Recruiting/Retaining Workers

[Will]

Ooooooh indeed...

We stopped at the brewery on the way up last Thrusday...we missed the guided tour but we were able to go to the 'bar' and have two free tastings.  We then went into the gift shop and they had everything u could ever think of...my brother made his christmas list right then and there..lol..he said he'd take one of everything...including the 300.00 neon...lol

[Dan_Lance]

Hey Laura,
I can attest to Marrc's expetise. I have taken part in the MARRC safety program and have alsonflagged at Summit with them. I was a MARRC member when I did safety for WERA in the mid 1990's.
I have been to Summit this year 3 or 4 times and Will's cooking is great.
Marrc and the US Marshalls could get together and brainstorm. I know Laura will be at Daytona, maybe some MARRC folks will be there and I can hook you up for a conference.
Usually Egor Emery and I try to get all the regional (national) cornerworker club members together to  have a brainstorm session for recruitment and training program development.
I will put it on the Daytona agenda and get it organized. We are always looking to add to the Daytona Safety crew and the FUSA National Crews.
Best
Dan
See you all there.

[LauraCole]

Dan -

That will be great.  I will bring what I have for a manual with me (hardcopy).    I am arriving Thursday and staying thru Monday afternoon.  Look forward to catching up with you on these sort of things.

Laura

[Seapup]

I work in the North East, primarily at Loudon, NH for the US Marshalls.  We have been suffering a little bit for last year and this year from burnout of experienced workers.  
                              
What do other areas of the country do to help prevent burnout?

Ah yes, burnout...  The MARRC Safety Crew dwindled down to an average of 10-15 workers per race day a few years ago (some days we had less than 10 people to man 10 turns!).  Everyone kept saying that workers were just burned out and that it was normal, but a few of us begged to differ.  We looked very seriously at a number of factors, most of which were identified by the workers who no longer actively participated.  The top complaint by fed-up workers was, "It's not fun anymore."  When asked to elaborate, we received the following:

- I'm pestered and spammed to work and made to feel guilty for not working.
- When the proverbial $%!* hits the fan on my corner, someone with a holier-than-thou attitude takes over the scene regardless of the fact that the workers on my turn are already doing the job well.
- The food sucks unless XXX or XXX are cooking.
- We're volunteering our valuable time and it's not rewarding.
- There are too many self-serving leaders who schmooze all day or sit on their @$$es while the rest of us do all the work.
- No one listens to my complaints/no one acts on my complaints.

It turns out that very few workers were actually getting burned out.  Most workers who weren't showing up anymore were basically disgruntled with the leadership.  The few gluttons who were coming out to work were getting burned out only because participation dwindled to the point where an individual worker had too much responsibility.  Here's what we learned and the changes we've made this year:

- Never pester people to work.  In the long run this will only turn currently happy workers off and away.  When announcing an upcoming event, take extra caution to word it in such a way as to not make those who wish to do something else feel guilty.  Go out of the way to make workers who choose to spectate instead of working feel welcome and ensure that they know that you're not mad at them for not working even if you have a skeleton crew that day.  Whenever possible, don't assign people to turns.  Rather, ask what each individual wants to do that day.  We frequently have workers who cornerwork in the morning and spectate in the afternoon.  Some workers want to work one turn in the morning and a different turn in the afternoon.  Some workers want to party Saturday night until they puke.  We tell them to sign up if they feel like it whenever they wake up on Sunday.  We accommodate many racers who cornerwork between practice sessions and races.  God bless them!  We go out of our way to accommodate everyone's wishes whenever possible.  Instead of yelling at spectators who encroach on hot zones, ask them if they'd mind coming out a little further and help you pick up the bikes when they crash.  You'd be amazed at how many spectators take this offer up and become cornerworkers!  Expect and plan for a very small crew on miserable days.  Ensure that 2-3 people will be available to dedicate the day to pampering the miserable cornerworkers (details below).  Start keeping statistics (who works, how often, what turns, in what capacity, etc.) and use this information for logistical planning, i.e., based on last season's statistics, how many events can we adequately staff next season and how often?

- Let trained workers do their jobs, even if it means allowing them to make mistakes because that's the only way some people learn.  Ensure that cornercaptains manage their own turns and not their neighbor's.  If someone not assigned to a turn with an incident jumps in to take charge, that person just stole satisfaction from every cornerworker on the turn.  Make sure your radio controller keeps all chatter to a minimum and all calls short and to the point.  Ensure that all administrative and non-cornerworker conversations are carried out on an alternate frequency.  When a cornercaptain can't get a crucial call through the banter, it ruins everyone's day.   Choose your controller carefully, one with a positive, encouraging tone of voice and attitude, because your controller sets the tone for every worker for the entire weekend.

continued.........

[Seapup]

.........continuation

- Make sure your workers get breaks and are well fed with great food.  Bologna sandwiches and tap water for lunch and tuna casserole for dinner doesn't cut it.  Heck, our Food Services Director, Will "Emerwill" Astle even wakes up at 5am to serve pancakes and sausage for breakfast every now and then.  A well-fed and hydrated worker is a happy, enthusiastic, productive worker.  Plan worker breaks to coincide with the sanctioning body's schedule.  Eating lunch at your cornerstation really sucks.  Plan for the unexpected with regards to race schedule and weather.  Don't leave workers standing in adverse weather any longer than necessary.  If the sanctioning body has a stand-down for more than 15 minutes for whatever reason, get on the radio and tell people to take shelter, get food, drink or whatever for xxx minutes and standby the radio for further guidance.  Make plans with the sanctioning body to allow a short break in the middle of the afternoon to accommodate an on-track distribution of food/drinks/snacks to the cornerworkers.  Give them a variety of good stuff from which to choose like cold watermelon, bananas, apples, sports drinks, popsicles, munchies, candy bars, leftovers from lunch or the previous day's dinner, etc.

- Establish an awards/rewards committee.  Initial, tangible benefits attract workers.  Having a constant goal (benefit) to work towards promotes self-esteem and helps to keep workers coming back.  We have 1, 4, 6 and 12+ day, Cornerworker of the Year, MARRC Cup and President's awards.  We give an award for workers who work all ten turns at Summit Point Raceway.  We have a Volunteer Incentive Program (VIP) where we hold drawings to give away items donated by the roadracing community on Saturdays after dinner.  We've given away everything from a Dremmel kit to open-ended round trip airline tickets to local hotel accommodations to custom helmets to race apparel, parts and gear.  We make sure everyone gets something.  Sometimes we do it twice in the same evening.  Thank everyone often and then thank them some more without making yourself seem more important.  Take notice of workers who do an exceptional job and personally thank them.  We provide a Video Night (November 9th, 2002) where we offer all the free pizza, beer, benchracing and racing videos our members can stand.  We host a MARRC Track Day at Summit Point for licensed MARRC racers.  We also host an annual banquet where we recognize and award just about everything significant from the previous MARRC season.

- Let the cornerworkers choose the core group of leaders from the best of the cornerworkers by voting each year.  Allow these chosen leaders to do all the administrative work at the track.  Have these leaders fetch fresh batteries for scanners, provide relief so workers can go to the bathroom, take an AC break on a hot day, bring a fresh jug of ice water to a pickup person, etc., etc.  Being the best of your cornerworkers, these leaders are also available to answer obtuse questions when asked, provide constructive criticism to captains when applicable and make command decisions when critical.  Make an assignment of leaders schedule prior to the start of the season and rotate leaders from event to event.  On days when not assigned as a leader, ensure that these workers get dirty and work a turn with the rest of the workers to avoid animosity.  The leaders should be everywhere they are needed and equally important... nowhere they aren't needed, yet always available.  They should be capable of resolving all personnel conflicts, problems and mistakes while keeping any necessary "corrections" off the radio net and on a personal basis with a cornercaptain.  They should unobtrusively observe while letting cornerworkers run their own turn, stepping in to make a command decision only when safety is a critical issue.  For each race weekend on a rotating basis, MARRC assigns one leader to act as Safety Director and two leaders to act as Associates.  All three are at the beck and call of the sanctioning body, cornercaptains and track management.  It's not an easy job, but it sure helps keep the guys and gals on the turns happier.  It's always good to know that a cornercaptain can get on the radio, ask for help and someone will be there.

continued.........

[Seapup]

.........continuation

- Whomever is ultimately in charge has to have a touchy-feel-good attitude, really listen to the workers, make sense of what's being said and act on what's heard in a timely manner.  When workers complain, the leadership should point fingers at themselves, apologize and fix the problem.  If the leadership can't recognize problems, the wrong people are at the helm.  Value even your worst cornerworker and act on even the most mundane whining, because you'll wish he/she was there to help on that cold, rainy day when no one else showed up to help.  And that worst cornerworker may just bring their friends next race weekend that turn out to be your best cornerworkers!

Well... that's what we've learned and done this season past.  With a change in leadership, procedures and attitudes this season, our worker count has increased to 25-40 per day.  Last weekend we had 46 workers on Saturday and 41 on Sunday.  We're seeing formerly disgruntled old-timers returning.  We're seeing lots of happy faces.  Lots of camaraderie at lunch and dinner.  Racers and sanctioning body personnel going out of their way to give us sincere thanks for our participation and a job well done... mutual satisfaction!  I personally feel that the best way to attract new workers is word of mouth testimonials from happy workers and the best way to retain workers is to make sure that people with the right attitude who really care about worker welfare are available to support the workers at each event.  Recruiting and retention are two separate animals.  Attrition is enivitable.  But, when retention rates consistently fall, your workers are telling you that "other problems" outweigh the benefits of working.


Also, we are going to be attending several local expos to get the word out about corner working.  Do other clubs to this?  Does it seem to work?

Absolutely!  In the past, most of our new workers were recruited from bike shows and open house events.  We still do this occasionally, but most of our new workers are attracted by word-of-mouth from the existing workers, our web-site (http://www.marrc.org), our training director and our roadracing school program (we offer roadracing school discounts to cornerworkers).

Glen Ouye
MARRC Safety Crew Chairman

[LauraCole]

Wow - now that's a lot of info.  I think I'll have to read that a couple times.  It all makes perfect sense and I'll be working on that for next season.

Will you be in Daytona?

Laura Cole
USMarshalls

[LauraCole]

Dave Alexander:

We offer free gate fee for anyone who cornerworks, which helps with rider expenses.  In addition, we are very flexible with corner assignments and allowing our racers to work and our workers to race!!  Our workers get paid for each day (not much, but it could be gas money or something).  In addition, we offer advancement points to any Amatuers who work because we know it will benefit them tremendously to actually work for a day.  Most riders drop 1 -2 seconds a lap after a half day working.  Then they come back and request what ever turn they are having trouble with - watch the experts all day and drop another couple seconds...

Will:
What do I have to do to get on your mailing list for your newsletter?  How often does it come out?

[Dave_Alexander]

Then they come back and request what ever turn they are having trouble with - watch the experts all day

You know, that thought didn't even occur to me!  I often try to watch other riders take a particular corner but on most tracks it's impossible to see many of them as a spectator.  Cornerworking is the perfect way to get close enough to study the lines. (while performing your duties of course!)

[Will]

What would everyone think about planning a weekend where we could get together and have a little corner worker summit.  Maybe in a central location like Washington, DC or Baltimore?

I think it would be good to get reps together from some of the east coast flagging groups to see if we can set some training standards so there aren't so many issues when we go to other tracks..

What do you think?  Who else could we contact besides MARRC, PA Posse, US Marshalls?

[LauraCole]

Will:

Are you going to be in Daytona?  Dan Lance is going to work on a meeting for anyone there that weekend.  My big problem would be expenses - I would love to do it, but I've have to see if the USM would at least cover my travel because I can't afford any more than I'm doing.

Aside from that - I would be very much in favor of such a thing.  I think we could put together a great list of safety director types, corner worker reps to really start making a difference.

Laura

[Will]

Laura,

Sorry,  I didn't see your post about the newsletter. I am sure that if you gave me your address we could add you to the newsletter mail list.

Unfortunatly, I won't be at Daytona...I was planning on going down for Bike Week next year tho...that's in February right??

Will