Training at Disney

Excerpts from Be Our Guest, Chapter 3: The Magic of Cast
Disney Institute

You might think that Walt Disney World pays a premium for extra-courteous and friendly employees. In fact, cast members are hired from the same labor pool as every other organization uses and are paid the going rates. The not-so-secret method by which ordinary people are transformed into Walt Disney World cast members can be found in the way they are trained.

• The first thing that new cast members do is begin learning how to deliver Walt Disney World’s brand of Quality Service. Walt Disney World uses a two-tiered approach to preparing the cast for service delivery.
• The first tier is conducted at Disney University and teaches concepts and behaviors that are common to every cast member throughout the organization.
• The second tier occurs on the job and encompasses the location-specific information that is needed to perform in the different business units of the resort.
• All newly hired cast members start their tenure at Disney with Traditions, a one-day orientation program taught by Disney University, the internal training arm of the company. The average class size is 45 people and there are about nine classes each week, with as many as 14 classes per week in peak hiring seasons.
• Traditions offers plenty of relevant and practical knowledge, and existing cast members serve in the role of training facilitators. Each year, a voluntary casting call is made for about 40 Traditions Assistants. It is considered an honor to perform in Traditions. Each year, those cast members who are chosen leave their daily jobs at regular intervals to teach the course. The extra depth of knowledge and refresher training acquired by the Traditions Assistants in the course of facilitating the program is an added benefit of using veteran employees to deliver training.
• The goal of Traditions is well stated by a veteran Disney Institute facilitator who says, “We don’t put people in Disney. We put Disney in people’’.
• Toward that end, the program utilizes a variety of training techniques, including lecture, storytelling, video, exercises, large and small group discussion, and field experiences.

Traditions is designed to accomplish four major purposes:

1. To acclimate new cast members to the foundations of the resort’s culture.
2. To perpetuate the language and symbols, heritage and traditions, quality standards, values, and traits and behaviors of Walt Disney World.
3. To create a sense of excitement about working at the resort.
4. To introduce new cast members to the core safety regulations.

Comments

[Gina]

I really like your site, but I wish it was organized better. It's good that you have categories, and they help, but within the categories, there's no smooth transition from one entry to the next. I don't mean to whine, just a wish.

- I know what you mean, and wish there was an easy way to do that within the blog. I'm trying to use Squidoo to give the material a more logical flow. It's nowhere near done, but here it is anyway. Thanks for the feedback. -CSR

[Gina]

I like it! Thank you!

Thanks Gina -CSR