Free skiing may be a powerful incentive for attracting and retaining employees, but in today’s increasingly competitive job market, many ski resorts are finding that free skiing is not enough. More and more ski areas are going overseas and online to find applicants, they’re building employee housing, having parties, providing giveaways, expanding benefit and salary packages and even resorting to cold hard cash to keep employees at their posts all winter long.
“You have to be very aggressive if you’re going to meet your employment needs these days,” said Greg Peterman, vice-president for human resources at Heavenly Valley Ski Resort, Calif. “You have to really know what group you’re going after. After you get them, management is the key to keeping them.”
Cash helps, too, as Purgatory, Colo., found out. With a four-year college located in town, recruiting is not the problem—retention is.
“We always worry about recruiting enough qualified employees, but we’ve never had a problem,” said Tammie Fry, director of human resources at Purgatory. “Keeping employees through the season is where we’re focusing our attention. We have 750 employees in the winter and 250 in the summer, and we do 1,200 W-2’s, so you can see we’re losing a lot of employees.”
Last season, Purgatory addressed its high turnover rate with a cash bonus system that rewards employees not just for completing the season, but also for good performance on the job.
“In thinking about this we determined the minimum requirements we expect from our employees,” Fry said. “They need to be on time, they need to start and end the season, be here for busy periods, attend training and orientation sessions and have acceptable performance.”
= = — —_ so – — —— The three components of the bonus system (performance, reliability and commitment) incorporate all of these requirements. Thus, for acceptable performance, an employee can earn up to 30 cents an hour extra for every hour he or she works. Every month employees have 100 percent attendance (reliability), they can earn another five cents an hour over and above the hourly rate, up to a maximum of 25 cents an hour for five months of perfect attendance. For commitment to the company—defined as starting work before December 18, attending all orientations and completing the season—employees can earn up to 25 cents an hour more. The company also felt it was important for morale to offer the bonus program to all employees, although it divided employees into two groups, gold and silver. The harder-to-keep gold employees can earn a maximum of 80 cents an hour above their normal rate, while silver employees can earn up to 65 cents an hour more. normal rate, while silver employees can earn up to 65 cents an hour more.
“The largest incentive we gave out last year was $800,” Fry said. “It’s made a huge difference in our turnover rate.”
At Crystal Mountain, Mich., where competition for employees has greatly increased because of several new malls in the region, the ski area is also thinking about instituting some kind of cash bonus payable at the start of the next season to encourage employees both to finish the season and then come back.
Besides bonuses to encourage employees to return year after year, Crystal also has had to expand its benefits package for year-round employees and adjust its salary scale for all employees. Currently, Crystal employs about 190 people year-round. That number jumps to 450 in winter and 350 in summer.
“We’re fortunate that we don’t have much fluctuation between summer and winter,” said Mary Beard, personnel services director at Crystal. “That enables us to combine more year-round opportunities for folks. We’ll bring a lift operator on board knowing we may need grounds staff through the summer.”
Expanding benefits has also helped Camelback, Penn., recruit and retain employees, both permanent and seasonal. For its seasonal employees (nearly 700 in the winter), Camelback has expanded free skiing privileges to include employee’s immediate families (spouse and children). “We’ve found free skiing to be a very powerful incentive for people to work here,” said Sam Newman, Camelback’s president and CEO. “We’ve never had difficulty hiring seasonal employees. Full-time help is another matter.”
To attract and build loyalty among full-time, year-round staff (about 70 people), Newman said Camelback offers a generous salary and benefits package, including health insurance, a 401K plan that Camelback matches 100 percent up to seven percent of an employee’s salary and an employer-contribution pension plan.
Many area resource managers said they were going online to find seasonal help. “We very actively went onto the Internet last summer to attract employees,” said Peterman at Heavenly, which hires about 1,100 people every November for the winter season. “Over the years, we’ve done a lot of studies of the demographics of people who are interested in applying here and those who we ultimately hire. Because of that, we’re able to do very targeted advertising.”
Heavenly has a number of employee incentives other than cash bonuses that reward performance and enhance customer service. The area recently instituted a program in which wooden nickels, called pogs, are distributed to supervisors and guests to give to employees as a reward for the “extra effort” in good service or teamwork. Employees can cash in the pogs for merchandise. The pogs also go into a year-end drawing for trips. Since employees have to be present to win, the program also encourages workers to complete the season.
Waterville Valley, N.H., has a similar employee recognition program using $5 chits instead of wooden nickel pogs that employees can collect for good service through the season and then redeem.
Employee parties are another, and one of the most popular, ways for ski areas to attract and retain employees.
“We try to portray and project Park City as a fun place to work,” said the Utah area’s communications director, Charlie Lansche. “We want people to work here who want to have fun. That image helps us attract people.”
To help its employees have fun, Park City sponsors parties and social events for employees throughout the ski season. Opening up to snowboarding also greatly helped Park City’s recruiting efforts. “A lot of ski bums now are snowboarding,” Lansche said. “A season pass is still the single most important benefit for people working here. Opening up to snowboarding opened up a whole new market of employees for us.”
Providing opportunities for employees to have fun is also one of the primary strategies for Whistler, B.C. The area sponsors an employee social club, called Club Shred, that is funded through payroll deductions. One dollar a week is deducted from employees’ paychecks (club membership is voluntary although 80 percent of employees join). Members get discounts at movie theaters, fitness centers, shops and restaurants. The club also sponsors parties and bus trips for members to professional sporting events, concerts and other activities. In addition to the club-sponsored activities, Whistler puts on a Christmas dinner, a year-end windup party and a summer barbecue for employees and their families. Each department holds two employee recognition nights every winter, complete with dinner, awards and mixing. There are Whistler-sponsored employee races with prizes and parties afterwards, length-of-service award nights and 50 percent off food and beverage at the area (excluding bars) all season long.
“A lot of people come here not only to work, but also to meet people. If they’re having a good time, it gives that shine through to guests,” said Gordon Ahrens, general manager of employee relations at Whistler.
A different kind of employee benefit is Waterville Valley’s new cash assistance program for its employee-athletes. Top athletes in any sport who are working at Waterville can apply for the assistance. If they are accepted into the program, Waterville gives them up to 100 lift tickets to sell at discount ($35 as opposed to $43) to corporations or other groups. The athlete is free to use the proceeds to pay for equipment, travel or other expenses related to training. Waterville also accommodates the athlete’s schedule through a flexible work schedule.
Other Ideas
Sam Geise, from Acordia Resort Services, has witnessed good employee incentive ideas in travelling to areas around the U.S. Some favorites are:
1. Keep the area open an hour longer for employee-only skiing once a week.
2. Provide employees with uniforms.
3. Establish employee ski teams; organize fun races and competitions.
4. Host Friday night pizza parties.
5. Give one hour, off-the-clock ski breaks during the day.
Geise also mentioned an interesting discovery at a Western resort: If the job was the employee’s first or the person lived at home, he or she was more likely to leave mid-season. The next year the resort was more careful in hiring and turnover was cut by a third to 50 percent.—JR
