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Hi everyone,
The topic of Lifeguard awards and morale came up yesterday in a directors meeting and their were some good ideas such as a “Brag Board” and a “Guard of the Year Award.” I though those were great ideas for extrinsic motivation for a staff.
I was wondering what other aquatic centers do for Lifeguard awards or methods of keeping morale up? and what is a cost effective way of doing so?
Hi Kathleen,
In Fort Dodge we do 2 things for Lifeguard morale that might be useful. We have a Kudos board for all the guards to be able to congratulate or thank one another if they do something helpful! We also have our managers pick out a guard(s) of the week that gets excused from picking up trash for the rest of that week. Two very simple things that might help a little bit.
In North Liberty we have a lifeguard of the week all summer (LG of the month during indoor winter months) that the managers select. We also have a swim instructor of the week in summer, session in winter. After they choose I send out an email to the entire staff congratulating these individuals and announcing the reasons for the their selection. Every summer I have a prize for them as well. We’ve done staff member of the week t-shirts (big hit), this summer they could choose from a lifeguard bucket hat, baseball hat, or nicer whistle for their prize. Swim instructors are the same if it is a not a specific lifeguard item, like the t-shirts, this summer they received a key chain that stated swim instructor.
At the end of each summer we have a staff pot luck party where awards are given out. We usually combine this with our summer staff Olympics. The managers select individuals for the awards, we have serious ones like guard of the summer, instructor of the summer, rookie of the year and then some fun silly awards too.
Just a few things I do that I think helps and the staff seem to enjoy!
In Ankeny, we have a few programs that are daily/weekly including high fives that are read off each week at in-service, 2 guards of the week that receive a floating guard keychain, and pool bucks for use in the concessions stand. We have a staff pool party in August and have staff olympics in July, along with a 4th of July potluck. We also do the road to the finish the month of August, which gives incentives for number of hours worked. At the end of the year, we do 3 big awards for Top Gun, Rookie of the Year, and Swim Instructor of the year, that receive a gift card and a framed certificate.
Thanks for the ideas everyone! What time of year do you do the potluck/ banquet?
A lot of my guards leave for college in the middle of August… I was thinking maybe setting something like that up for around homecoming time?
We do our end of the summer party either the last week in July or right at the beginning of August before the college kids leave. This past summer we didn’t do it until 8/14 and well turn out was the lowest it has ever been. Having it later after season is a great idea and a possible retention help too for next summer! We’re having a potluck the Sunday before Thanksgiving this year for my indoor year round staff and I plan to invite summer staff to stop by if they’re in town!
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