Not Enough Lifeguards

An ongoing issue is sparking creativity and experimentation in higher pay, training incentives, and new hiring practices

By Jefferey Spivey
Photos: YMCA Of The USA

Throughout the last two years, many industries have struggled to recruit, hire, and retain workers. Aquatic departments haven’t been immune to these challenges, but unlike other employers, they faced a labor shortage before the pandemic.

In many departments, lifeguard positions are filled by high school and college students. The job’s pay, physical demands, and education opportunities have typically aligned with this age group’s expectations. Recently, though, changing cultural tides have shifted these employees’ focus to other career paths.

Stiffer Competition

“With technology now, gaming, different avenues for youth where they’re not in the sun, they’re not in the heat, some of them are kind of turning away from lifeguarding,” says Karen Jordan, Deputy Director of Recreation for Baltimore City Recreation and Parks in Maryland.

Ryan Caputo, Recreation Manager for the city of Myrtle Beach, notes the same shift among water-safety instructors. “It’s a tough job. I think it’s tough to get kids interested in that nowadays.”

The pandemic has done little to ease these hiring troubles.

Part of the usual lifeguard pipeline includes individuals who participate in programs like swimming lessons or competitive swim teams. Due to a series of closures, restrictions, and mandates, however, youth have had fewer opportunities to engage.

“If we have them in our programs, they have a relationship with the Y,” says Lindsay Mondick, Director of Innovative Priorities, Movement Engagement, and Aquatic Safety for YMCA of the USA. “The loss of interest is from those youth who used to see lifeguarding as a great opportunity for them.” 

In addition, aquatic departments aren’t the only employers targeting these workers.

“The market for positions across any industry is also changing rapidly,” says Megann Lohmann, Recreation Manager for the city of Boulder, Colo. She notes that it’s difficult for municipalities to match the speed and dollar amount of private companies’ wage increases.

Still, competitors aren’t offering only higher pay—the jobs are generally easier and require less responsibility.

Mondick points to the breadth of skills and training lifeguards need to do their jobs.  “[It’s] very different than working at Starbucks, when they’re thinking about those entry-level positions that are customer-facing,” she says.

She adds that border closures have also been of concern because the number of international workers available to fill positions has been limited. Many Y locations depend on these hires.

 
 

Sorry, The Pool Is Closed

Thus, with a shrinking talent pool and growing competition, many departments have been unable to reach full staffing levels, forcing them to reshuffle teams to meet demand and to cut back on services and community programming.

In Boulder, the staff was short one-third of the number of lifeguards needed to operate its pools, which includes a new facility that opened last summer. In response, Lohmann’s department had to reduce operating hours, rotate available amenities, and even close one of the city’s indoor lap pools.

Caputo lost staff during closures.

“We had a pretty long shutdown,” he says. “We had our full-time staff doing things in the building, but the pools weren’t open because of social distancing. So, a lot of people had to go find jobs elsewhere in the community.” 

Upon reopening, he was able to hire new staff members, but faced the uphill battle of “starting from scratch.”

And in Baltimore, a deficit of nearly 100 lifeguards meant only 11 of the city’s 24 pools could be open during the summer, with some neighborhood pools closing on Sundays, as opposed to operating seven days a week.

With last year’s complexities in the rearview mirror, aquatic departments are completely rethinking their hiring approaches in an effort to avoid the same hiccups. Strategies vary, based on budgets and service-area size, but ultimately parks departments facing similar shortages can use the ideas as a starting point to reverse their fortunes. 

May I Have Your Attention?

Perhaps the most immediate challenge for aquatic departments is standing out in a tight labor market. One way to grab young job seekers’ attention is pay.

“Right as the pandemic hit, we got approval to move our lifeguards up to $14.50, which is much more competitive in the market down here,” Caputo says.

Jordan, too, is overseeing a pay increase, moving lifeguards from minimum wage to $16.00 and $17.50 an hour, for Lifeguard I and Lifeguard II positions, respectively. She sees the higher salary as a key to retention; past lifeguards often cited low pay, and not operations, as a reason for leaving the job.

Some departments are experimenting with a hiring cadence in an effort to get lifeguards hired as quickly as possible. 

Ideally, lifeguards would take a nationally recognized certification course (from an organization like American Red Cross) before being hired and trained. However, the course’s cost—almost $300 in some instances—can be prohibitive, and participants are required to attend unpaid, over multiple days, before securing employment. In that time, a competing employer at a nearby restaurant or hotel can hire those same candidates on the spot and train them later.

“We’re talking about hiring people before they have that certification, as long as they can pass the swim test,” Lohmann says. She’s also working with her team to possibly offer the course more frequently, moving from once a month to every other week.

The city of Myrtle Beach tried this but ran into problems.

“We had the issue that [hires] then couldn’t pass the lifeguard course. And then, at that point, we had to fire them because we didn’t have the availability to move them somewhere else,” says Aquatics Supervisor Amanda Payne. The department still requires the lifeguard certification first before onboarding new hires, but it is now covering the cost of the course and streamlining HR processes so lifeguards can start almost immediately after being certified.

Some Y locations are also offering free certification and even paying trainees for the hours spent in the course. Though it can be an effective way to sidestep hiring issues, Mondick acknowledged that it created a new predicament.

“There’s a lot of risk associated with that,” she says. “We’re not getting revenue from what traditionally has been a revenue aspect for Ys.”

 
 

Creative Approaches

To combat this, departments are also focused on rebranding, a long game that can reposition lifeguarding as a coveted career for future generations. The Y is emphasizing the profession’s transferrable skills and the many career paths that a lifeguard can take, ranging from first-responder roles to life sciences. And in Baltimore, a forthcoming youth career-development camp will not only introduce youth to lifeguarding but also teach them about the recreation industry as a whole.

“We’re trying to build that bench,” Jordan says. “We may not see the effects of it for a couple years, but we’re hoping that it will make a difference.”

Generally, across departments, there’s an openness to creativity and to reimagining the ways things have historically been done. From posting job openings earlier to recruiting non-traditional lifeguards (e.g., early retirees and ex-military members) and referral bonuses, aquatic hiring is undergoing a major overhaul.

What won’t change, however, are the core functions of the job. No matter how the hiring techniques are altered, lifeguards are still tasked with lifesaving responsibilities, including CPR, first aid, safety skills, accident prevention, emergency oxygen administration, and various swimming and diving requirements.

“We strive to maintain a culture of safety at all times,” Mondick says, a sentiment shared by Caputo, Payne, Jordan, and Lohmann.

To ensure a high level of safety, departments may need to prepare contingency plans if staffing levels aren’t met.

“We’re taking a really close look at the numbers and trying to forecast how many lifeguards are we really going to be able to recruit,” Jordan says. “If we have to not open some of our pools again—which we’re hoping we can open all of them—we just want to be able to ensure accessibility throughout the city.”

 

Jefferey Spivey is a writer based in Urbandale, Iowa. Reach him at jeffereyspivey@gmail.com.

 
 
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