After completing another season with Amazon.com I can now compare Apples to Apples between two fulfillment centers. My first year was with the fulfillment in Coffeeville KS and this year at Fernley NV.
There is a significant difference between two fulfillment centers that actually surprised me. Here is what I found different between the two:
To start with, at the Fernley fulfillment center at the “Meet n’ Greet” Day, your first couple of hours is spent at safety school. It was very extensive and thorough. We moved from station to station, learning proper procedures and safety tips to help us out. At the end we were given an easy quick quiz to see if we were paying attention. You had safety school as well in the Coffeeville KS fulfillment, but nothing compared to what we learned at the Fernley Center. I was very pleased on how they did their safety school and think all fulfillment centers should do it the way Fernley did!
In the Coffeeville KS all the dept. managers, PA, PG’s wore certain colored lightweight vest. For instant the managers wore Yellow vest, while the PA’s wore green, and PG’s wore Blue and we had a few that would wear red vest(mostly Ambassadors/trainers). And they all had a saying on the back “Ask Me”. We had one camper scout that wore a brown vest. This made it easy to identify each person-specially when you are new and have loads of questions. You know who you could ask and get the right answer. While in Fernley RV-well you kind had to figure out on your own who was who…No one wore vest-occasionally one or two people would were safety yellow vest that had the saying “Ask Me” on the back. But none to identity the managers, or PA’s or even the PG’s…
At the Fernley center, we had more than one camper scout and they wore a red fancy vest. They were readily there to help us whenever we needed it or had questions. If they didn’t have the answer-they would find it for us camperforce. At least in the Shipping Department, our camper scout was always there to give us a hand when ever needed and did his best to try and greet each of us with a friendly smile (Thanks-Al).
Also at the Fernley fulfillment center, the HR staff was constantly out on the floor-so if you had any issues, you could stop one and they were readily and willing to help in any manner they could. The only downfall was that their main office was always locked to us associates and they didn’t have what I would call an “open door” policy. But they did have a second office out on the floor that did have the “open door” policy-when someone was in.
In Coffeeville our camperforce representative, Paul & Dana, always tried their best to periodically reach out to us camperforce and had a great shoulder for us to lean on, or maybe even cry on once in a while. In Fernley, I honestly met our camperforce representative maybe once or twice and I don’t think I could actually pick her out in a line-up, but she would do a great job in responding quickly to any emails questions we might have. BUT with that said, HR WAS great, and HR Manager was really awesome! She did listen to us and she really did a great job in my book in trying to connect with us camperforce.
One other significant difference between the two was that at Coffeeville, your first 4 days on the floor in training, your Ambassador (Trainer) was there in ear shot of you needing any help. If there were several folks being trained-then they would have others in close proximity to help you along as well. They would even help give you pointers to help bring you numbers up to speed as well. As for Fernley fulfillment-our trainer gave us a guide around our department, showed us the basic of packing, and we were placed on the line in a few hours. She didn’t stay in earshot if we had any questions, and we weren’t sure who we could ask for assistant-making it just a bit difficult for us on our first couple of days. I’m not the only one that notice this, but heard several complaints from other camperforce in the break room in other departments with the same issues-feeling improper training and since of feeling “lost” in our first week on the floor. During peak time there seemed to be plenty of Integrity folks helping those newbies.
With all that said, however, I’m still pleased with working at the Fernley fulfillment center and have every intentions of going back there again. Why? I guess it’s because even though there were the differences, I did meet a lot of really nice workers, both seasonal and regular full timer associates. The manager(s) were really great the atmosphere alone was more enjoyable. Even though you may not know who to ask a question to-you could stop just about any blue badge and still ask that question-they would take the time and still help you out. You did soon learn who-was-who, and for the most, everyone seemed to work really good as a team. I do look forward to more years with Amazon.com as a seasonal camperforce! I love the challenge it gives me and it’s just for a few months out of the year with good pay and benefits to a full time RV’er like us!
The Fulfillment Center in Coffeeville, KS
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