Not many businesses will attract 4,000 people through their doors in a matter of hours but for CCI member Adventure World it is just another normal day.

The operation of an amusement park on this scale is quite a feat, with a register of some 300 casual staff alone to run it.

General manager Grant Laidlaw came to the park after working at the WA Turf Club and has watched on as Adventure World has grown.

“The park would look completely different today to somebody who saw it in its first year (1982), there is a lot more of the high end, thrilling attractions now,” he said.

“The challenge is to make it as unique as possible and as thrilling as possible, while being tempered with the fact not everyone wants to go on a hair raising ride. We have to balance teens who love the adrenaline rush rides with families – they’re our two targets.”

Keeping those two targets interested requires big investments in new attractions, costing millions of dollars. Mr Laidlaw said it means the five month off season from May to September can be a busier time than when the park is open to the public.

“People ask what do we do in the off season, we put together our sales plans and marketing strategies, rebuild our attractions and do checks on all the rides,” he said.

The last off season was spent installing a new ride, Freefall.

Maintenance is vital with health and safety a major consideration for the park. Combining children and big machinery means a lot of attention is necessary.

“The safety of our guests and team members is of paramount to us,” Mr Laidlaw said.

“Being in the fun park industry there are a lot of thrilling rides but we have to carry out risk management assessments on everything to make sure we have covered off on any possible scenario.”

The park does face challenges from other forms of fun. Mr Laidlaw said in recent years it was getting harder to tear kids away from videogames and social networking to bring them to the park.

“Our biggest competitor these days is not what you would traditionally expect,” he said.

“Teens are playing games online and are on Facebook and MySpace, it’s a challenge for a lot of businesses to get to those people.”

Being an outdoor venue means they are also at the mercy of the weather.

“This is a business that relies on warm, sunny weather, it’s just one of those constant frustrations when it doesn’t go your way,” Mr Laidlaw said.

For future expansion the park has plenty of room within its borders though guest transport needs require constant planning.

“One of the issues we do have is during peak season we can have over 4,000 guests here in one day, parking can be quite an issue, we’ve been working with the City of Cockburn on that,” he said.

“The railway has been beneficial to us. During our peak season we provide our own shuttle bus service from Cockburn Central. We currently only operate that through school holidays.”

Mr Laidlaw said the park now carried a range of events to provide another attraction to the park besides the rides and slides including free concerts and corporate events.

“We have the Adults Only Pool Party and the Challenge Cup, which has It’s A Knockout kind of games for businesses,” he said.

“We've also been having bands performing so the adults can sit down and enjoy the music while the kids run around the park.”

The skills shortage is one problem that hasn’t had any effect. Mr Laidlaw said there was never any shortage of people wanting to work at Adventure World.

“We employ a lot of local students and we even get enquiries from people overseas who want to work here while they are on holidays,” he said.

“It's a fun and different place to work and you never know what will come up.”

By Luke Nieuwhof
CCI Journalist

Being nice in a negotiation encourages deception and opportunistic betrayal by the other party according to an expert in the field – does being nice really get you nowhere?

Research from Melbourne Business School Professor of Management (Negotiations) Mara Olekalns found that negotiators needed to convey competence, not niceness.

Competence implies that the other party is more likely to keep promises and to use information to create a good deal for both negotiators. These qualities mean that a negotiator is more willing to give accurate information to the other party.

Ms Olekalns’s research found that the most likely trigger for deception was an environment where one person felt they would be exploited.

“My research shows that positive emotions increase creativity and encourage greater risk taking and decreases the extent to which individuals scrutinise information,” Mara says.

“Deception requires creativity, risk and is assisted by the belief that the other party might be less likely to scrutinise information.”

Where power is distributed unevenly, negotiators who express anger are likely to misrepresent information and those who express anxiety are likely to withhold information.

Conversely negotiators who express optimism are unlikely to misrepresent or withhold information.

Ms Olekalns explained that negotiators must monitor their own language and convey competence, rather than niceness, to avoid being perceived as someone who is not giving accurate information.

She said when negotiators have evidence that the other party will keep commitments or when they themselves feel optimistic, deception decreases. Conversely when negotiators express negative emotions, deception increases.

These findings suggest that as more variables combine to increase concerns about the other party, negotiators choose to deceive.

The commencement of the Fair Work Act (Cth) 2009 in July last year coupled with the start of the 122 new modern awards from 1 January this year has led employers in Western Australia to seek increasing degrees of assistance and advice from CCI’s experienced team of employee relations consultants and advisers on how to deal with these changes and the impact on their business.

Compared to the commencement of WorkChoices, where members predominantly sought assistance with individual registered agreements, under the new legislation the most popular topic is the transition to modern awards. Members are seeking record levels of advice on a large range of issues that impact on the employment relationship of every employee employed at every level of the business.

Presently more than 50% of members’ enquiries to the CCI Employee Relations Advice Centre are focused on obtaining assistance with determining if there are any modern awards applicable to the business, interpretation of the new modern award and confirmation of the current minimum terms and conditions of their employees.  Twenty per cent of member queries are requests to review and update common law contracts and workplace policies and procedures. Demand for assistance is expected to further increase from April where members will require specific advice regarding applicable transitional provisions that are due commence from 1 July, 2010.

CCI employee relations advisers and consultants have been providing advice and assistance on a wide range of matters that have been impacted by the introduction of the new workplace relations system including:

•  award allocation to determine which new modern awards are applicable

•  review of workplace policies and procedures

•  enterprise agreement making

•  changes to termination laws and the practice of performance management

•  review of common law contracts of employment

•  advice regarding existing agreements and how they interact with the new legislation and any applicable modern award

•  transfer of business

•  flexible working provisions

•  individual flexibility agreements

•  transitional provisions

•  minimum wage rates

•  union right of entry

•  record keeping requirements

•  industrial action

•  assistance with award and agreement interpretation

•  representation and advocacy

To obtain assistance members are encouraged to contact the
Employee Relations Advice Centre on (08) 9365 7660 or advice@cciwa.com.

Not many businesses will attract 4,000 people through their doors in a matter of hours but for CCI member Adventure World it is just another normal day.

The operation of an amusement park on this scale is quite a feat, with a register of some 300 casual staff alone to run it.

General manager Grant Laidlaw came to the park after working at the WA Turf Club and has watched on as Adventure World has grown.

“The park would look completely different today to somebody who saw it in its first year (1982), there is a lot more of the high end, thrilling attractions now,” he said.

“The challenge is to make it as unique as possible and as thrilling as possible, while being tempered with the fact not everyone wants to go on a hair raising ride. We have to balance teens who love the adrenaline rush rides with families – they’re our two targets.”

Keeping those two targets interested requires big investments in new attractions, costing millions of dollars. Mr Laidlaw said it means the five month off season from May to September can be a busier time than when the park is open to the public.

“People ask what do we do in the off season, we put together our sales plans and marketing strategies, rebuild our attractions and do checks on all the rides,” he said.

The last off season was spent installing a new ride, Freefall.

Maintenance is vital with health and safety a major consideration for the park. Combining children and big machinery means a lot of attention is necessary.

“The safety of our guests and team members is of paramount to us,” Mr Laidlaw said.

“Being in the fun park industry there are a lot of thrilling rides but we have to carry out risk management assessments on everything to make sure we have covered off on any possible scenario.”

The park does face challenges from other forms of fun. Mr Laidlaw said in recent years it was getting harder to tear kids away from videogames and social networking to bring them to the park.

“Our biggest competitor these days is not what you would traditionally expect,” he said.

“Teens are playing games online and are on Facebook and MySpace, it’s a challenge for a lot of businesses to get to those people.”

Being an outdoor venue means they are also at the mercy of the weather.

“This is a business that relies on warm, sunny weather, it’s just one of those constant frustrations when it doesn’t go your way,” Mr Laidlaw said.

For future expansion the park has plenty of room within its borders though guest transport needs require constant planning.

“One of the issues we do have is during peak season we can have over 4,000 guests here in one day, parking can be quite an issue, we’ve been working with the City of Cockburn on that,” he said.

“The railway has been beneficial to us. During our peak season we provide our own shuttle bus service from Cockburn Central. We currently only operate that through school holidays.”

Mr Laidlaw said the park now carried a range of events to provide another attraction to the park besides the rides and slides including free concerts and corporate events.

“We have the Adults Only Pool Party and the Challenge Cup, which has It’s A Knockout kind of games for businesses,” he said.

“We’ve also been having bands performing so the adults can sit down and enjoy the music while the kids run around the park.”

The skills shortage is one problem that hasn’t had any effect. Mr Laidlaw said there was never any shortage of people wanting to work at Adventure World.

“We employ a lot of local students and we even get enquiries from people overseas who want to work here while they are on holidays,” he said.

“It’s a fun and different place to work and you never know what will come up.”