Hi ski town employers, (especially those who joined the Q and A session)
Here’s a quick summary of our key recommendations. There’s more explanation in the live recording.
- Stop making it so easy for people to apply for jobs. The call to action on your ads should never be “email us your resume”. Minimise hiring via social media, and if you have minimum standards in terms of experience and certifications, mention them in your ad.
- Employers in ski towns with difficult housing, and in countries with a slow visa processing time, need to hire earlier. Hiring early and give people more time to plan, find accommodation, and save up money if needed. .
- Australian employers who rely on backpacker labour need to start advertising much earlier so candidates can tick off their 88 days for a visa extension before the ski season.
- Start hiring earlier for key position and skilled staff.
- Definitely consider offering travel assistance rather than a sign on bonus, especially if your resort has poor public transport.
- Use automated responses so candidates know where they stand. eg “Thanks for submitting an application, we have received it. We will be contacting candidates we want to interview on …”
- carefully consider your staff onboarding and exit strategies to build staff loyalty. Staff who leave happy become your advocates not your critics. They will often find their replacement for the following winter.
- Touch base with your successful candidates regularly and don’t assume that will just show up. Ask them if they need any help with travel, what size they are for the new uniforms, do they have any pets (hopefully not) or friends who are also looking for work. (You might get a 2 for 1 deal), Do you want any pre-season work?
When we do these sessions, we cover a lot of ground but Matt and I always forget a few things.
Here are ones we missed.
- Don’t use generic email address to receive applications. eg admin@…com, info@…com, sales@…com. This scares off good candidates.
- A manageable number of quality applicants, sourced from reliable platforms, shows your recruiting is on track. A large number of resumes that have come via social media and large general recruiting sites, is a sign you’re hiring is not going well. Expect high no-show rates, poor quality candidates, and problems getting passed on to operations teams when the season starts.
- Consider sending successful candidates this Mutual Obligation blog post.