Hire Them, Train Them

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Hire Them, Train Them Love Them!

• Karen Auman
• Visitor Services Officer
• September 14, 2006

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About Radiant Systems

• Founded in 1985. Publicly traded RADS (NASDAQ)
• Over 100,000 workstations installed in over
  70,000 locations worldwide (100 countries)
• Focus in several retail segments
• General Retail CounterPoint POS
• Hospitality Aloha POS
• Entertainment POS, Self-Service
• Petroleum Convenience Stores POS,
  Self-Service
• POS Hardware, Servers and other peripheral
  equipment
• About the Retail Division
• Purchased Synchronics early 2006. Acquired
  CounterPoint suite of applications.
• Demonstrating at conference

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About The NC Zoo

• Opened in 1973.
• Located in Asheboro, NC (75 miles west of
  Raleigh)
• First zoo in U.S. to implement a natural
  habitat philosophy.
• One of two zoos in the U.S. that is state run. It
  is a division of the N.C. State Dept. of
  Environment Natural Resources.
• It is over 1,500 acres in size.

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Situation

• The zoo has a base of full-time, specialized
  employees.
• Our busy season requires more than twice our
  normal staff.
• These seasonal workers supplement current
  functions but also allow us to add revenue
  streams (e.g., open seasonal restaurants, gift
  carts).

120 Increase In Headcount
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Challenge

• The challenge
• Quickly and efficiently recruit, select, hire and
  train this large group of employees
• Maintain the high-level of customer satisfaction
  with new, inexperienced staff
• Do all this with 3-5X more customers entering the
  zoo

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Understanding Our Labor Market

• Relatively rural setting. No major industries in
  the area.
• The population of Asheboro, NC is about 120,000.
• The closest city, Greensboro, is 30 miles away.
• Must be proactive to get employees

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Finding Recruiting Talented People

• We found that the labor pool that best meets the
  following requirements
• Flexible schedule
• Handle heat of summer
• Could learn technology (i.e., POS systems), were
• Local High School students, so
• Our Human Resources efforts were focused on
  recruiting and developing this group. One key
  message, safe job!
• Key Activities
• Build a strong relationship with high school
  administrators/councilors
• Be flexible with their schedule (e.g.,
  accommodate prom, football games, etc.)
• Provide positive feedback via awards
• Build a sense of belonging via picnics and team
  activities (e.g., Survivor game)

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Other Helpful Resources

• Employing Generation Why?, Eric Chester
• Authored nine books about youth
• Talks about how your front line (employees) is
  the key to your bottom line
• Some Clients McDonalds, CITGO, US Army, Wells
  Fargo, Holiday Inn Universal Studios
• www.generationwhy.com
• The Fish Philosophy.
• Designed to
• Create a more engaged and alive workplace
• Increase productivity
• Reduce employee turnover
• Encourage imagination and creativity in your
  workplace
• Inspire others to own their choice of attitudes
• Build the trust that helps organizations get
  things done
• Infuse a light-hearted and fun-filled spirit
• www.fishphilosophy.com

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Result

• 80 retention rate year over year for seasonal
  employees!
• This
• Reduces recruiting costs
• Reduces training costs
• Reduces labor costs (e.g., overtime)
• Increases customer satisfaction
• Increases sales
• Allows us to implement new processes and
  technology

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How Do We Leverage This Workforce To Improve
Customer Satisfaction?

• About our Customers
• Families from NC, SC VA.
• The average drive time to the zoo is over 3
  hours!
• We cant ask them to wait in long lines to enter
  the park
• The average transaction time was running between
  24-30 seconds
• A goal was established to reduce it to 12 seconds
• Their time in the park is precious
• The zoo is very large and walking is the main
  means to get to exhibits.
• Initiatives are being considered to provide them
  ways to become more efficient.

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Delivering Technology That Helps Employees As
Well As Customers

• New POS technology was the logical answer.
• Current technology was failing during peak
  periods.
• Training seasonal employees to deal with system
  outages was arduous and costly.
• There were many other obvious efficiencies to be
  gained
• The challenge? Different skills sets between
  permanent and seasonal employees.

• Permanent employees have difficulty learning new
  technology, while seasonal employees still had to
  learn about the zoo industry.
• To overcome this challenge, we needed an
  application that was easy to understand and a
  concise training program about the zoos services.

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Our Technology Solution

• We turned to Accelerando, a Radiant Systems
  business partner.
• They delivered a complete solution
• Radiants CounterPoint SQL Point-of-Sale
  software
• Radiants CPGateway - Internet Credit Card
  handling
• Radiants CPOnline Integrated e-Commerce
• Complete Point-of-Sale station hardware
• Custom data collection software
• Scanning and label printing hardware

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Benefits Of New Technology

• CounterPoint Software
• Provided a stable Point-of-Sale environment
• Improved inventory accuracy
• Enabled zoo specific enhancements
• Centralized inventory control for physical and
  web stores
• Touchscreen interface
• Increased operator accuracy
• Reduced training time
• Improved operational efficiency
• Internet Credit Card processing
• Reduced transaction time
• Increased customer satisfaction
• Achieved our 12 second transaction goal!

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Key Learnings

• People
• Be creative in your hiring and training strategy
• Match your culture with the types of employees
  you recruit
• Understand what drives them and build the right
  work environment
• Technology
• New technology in itself is not the answer make
  sure it is the right technology
• Understand that not all employees respond the
  same way to training - adapt to your audience
• Work with a company that can bring you a solution
  vs. a single piece of the puzzle (e.g., HW or POS
  software only)

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Questions Answers