DISNEY

Intro: Today I will tell you guys the operation of HR in Disney. In other word, I will
show you the strategic HRM of this company
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1. HR planning

The Walt Disney Company’s values focus on the human element of their business –
not only their guests, consumers and audiences, but also their employees and cast
and crew members.
Disney is committed to fostering safe, inclusive and respectful workplaces in all their
locations, across the globe. 
 For many employees, that is the reason they chose The Walt Disney Company as an
employer.

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Disney views the development of a diverse workforce as a business imperative and a
catalyst to achieve better performance
->embrace diversity -> to better serve their consumers by better reflecting the
communities they serve.
-> a diversity of opinions, ideas and perspectives -> enhances their internal
creativity and the company’s vitality

->> building a workforce representative of the global marketplace

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According to Lee Cockerell, the senior operating executive of Walt Disney World
Resorts
There are 06 principles Disney follows when managing hire Human resources.

1. Everyone Is Important
As Cockerell, says ”Inclusion is important at Disney World and it’s more than just
hiring diversely and respecting differences.”
 the acronym RAVE ( Respect, Appreciate, and Value Everyone) -  Greet people
sincerely, reach out to everyone, and be available.
This is because if you respect, appreciate and value people, they will line up to work
for you and current employees will not want to leave
 “Dream as a team” - sets the initiate amongst all employees to dream big and
work as a team towards those dreams
-> This philosophy really works wonder for their business’s goals

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Break the mould - Disney’s structural changes have created employee’s
opportunities and Integrating and aligning interlinked department worked well for
Disney in the longer run.
Make Your People Your Brand - recruit the perfect candidate is the significant point
.
such employees must be very clear and very much aware of their job roles and prime
objectives which reflects their qualification & their adaptation to WDC values and
beliefs
Create Magic Through Training - Training and development is very strong at
Disney. Typically, that is their Traditions course which I will tell you
Eliminate Hassles - this is one responsibility of leaders need to cover which is
identify problems and act to fix them as soon as possible
Learn the Truth - all employees always in their learning mode - learn about new
things and experience them
Besides that, in Disney, every employee are free to think beyond their limit and come
up with their own ideas regardless of any ideas
As a result, they understand the importance of the same and become very
independent and the level of productivity will be on a high level

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Requirements of HR Planning at Walt Disney

- Rightsizing - Attract and retain the correct number of people required with the
appropriate skills and competencies which lead to an effective work force with high
productivity

- Forecast surplus and shortage and make an appropriate arrangement in order to

recruit or reassign employess to other possible areas

- Develop a well-trained and flexible workforce -> in turn improve organization’s

ability which is adapt to an uncertain or changing environment.
- Reduces dependence on external recruitment - because it will consumes a huge of
operation costs, so they will formulate retention as well as employee development
strategies When lacking of key skills
- Improve the utilization of people by introducing more flexible systems of work

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2. Recruiting

“We can teach someone to drive, we can’t teach them to smile and be happy”
So Disney apply strategy that they will hire attitude instead of aptitude The company
understands that empathy, patience and positivity matter the most. For that
reason Disney doesn’t hire “employees” – they hire cast members. And cast members
aren’t just hired for a job; they play a role in a ‘show.’
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When it comes to personnel policies, there are 2 aspects

 Internal and external recruitment:

Disney considers both internal and external recruitment such as advertising vacancies
on their website, via the press, job fairs, employment exchanges and colleges, I will
tell you in detail in the next slide

 Image advertising:

Disney Parks Careers expertly leverages its whimsical reputation which is the flexible
hr structure to attract the best talent to staff its famous theme parks around the
globe.

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About external recruiting:

 Direct applicant

 Electronic recruiting- Disney Parks Careers uses three major social media
channels – LinkedIn, YouTube and Facebook

Disney Parks Careers’ LinkedIn page : which regularly updated with one-off job
postings, as well as links to numerous open positions on Disney’s internal career
portal with relevant and eye-catching graphics, tying its messaging into job postings
throughout the LinkedIn page.

Disney Parks Careers’ YouTube channel: an entire series of educational videos from
recruiters highlighting Disney’s one-of-a-kind and competitive hiring process.

Disney Parks Careers’ Facebook page: promoting diversity within its new hires and
shows the different demographic groups for its park positions ( women, bilingual
applicants and veterans)
-> Disney will have a greater chance at attracting the attention of the best, most
diverse talent for its rapidly growing workforce

 Colleges & universities :

According to an article by Cosmopolitan, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts are regular
attendees at university job fairs, offering graduates internships and part-time roles to
help support their future, esp, Internships and student summer programs

 Referrals:
 Referrals from other cast members certainly have a positive impact on a candidate
getting noticed

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Recruiter traits & behaviors
Disney recently reduced the need for length CV sifting by getting extra detailed with
their job spec requirements.
But instead of just letting anyone apply, they clearly stated that the applicants

 must be over the age of 18,

 speak fluent English or French
 be between 4’6”- 6’3” ( 4 feet 6 inches - 6 feet 3 inches )
 willing to wear no make up for their first audition.

Throughout the recruitment process, I find the advantage Disney gained. That is
ADS:
Disney’s secret to recruitment success is their eye for addressing the finer details.
They get to know their candidates, are honest with them from the start and know
exactly what they want

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3. Selection:

Disney believe that through this selection process, they can help employees fortify
the sense of belonging and Disney’s culture

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- Common practice is for every candidate to complete a competency test how they
know about company and company’s culture
- During the interview stage, the HR team at Disney often ditch the challenging
questions. And focus more on understanding who the candidate is and what sort of
experience they have.
- Disney gives their candidates a real insight into their business.

They belive that a perfect selection process can save lots of money and resource in
the long run

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In terms of The hiring process :
 The job application process:
submit online through Disney career websites which I listed above

 Phone screening:
this is a compulsory part of the hiring process which can help them to have good
knowledge about applicants and how fit they are for the position
A member of HR department will contact and  ask questions in-regards to your work
experiences, education histories, and the expertise you have to perform the job
competently.

 In-person interviews:
attend an assessment center for some tests and participate in various activities, such
as role-play exercises, psychometric tests, and if possible, interview as well
The interview is conducted by one of the members of the HR and management
team.  

 Orientation
If you have been selected, you will pass through an orientation process. View a film
depicting what it is like to work at Disney

During the learning process, you will be taught Disney history and culture. After this
stage, Disney will find the right fit person who can absorb and adapt all value that
Disney want to deliver

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4. Training & development

As I told you before, training process is the strength of Disney, so through this
process, employees will have further indoctrinate into culture

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And the special point is for Disney university - train workers in the Disneyland
philosophy.
Although Disney University is not an accredited institution, courses are primarily
designed, developed and delivered by experienced learning professionals

Walt Disney established the Disney University to teach these unique skills. The
University provides cast members with free world-class training in diverse skills
including computer applications, professional development,
management/leaderships development, health & safety, interviewing, business, etc.

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Traditions course

On the first day of training all of employees must experience a course called
“Traditions.”- makes Disney diff from others bc other companies usually pass their
corporate traditions which build better reputation or attract more talent ones

 an eight-hour experience (four hours for College Program participants)

 not a stuffy history lecture, is hands-on activities, group challenges, and other fun
activities - feel excited and engaged.
 Disney’s Four Keys to Guest Service are Safety, Courtesy, Show, and Efficiency.
Learning some trivia - an important part of Traditions - isn’t a test,trivia games and
activities
 Team building - challenges - never feel like real work
 Trivial Pursuit-like games - bolster their knowledge about the company’s
heritage, traditions, language, symbols, and shared values

-> employees can get familiar with fun Disney facts and learn how to converse easily
about them
As our teacher told before that it brings emotional value to employees and make
them feel more engaged

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And we definitely can not skip Disney language which can help both customers and
employees seem to go into a new magical word

As Lee Cockerell once said “It’s not the magic that makes it work. It’s the way we
work that makes it magic,”

So, employees learned to act and speak courteously (welcome and thank every
guest), became familiar with the Disney language, also how to answer the numerous
questions cast members were routinely asked, to react and offer help if they saw a
guest in need

Corporate World Disney

Customers/clients Guests

Employees Cast members

On the job Performance

Working Show
Negative customer Bad show
experience

Positive customer Good show

experience

Job Role

 Cast members were sent to the park, where training at the local level was
conducted in several steps according to job category. - study how the equipment
worked and what it took to be successful theme-park attraction operators
Fully trained - job shadow first - being” on stage” -> good performance is rewarded
-> After all, the employee will understand the organization in a board sense

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5. Performance management
Ensure that all guests had a magical experience, regardless of how she or he was
feeling. No matter the question, a Disney cast member is never supposed to say “I
don’t know” to a guest. They’re also not supposed to refuse to a guest. As long as
the agent really understands where the request comes from, it’s easy to find a
solution even for the most difficult case.

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Performance appraisals and performance surveys are two typical ways for HR
department measure their CM’ performance
Beside it, I also find some exciting ways that alslo are applied for checking CM
performance

#castcompliment is the hashtag used on Twitter and also Instagram, too which is
considered as a social media recognition program. Through this hashtag, it allows
Guests to recognize Cast Members who brings to them the good show
->  These tweets of recognition also placed in the Cast Members’ formal record ->
leadership can see if the job well done

a Guest Service Fanatic card - CM receive it from manager

This card will be placed in a drop box (5, 6 names were drawn /month) and the
chosen cast members rewarded with a prize.

correspondence from Guests: when a guest feel satisfied with the service that
Disney CM bring to them, they can write the letter to that people. After that, HR
member will make a copy of that letter and send it to the Cast Member as a reward
to them
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Promoting creativity
I found two projects that Disney applied to promote creativity which will boost the
skills of internal staffs or come up the innovative ideas
And through two projects, we can see that HR practice do exactly as they told that
“best ideas come from employees” and it is not the lip service

Gong show: 3 times a year, employees pitch what they think would make a good
animated film to executives and they can freely present their ideas. In other words
that Disney create an environment where people feel safe about their ideas.
Therefore, it will boost sense of pride among employees regardless of ideas

“Blue sky” brain storming sessions - bring out the best of the employees, gives an
opportunity for them to contribute towards the future of the organization whereby it
creates a sense of ownership/belongingness. 
-> Disney president Frank Wells believes that “If a good idea is there. You know it,
you feel it, and you do it, no matter where it comes from”.

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6. Rewards & Recognition
“everybody mattered, and everybody needed to know that they mattered”
Throughout this stage, Disney HR can foster a sense of pride amongst CM and they
also have professional autonomy and feel accountable for their actions

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Actually, there are more than 50 different reward and recognition programs at Disney
Disney also use service pins, attendance awards, and Recognition-O-Grams (ROGs)
Attendance awards are also offered to employees after one, three, five, ten and
fifteen years of perfect attendance. The awards range from honorary certificates to a
$2000 gift certificate.

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Among over 50 awards, I choose 4 typical one to tell you guys

First of all, that is “Employee Appreciation Day” - first Friday of each March, one
day each year.
It’s often the simple words of affirmation and small acts of kindness that mean the
most.
Whether employees are actively working or waiting for the opportunity to return,
Disney want their magic makers to know they’re appreciated for who they are and
deserve a special sprinkling of pixie dust in their day 
Although, there are some basic words but the recognization is what the matter most
which makes the Employees get so engaged in their work, in their projects,
Walt Disney Legacy Award - This award is a worldwide recognition program which
celebrates Walt Disney’s heritage by honouring Cast Members who uphold his
tradition of excellence.
- a way for Cast Members to nominate other Cast Members who embody three key
values of “dream, create, and inspire” and must clearly demonstrate attitudes and
performance that set them apart as dreamers, creators and sources of inspiration.
This is the blue name tag which is rewarded to Legacy Award winners

The most prestigious award is the “Partners in Excellence” program. This award
involves any employee nominating another employee (who must have excellent
attendance and no disciplinary action record).

The Partners In Excellence award celebrates those cast members, both onstage and
off, who exemplify the Disney spirit. The recipients of this award must achieve and
sustain excellent job performance as measured by three criteria: Guest Satisfaction,
Cast Excellence, and Business Results
And this is the picture of the prize of the winner
The last one is Disney The Main Street Diary Pin Cast Member Exclusive Award 
Which is accompanied by a short note in the weekly employee newspaper, the Main
Street Diary
The main street diary is the weekly employee newspaper which is used in internal