[Matt Vandevoort]

Anyone experiencing a significant shortage of lifeguard applicants this year? I verified our pay scale is average to above from the 2020 aquatic wage survey. Curious on any ideas to recruit more applicants? Thanks in advance for your input!

[Anonymous]

Our rate is $9/hour. We are short 5 lifeguards to be fully staffed to ensure full coverage and allow for days off. I have put information in neighboring high school announcements, unfortunately with no luck.

I believe some of the challenges stem from limited number of certification classes.

We are planning on opening a whatever capacity we can manage. Some of our features may be closed if we do not have enough staff.

[Matt Vandevoort]

Great comments, thank you Ronda. Curious, what town/city are you from?

[Jill Burt]

Fortunately I am doing pretty well on staffing levels. One huge help has been a shift leader that is a teacher. He is a great recruiter for us. Can you get your current staff to recruit their friends? Or find a way into the school to draw attention to the opportunity.

When we really had a shortage in 2017 we started helping staff cover the cost of certification and that really helped. We started with free certification, then transitioned to where we are now with staff paying $45 to cover the Red Cross fee plus a few bucks to help cover the cost of materials. If you don’t already do this, is that something your City would support? When the class was free, we had no-shows. I think the $45 fee is a nice compromise where the applicant has some buy-in but it’s not as big of a barrier to work as a $200 class.

Good luck!