employees and managers. We were doing five different schedules weekly, with several accounts, but When I Work helped us to consolidate this information into one account and showed us how to use job sites instead of locations,” says area manager William Cohen. “Now when we share employees between locations they’re all visible on one schedule. Scheduling used to take days, but now it’s done in hours. We also use the training videos to help train new employees. Staff no longer come to us with requests for holidays or shift changes, but use the features on the app.”
Face Amusement Group manages staff across diverse sites using While I Work
The employee scheduling software
is available on iPhone and Android
Park check Park Check helps with the maintenance of a visitor attraction by measuring safety and quality routines. It issues daily reports on safety and quality procedures, provides mobile task management, organises work flow and gives a real-time overview of hot and cold areas in the park.
Each member of technical staff has a digital checklist on their phone or tablet detailing the work to to be done on each ride. Defects are documented, instantly created as ad hoc tasks and forwarded to relevant team members, and made available on an online portal.
Every time a checklist is completed by a member of staff, the data is processed by the online portal. There are live updates on what needs to be done, dynamic charts and historic data.
As the information is centralised, communication is improved. Nothing is missed and it saves time on paperwork.
Last year, three parks were running the system and for the coming season five more European parks are introducing Park Check. Jens Holm-Möller, director of business development at Park Check, anticipates this will result in increased cost savings for the parks as ongoing task management is streamlined. Another advantage is that the app can be used to share technical manuals and inform decisions about replacing units.
“The historical data which can be tracked on each unit in the park informs the operator about previous solutions and lets them monitor exactly what’s repaired on each unit and how frequently it’s done. In the future this improved overview supports more qualified decisions about replacements,” he says.
Danish theme park, Fårup Sommerland, introduced the app in 2012 and has found the documentation of morning checks in the park far more effective and accurate.
“The documentation is available to our administration in real time, which provides a great overview of what we’ve already completed and what’s yet to be done,” says general manager Niels Jorgen Jensen. “From a management perspective, it’s much easier to organise our daily task management. Tasks no longer disappear on sticky notes, but are kept and tracked in the system until they are completed.”
Fårup Sommerland uses the Park Check system to schedule and monitor ride safety checks
Defects can be documented with
the phone’s camera
Parim A new kid on the block, PARiM launched last year and although it’s yet to debut in the attractions industry, client director David Duncan says its ease of use and success in staff engagement makes it a good fit.
A cloud-based workforce management software programme, PARiM offers an efficient way of creating shift patterns and a staffing schedule which is emailed to staff and posted on the self-service portal.
The easy to use drag-and-drop scheduling system tracks qualifications, training, absence and availability, as well as company assets like uniforms and mobile phones. It automatically communicates with staff and management and produces timesheets. The site can be split down into components, by ride or facility, so that staffing levels in a particular area can be easily checked.
“PARiM is striving to minimise the mundane tasks faced by operations departments within the leisure sector,” says co-founder Riko Muttik. “With certificate and position match, you can ensure the right people, with the right qualifications, do the jobs. People can make their businesses more efficient.”
PARiM encourages staff engagement by combining visibility and transparency with automated communication and a self-service portal. “The system allows management to create open shifts which staff can apply for. Some of our clients find the staff completely self-schedule, freeing the management from what was a time-consuming and paper-heavy task,” he says. “Attractions can manage and monitor staffing at sites in more detail.”
An iPhone and Android app is about to be launched, with GPS to locate staff and automatically clock them in, preventing timesheet errors.
There are no upfront costs, licence fees, ongoing support charges or contracts. Customers are billed per staff or site entered, so for companies with less than 500 staff, the front loaded bill is £0.015 ($0.023, €0.019) per shift hour. For larger companies the prices are negotiable and PARiM can build bespoke programmes.
Abu Dhabi-based investment firm Mubadala Capital has made a binding, fully financed
€1 billion
offer to acquire Pierre and Vacances SA, the European holiday resort operator behind the
continental European Center Parcs business.
Expo 2030 Riyadh is being planned as a permanent visitor destination, with organisers
confirming the six-million-square-metre site will become a Global Village after the event closes.
The owner of one of Australia's best-known waterparks has acquired a major competitor,
creating a new attractions business spanning two of the country's largest visitor destinations.
The Toverland theme park in the Netherlands has announced a €98m expansion programme
that will add a resort, new attractions and staff facilities as it pursues plans to become a multi-
day destination.
Hotel de France, located on the British Isle of Jersey, has created a wellness retreat package
that includes a hot yoga session that will take place in Jersey Zoo’s butterfly sanctuary.
A new immersive attraction designed to transport visitors into the final hours of ancient Pompeii
is preparing to open near the world-famous archaeological site in southern Italy.
Experience design company, BRC Imagination Arts, has completed a transition that sees founder
Bob Rogers pass ownership of the business to four long-serving senior executives, while
remaining actively involved with the company.
Movie Park Germany has opened a new Paramount Pictures-themed attraction as part of its 30th
anniversary celebrations, using immersive storytelling and adaptive reuse to reinforce the park’s
longstanding “Hollywood in Germany” positioning.
Therme Manchester’s 28-acre development, which will include interconnected glass pavilions
that measure 65,000sq m, will be the largest bathing and wellbeing attraction in the world once
complete, according to prof David Russell, CEO of Therme UK.
Efteling has opened Hooghmoed, a new family drop tower designed to broaden the appeal of its
recently launched Sirene Island themed area and introduce younger visitors to thrill attractions.
