Assignment 3

Assignment 3

Dream Team

State Farm Park & Google

 The goal of Google is quite simple and that is to be the best search engine out there and provide people with information as fast as possible.  When Google first started out in 1998 their initial funding came from a $100,000 dollar investment by Andy Bechtolsheim.  Now that they are an established company much of the funding comes from the advertisement space that the sell on their main internet site as well as from advertising contracts from many of their other services.  Google is able to be funded mainly by selling advertising because of the amount of traffic they receive on a daily basis.  What makes their advertising unique is that depending on what you search the advertisements that appear are generally in relation to the item one enters into the search bar.  And since Google services anyone in need of information if a company is looking to advertise to a certain demographic Google does all of the work for them.

The goal of State Farm Park is to provide the visitors, employees, and 

employee’s guests a place to relax and enjoy themselves.  To do this, the 

organization provides numerous amenities in the park such as softball 

fields, tennis courts, fitness trails, volleyball courts, miniature golf, open 

areas and a recent addition of water park and pool facilities accompanied 

by a pool house.  The park hopes that by providing these amenities, it will 

benefit the employees of the corporate location in many ways.

First, we will look at information about Google.
When compared to other companies, Google is certainly on the top of the list when it comes to leisure delivery to its employees.  At the office, or the Googleplex, workers are able to access a number of leisure activities which include a roller hockey rink, outdoor volleyball courts, and a wide variety of electronics that help Googlers refocus so they can get as much productivity possible.  Google also offers free lunch and dinner to all employees prepared by top chefs to ensure workers are eating and staying healthy.  On top of the meals and other leisure activities, Googlers can also visit any number of massage tables Google provides in order to enhance the laid back work style that Google hangs its hat on.  

There are two main job titles for people who work at Google, software engineers and software developers.  On average, the software engineers make $112,573 annually, and software developers make $89,000 annually.  A college education is required to work at Google, along with having a strong sense of creativity and a laid back personality that Google will use for maintaining its relaxed atmosphere.  Everyone at Google works together in small groups in order to get as many ideas and solutions possible in order to keep the company growing.  

Google provides many benefits for their workers, which include tailored 401K plans, bus shuttles to and from the office, health plans specific to the employee, even going as far as vision insurance and dental plans for all employees.  Google also provides maternity leave for expecting mothers, giving expecting employees 12 weeks maternity leave at 100% pay, with the possibility of a six week extension to the employees who have worked at Google for more than one year.  Google even extends the maternity plan to fathers, giving them seven weeks off at full pay.  Google even has its own party planning committee to help employees plan for Halloween, birthdays, and other occasions where the employee would be throwing a party.  

There are a number of strengths to being an employee at Google when it comes to leisure, and the vast variety of choice for employees is what makes Google the fastest growing company in the world today.  With such a wide variety of leisure opportunities for employees to take advantage of while employed at Google, it is really hard to find a dull moment at work.  Having all of these resources at an employee’s exposal is a major strength for the company.  It gives Google a lot more to talk about when trying to find the next Googler to work for them.  An employee at Google never has to worry about not receiving enough benefits, which is what makes a job at Google so competitive.    

Google’s mission since their start has always been to, “organize the world‘s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”  As far as achieving this goal Google has done more than fulfill it they have surpassed it.  Google has become the premier source for information on the internet and is rapidly expanding so that you can access this information almost anywhere, even sitting on your couch while using the new “Google TV” system or using a Google app on your smart phone.  These along with many other innovations have allowed Google to become a staple aspect of our society that the phrase “Google it” has become common place when you need to find out information on a topic.  Much of this success is due to the Googlers who work at Google and Google’s ability to provide them with a working space that caters to the creative and innovative needs of it’s employees

Next, we will look at another company, State Farm Park, with similar, yet different purposes.

The park was originally funded by a generous donation from a private donor.  Since the park has been open, though, it has become completely self-funded by the State Farm organization.  

State Farm Park is not a public facility.  It serves only the visitors, employees, and guests of employees of the State Farm corporate location in Bloomington, Illinois.  The facilities were made completely private in order to provide the guests with the best overall experience possible.  By having the facilities available to that specific group, State Farm Park is able to accommodate the specific wants and needs of that group.

This agency sets itself apart from Google, specifically, because it is entirely an outdoor facility offering only recreational and leisure opportunities for its visitors.  As a whole, State Farm Park is unique to leisure delivery system because it is an entirely privatized facility, not allowing any public use.  

There are many different jobs in State Farm Park.  There are numerous seasonal positions such as groundskeepers, lifeguards, maintenance, and others.  These jobs are filled mostly by high school and college students who are looking to make money during the summer months.  There are also the managerial and director positions in the organization that are occupied mostly college graduates or individuals with years of experience in their field.  All of these jobs work together to coordinate, plan, and carry-out the daily operations of State Farm Park.  Each individual position is crucial to the overall success of the organization because if one area is faltering, it would require another area to stretch its resources and man-power to maintain that struggling area.

The jobs at State Farm Park have different salaries depending on the position.  A large amount of the positions there are offered only during the spring, summer, and fall months because that is when the park is the busiest.  For those seasonal positions, the salary starts out at minimum wage and increases from there.  Employees are eligible for raises after meeting qualifying standards.  The park does offer medical benefits for the full-time employees who work there.  However, the part-time seasonal employees are not given any time of insurance or benefits from the organization.

A prominent strength of the agency as a leisure provider, according to an employee of the organization, Lisa, is that it aims to please all of its patrons.  The park listens to all of the comments from those who visit its facilities and are always striving to make those people happy.  Lisa said that they try to accommodate most interests and requests that visitors make such as new activities or amenities requested be brought into the park.  We think that this is a great strength of State Farm Park because they are really aiming to make their patrons happy in every way and really do take those people's opinions into consideration.  Another key strength is that the park is only open to guests, employees, and employees' families.  This gives the park the abilities to focus on one group of people and really give them the amenities that they desire.  We also feel that this is a strength to the organization because it gives the park a much smaller feel to it.  It allows visitors to feel like they are at a safe, secure area that they can enjoy their leisure time with their friends and family.

According to Lisa, State Farm Park definitely fulfills their purposes.  The goal of the park from the very beginning was to create an environment where employees could go for recreation, relaxation, and leisure and have everything that they desired in order to accomplish that.  As mentioned previously, to achieve that the park organization and employees try to offer anything and everything that people want. 

We feel that working at State Farm Park would be a great job for someone in high school or college because most of the positions are seasonal, when most students want to work.  It is also outdoors mostly and would be an environment in which the employees could have the chance to have some fun while being on the job.  However, we think that as an adult, State Farm Park would be a good stepping stone to a more prominent position.  The park is simply too small and local to be a place where someone can really fulfill their career unless they wanted to stay in that local area to work. 

For the Dream Team, when asked what leisure is, we all came up with the definition that it is something that you do in free time to get your mind off things, relax, and just enjoy yourself. Both Google and State Farm Park are great employee recreation services that are offered for the employees of these companies and great ways to show employees how much they are appreciated. The working world tends to be stressful and chaotic, and to have a place to spend time relaxing and being care-free is exactly what our definition of leisure is and exactly what both of these companies offer.

The Dream Team

Kara Rees

Lynley Tucker

Kaeman Mitchell

Toni Colmone

Steve Hull

Rob Christenson

Jack Cornell

Jake Kumerow

Joelil Thrash

State Farm Park - Assignment 2

 Introduction
Imagine working at a place that offers not only health and life benefits, but also recreational ones. That’s exactly what State Farm Park offers for the interns, employees and their families. In Bloomington, IL, this park contains a full water park (adult pool, children’s pool, lazy river, water slides), tennis courts, volleyball courts, basketball courts, badminton courts, soccer fields, baseball and softball fields, and plenty of lush grassy fields, a spacious clubhouse including a café, locker rooms, and conference rooms, picnic shelters, ponds and lakes for fishing, and a fitness spa. For State Farm employees, this is definitely a place for relaxation and leisure.

 Background
In 1940, it was decided that a park would be created in honor of the founder of State Farm, G.J. Mecherle. Originally a 33 acre park, just south of Bloomington-Normal, it is now a 99 acre, state of the art park filled with many activities for everyone who attends. State Farm park was created with the intention of being a recreational area for employees, their families and guests and that’s just what it is today. Even those employees or agents who have now retired can continue to attend this free attraction :)

 We spoke to Marcy McAnally, a State Farm Agent in the Champaign-Urbana area and asked her a few questions:

Have you ever been to State Farm Park?
Yes, I go there often with my family and some co-workers.

How was your experience?
It was a great experience! It’s always a blast every time we go.

What did you do while you were there?
We utilize the water-park a lot. It is the newest addition to the park, and my kids love playing in the water. Also, my kids attend a summer camp that is held at the park, which they very much enjoy and attend every summer.

If another employee was to ask you whether or not they should spend time there, what would you say? Most definitely! It is very rare to find a company which offers such a great facility such as ours, so I think that it is a great idea to utilize the one that we have.

Employment Opportunities
State farm park offers a wide variety of employment and these jobs are open to the general public. Most of these jobs are outdoors and deal with mowing lawns, cleaning pools, and other areas involving keeping the park in tip-top shape. There are also opportunities to be a volunteer camp counselor during the summer camps as well as positions available to be able to organize the camps. Along with these jobs, there are also internship positions, where the main responsibilities are running the recreation leagues for sports such as basketball and softball that the members participate in. Even though not all of these positions are well-paid, if paid at all, they are a great opportunity for anyone interested in the area of employee recreation services. Just about anyone, whether affiliated with State Farm or not, can find a summer job or an internship at State Farm Park.          

Current Trends and Issues
State Farm park is doing extremely well despite the bad economy, mainly because it’s free for its members to go there.  The bad economy might even be helping the park because members are more likely to go there due to it being free and they can hold company cookouts and enjoy several different recreational activities such as volleyball, tennis, badminton and mini golf.  State farm also has one of the nicest water parks in central Illinois.  These facilities and the free cost for its members/employees makes it a big draw during the summer.  The summer camps provided for the children also keep the park flowing with people.
 

Definition of Leisure
State Farm believes this park can help relax their workers because it is an eventful way to get out of the office and away from the craziness of the working world.  Because of this, we conclude that State Farm’s definition of leisure is relaxation.  This park is a huge benefit to its employees and their families, and is ultimately giving a service back to the workers of State Farm. Families that attend the park, find themselves spending an entire day there and leaving with a smile on their faces!

Synopsis
From our research, we think that a job at State Farm Park would be a great starting point for a career in recreation, sport, and tourism.  The park offers features that link to all three of those areas and would be a great way to gain some experience and knowledge about the field.  This could be a great job for someone who has recently graduated college or for an adult who may live in or around Bloomington and wants to work locally.  However, a position here would be more of a stepping stone for an individual who wants to excel in the RST field by either gaining more degrees or attaining a more prominent job.  Overall, State Farm Park would be a great place of employment for the beginner recreation/leisure enthusiast or future professional in the field.  This agency fits into the leisure delivery system very well because it offers all kinds of recreation, sports, and leisure activities.  The park is accessible to a very large group of people who can gain great benefits from utilizing its features.  Having State Farm Park and keeping it in great shape is a great way for employees to release stress, pressures, and anxiety and perhaps increase the success of those individual’s lives and the organization.  This park may also give people access to recreation and leisure activities that they may not have otherwise.  It is a great addition to not only State Farm Headquarters but the local State Farm community as well.

Members of Sub-Team A:

rees1

ltucker2

colmone3

mitche25

hull6

Assignment #2

When it comes to surfing the web or searching for information, google.com is the first thing that millions of people type into their computers daily. The name Google comes from the math term googol, meaning the number 1 with 100 zeros after. The goal of the website is to organize an infinite amount of information on the web. It is the best search engine on the internet today and can answer mostly all of the questions you might have. It has been around for about fifteen years and has been going strong ever since

The company was started by two computer grad students from Stanford University and now encompasses millions of employees from all around the world.  Google as most people know it is a search engine site that allows you to search the internet in seconds, but they are so much more than that.  Recently Google has increased its reach by getting involved in the smart phone revolution.  They have offices located in several countries on every continent except for Antarctica with their main headquarters in Mountain View, CA.  This allows them to get a global perspective and cater to the needs of everyone that uses the internet and subsequently has made them one of the fastest growing companies in the last decade.

           Google hires workers from many different backgrounds, whose innovations and creativity help the company improve on a daily basis.  Google’s website states that workers are, “smart, amazing people who foster an environment of collaboration and fun.” (Google)  They have positions all across the board from an accountant to programmer.  Googlers must be able to work in small groups of very focused teams in high energy environments in order to get the success that Google has had over the company’s existence.  One of the main keys to Google’s success has been their very relaxed atmosphere and their workers always being able to have a good time while they are working.  The people who work at Google are very passionate about their jobs, as well as very passionate about their own lives, which only feeds the positive environment they work in.

Google hires talented, local people who share the same commitment as the workers who already work there.  Google has many complexes across the globe, and the ever expanding company is always hiring the next person to help improve the company.  Google goes after the brightest technologists, as well as the leading business people in order to make the company have success.   There are a vast number of jobs at Google, such as advertising, tech team, financial team, and so on.   Google states that people are their greatest asset (Google); therefore the recruiting process for the future employees is very tailored to what Google is looking for, but any experience in the technology field doesn’t hurt either. 

 Over the last few years Google has been one of the fastest growing companies.  It doesn’t hurt that our society as a whole has gone through a technological revolution the past few years as well.  Since its humble beginnings as a simple search engine Google has expanded into the mobile phone industry with the recent influx of smart phones and iPhone apps and has even created its own internet browser with Google Chrome.  Not to mention that there is talk of a Google operating system that would rival that of Windows and Macintosh.  Getting information on the go has become a necessity in our society and Google has been doing anything they can to insure that we are able to.  Currently there are no pressing issues facing Google’s future seeing as we have a thirst for the latest and greatest technology and Google has been one of the main providers of this technology.

As a company Google is hands down at the forefront of supplying their employees with leisure benefits.  From our research we have found that there is no other company campuses quite like Google’s.  They view leisure as a way to free your mind so that you may be able to think more clearly and be happy when you work.  They also rely heavily on the collaboration of “Googlers” as they call them to come up with new and exciting innovations, so they try to create an atmosphere that supports this and what better way than to provide them fun leisure time activities.  “Google has offices all around the world and each one has its own unique flair based on the region of the world it is in.  But they are similar in the fact that they provide their employees with a multitude of leisure options.   Some of the campuses with multiple buildings provide scooters or bikes as a fun and efficient way to get from building to building.  They also provide foosball, pool tables, volleyball courts, assorted video games, pianos, ping pong tables, gyms that offer yoga and dance classes, as well as special interests groups” (Google)  Overall Google is very concerned with supplying their employees with an environment that they feel comfortable in and allows them work with others in a friendly environment.  Judging by the success that they have had over the years it shouldn’t be long until other companies start following the same practices.  Here's a quick video provided by Google that shows a little more about what they offer and what it's like to work at a Google office. 

Leisure - Steve Hull

This was over our winter break this year, and I took a trip back to my hometown to enjoy some family time.  What I like to do for leisure activity is stay active.  I love to do these outdoors because thats how I was my entire life.  My siblings and I were always outside running around having fun.  This is what I do for fun and my leisure activity, I went skiing for the first time just with my family to enjoy their company and enjoy the outdoors. 

Leisure Activity - Toni Colmone

For my leisure activity, I chose to upload the picture of my room that I decorated.  This is what I like to do with my freetime; I like being creative.  I like decorating, scrapbooking, and making crafts.  I feel like this picture defines me as a creative person because whenever I have any freetime, this is what I like to do.  It brings out my personality and shows I like to create things or design things.  My favorite activity is scrapbooking, which I do at home usually over summer break.  I never have much leisure time because I take 19 credit hours and work three jobs, but when I'm not busy with all of that, I like making my room look more colorful or decorating pages of my memories.

My Leisure - Rob Christenson - christ19

This past summer I went on a 90 mile backpacking trip in northern New Mexico.  Now to some spending 12 days hiking doesn't seem like a leisure activity.  But for me being outdoors is, I think one of the greatest ways to spend your free time.  I am a big believer that leisure is an activity that allows you to pull yourself away from the constant on goings of everyday life and clear your head, for me the best way to do all of this is to hike.  I chose this picture in particular because it represents all of that. When you see a view like this you can't help but take it all in and marvel at how wonderful nature can be and everything else that matters to you just seems to fade past the horizon.  

My Leisure-Kumerow2

The leisure activity I choose in my freetime is snowboarding.  I started snowboarding when I was a sophmore in high school, and ever since ive loved it.  Snowboarding to me is one of the most fun things ive ever done which is why i enjoy it so much.  This winter i havent been able to go as much as i wish i could have because of school and practice.  It helps you forget about stuff that is on your mind or stressful to you because when you are out snowboarding, you dont really think of anything else.  It is also a good way to make new friends and to just have a good time.