Recruiting and retaining summer staff.

Each year, you scramble to fill seasonal staff positions. You ask former staff to come back, attend job fairs at colleges and universities, and often advertise positions in local, regional, and national publications. Finding qualified camp staff who are committed to the camp and its campers and who continue to come back for another season has become increasingly difficult.

Camp directors have noted these trends for the past five to six years. What once was a safe assumption that more than 50 percent of the older and more experienced camp staff would return for another year has changed to increasing staff-recruitment costs and questionable success rates. You are now faced with one of the biggest challenges of business today: recruiting and retaining qualified and quality staff.

The Challenge of Today's Economy

Why is recruiting staff more difficult today than it as in the past? One major factor has been the change in the economy. Richard Bolles, in his book A Practical Manual for Job-hunters and Career Changers, states, "We are in the midst of a mammoth 'work quake' - a major ongoing restructuring of the world's whole workplace." The rapid downsizing of businesses in the early 1990s has created a climate of uncertainty for entry-level workers who have witnessed their own parents caught in this dilemma. This downsizing trend has led to less job loyalty than ever before.

Part-time employment and the temporary employment industry have also impacted the workforce, giving people more opportunities and variety in their work. The temporary employment industry has grown more than 250 percent since 1982 and, in recent years, has become one of the camp industry's main competitors for quality staff.

Experts estimate that the average person will look for a new job eight or more times in his lifetime. This trend coincides with a major shift in the priorities of American culture. Rather than simply seeking a well-paying job, people are now looking for careers offering flexibility, personal growth and development, advancement, responsibility, participation in organizational decision-making, and job security. As a result, the younger generation has adopted different attitudes toward their work and career future.

Hiring College-Age Staff

Enticing young adults to work for organizations, such as camps, that offer long hours and low pay is challenging. College students are encouraged to take jobs and internships that will help them gain experience in their chosen career field. Many need to work in high paying summer jobs to finance living and education expenses.

The long hours and limited free time required of camp staff stop many potential employees from even applying for camp jobs. Another detractor of working at camp is the limited chance for advancement, unless an individual is willing to return for several consecutive seasons.

These aspiring professionals often cannot sacrifice financial gain for personal satisfaction. That is, they cannot take a job where they will probably make only a fraction of the salary that they would elsewhere; unless there is an added advantage to their career aspirations.

Retaining Staff

Retaining quality staff may. be one of the most difficult employee challenges that you face today. Seasonal staff members tend to be younger, have a short-term outlook, and have varying levels of commitment to the organization. They know how the organization works and have often experienced burnout, which is common in summer camp jobs. Moreover, replacing good staff costs more than keeping them. Constant staff turnover can keep your camp's program from progressing and keep the camp from achieving the parent organization's goals.

Departure of experienced seasonal staff can also hurt your camp. Often there is no one currently at camp who can fill the position, and you may struggle to find someone who is competent and dependable. By the time seasonal employees are ready to fill the senior-level positions, they usually leave for other work.

Strategies That Work

How do you attract qualified staff members and keep the ones you have? First, you may want to initiate an objective assessment of how you recruit and retain staff. What worked for you as a young professional may not be working for young, college-age employees today, given the complexity of the economy, competition for talented workers, and career applications. Claremont University Professor K.C. Green theorizes that the values of Generation X are very different from the ones that most camp directors model. Therefore, in conducting the staff recruitment and retention assessment, identify the employee profile that your camp wants to recruit and retain. Then study what attracts these employee types to your organization.

Know what Generation X wants

What makes young people want to work at camp? Ask yourselves the questions that most Generation X members would ask themselves. Answering these questions, recommended by G.S. Gardiner in The 21st Century Manager, can help you show potential employees what the benefits of working for your organization are.

* What's in it for me?

* Can I expand my skills while I am here?

* Can I expect fair treatment: to get back what I give to this organization?

Market the benefits of camp jobs

Since camp is a people business, you may want to focus your staffing efforts on marketing these positions as you do your camps and telling potential employees how they can utilize this employment experience in their personal life and chosen careers. Staff-recruitment information should include a section on how working at camp can be an asset to the employee's career portfolio. Emphasize how staff will benefit from this type of work.

Adopt new business strategies

You may want to adopt new business strategies for working with your staff. First, budget and time should be designated for continuing staff development activities during and after the season. Independent camp directors in a conference strategy session made these suggestions:

* Address the social needs of staff

* Appoint a staff recreation director that enables staff to renew through planned activities.

* Create an enjoyable working environment.

* Follow up after the season with a newsletter, yearbook, or phone contact.

* Create camp staff ambassadors who recruit more staff and create intergenerational mentors for staff.

Empower your staff

To keep your staff members from seeking employment elsewhere, empower them to strive for new heights. Give staff an active role in developing special projects and events, such as special camp days and celebrations. Staff should be accountable and rewarded for the responsibility that they demonstrate in these areas. By empowering employees to have significant input into the camp and program that they support, you can keep them interested in and committed to your camp. Staff who perceive they have an important responsibility in the organization become very invested in the outcome. Gordie Kaplan, section executive of the ACA Illinois Section explains, "The more staff are allowed to grow and take some responsibility and carve their niche, the more likely they are to stay."

Finding the Right Staff

Each year ACA lists information about college camp job fairs on their Web site: www.aca-camps.org. Camps can also recruit at professional education and outdoor recreation conferences. These organized events provide excellent opportunities for directors to disseminate information about camp positions. Preparing materials that would describe how the camp can meet the needs of young workers today would enhance the staff recruitment and retention success rate.

You may want to revisit your staff recruitment and retention process, and you may also want to reassess your staff management process as well. As the new millennium approaches, young professionals are faced with increasing economic and career development challenges. Viewing staff recruitment and retention as an ongoing partnership between the camp, director, and employee may be a needed step to maintaining talented staff. Understanding the perspectives and challenges of young professionals today and developing employee management strategies that attract and empower them will also go a long way in the successful recruitment and retention of camp staff.

Your Recruitment Strategy

Today's college students have different goals and experiences than you did when you were their age. Don't rely on your own experience to reach them. You are not talking to yourself at that age; times have changed and students have a different point of view. To reach students, find out what is relevant to them (work experience, personal growth, fun and excitement, or money for college) and explain how working at your camp can meet those needs. Kenneth C. Green of Claremont Graduate School suggests the following recruitment strategies:

* Identify the competition

* Articulate the value-added opportunity

* Invest in training

* Build a network

* Balance tradition versus talent

* Pay your staff market value wages

ACA Staff Recruitment Services

ACA offers its members and accredited camps several staff recruitment services, including:

* E-jobs, a listing of year-round jobs e-mailed to job seekers twice a month. To list a job opening, call 765-342-8456 ext. 303 or e-mail [e-mail].

* Classified ads in Camping Magazine. For more information, call 765-342-8456 ext. 303 or e-mail [e-mail].

* Great Summer Jobs, a searchable database on the World Wide Web. Visit www.greatsummerjobs.com. To list a job, call 800-338-3282 ext. 409.

* Summer Camp Employment Booklet, a booklet sent in early January to more than 10,000 colleges and universities nationwide that reaches thousands of students and teachers looking for summer employment. Call 765-342-8456 ext. 303 for more details.

Brian Crossen holds a masters of science degree in outdoor pursuits recreation administration from Aurora University. Rita Yerkes, Ed.D., is dean of the School of Physical Education, Recreation Administration, and Athletics at Aurora University.

Interested readers may contact the authors for a complete reference list.