A “Lesson” in Resilience

As if attracting, hiring, and retaining quality instructors weren’t already challenges for snowsports school managers, a national labor shortage as the Baby Boomer generation moves into retirement age has not made the situation easier. No industry is immune, and, in the ski business, staffing challenges are certainly not exclusive to ski and ride schools—every department in the ski business faces them. 

“Finding enough talented, energetic, good-attitude people has, I think, been the trickiest thing for the whole industry,” says Peggy Hiller, the new CEO of the Professional Ski Instructors of America and American Association of Snowboard Instructors (PSIA-AASI), who served in assistant general manager and vice president of operations roles at Arapahoe Basin, Colo., since 2005. “The pandemic exacerbated it.”