’TIS THE SEASON
(FOR STAFFING)
Seasonal operators continue to evolve hiring and retention strategies to staff up in a difficult market.
BY ISEULT DEVLIN
Finding the right team to operate your aerial adventure activity is crucial but not always easy. Like other recreation businesses, the aerial adventure world struggles to find reliable employees who will stay for more than a seasonal stint. Many operators are finding it is more and more important to retain at least some trained staff—especially aerial guides—to keep business consistent and successful. In recent years, some outfits have started to offer partially subsidized employee housing and other perks in re- sponse to the lack of affordable housing and increased cost of living. Adventure Park Insider contacted a variety of aerial adventure operators, including those with zip lines, ropes courses, and canopy tours, to gather their best practices for navigating the seasonal employment landscape. Here’s what we learned about keeping and training seasonal employees, including how hiring international workers can help fill staffing voids. EMPLOYEE HOUSING It’s not easy to organize employee housing, but it’s well worth the cost and effort. And housing benefits don’t have to be large scale to have a big impact. At Hawaii’s Kohala Zipline, for example, manager Kanoe Lewis says employee housing subsidies made it possible to obtain quality applicants and secure a great team for its upcoming busy season. Subsidized housing. In previous years, Kohala, located on the Big Island, would reimburse employees for their flight cost to Hawaii after a 30-day probation period, but housing had to be secured
Kohala Zipline, on Hawaii’s Big Island, has developed new strategies to retain and attract experienced staff.
by the employee. Just last year, though, Kohala offered employee housing benefits for the first time, mainly to attract two experienced guides who had responded to a seasonal worker ad on Facebook and were offered subsidized housing as an incentive. Kohala operations manager Daniel Tuck says the housing benefit played a role in securing the experienced guides. “The housing market is really tough out here,” says Tuck. “We have to subsi- dize the rent by 33 percent to make it competitive for employees to be able to afford to live here.”
He says Kohala lucked out in finding a timely rental vacancy at an affordable cottage nearby. “It was nice to have the option of bringing in skilled labor,” Tuck says, adding that the two new hires could start guiding sooner, since they could complete a two-day training com- pared to the usual five. Own your own. Located one hour north of Duluth in Silver Bay, Minn., North Shore Adventure Park owner Alice Tibbetts uses her vacation home to provide lodging for the park’s
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