Hiring for pool season a challenge for Burlington, West Burlington. Here's how they're attracting workers.

WEST BURLINGTON — The West Burlington Swimming Pool has been around for nearly 80 years, but for the city of West Burlington, preparing for this summer's swim season was much like starting a new business.

The pool, located alongside Community Park, had been managed by the YMCA since 2014, but the organization informed the city this past winter that it no longer would be able to oversee the pool's operations due to a shift in focus to its own programming.

"We've had just a number of the normal startup challenges when you haven't run an operation for awhile, and employment is certainly one of those challenges," said West Burlington City Administrator Gregg Mandsager.

Pay increases and bonuses help boost applications

Lifeguarding long has been a summertime go-to for teenagers and young adults wanting to earn spending money without sacrificing time outdoors, but for some, those benefits now are outweighed by increased pay being offered by retailers and fast food restaurants.

"It's just hard finding people to work, but I feel like this year we are struggling more finding people to work than we did last year," assistant manager Natalie Vandenberg said, attributing the hiring struggles experienced early on in the season to increased competition brought on by higher pay at other employers.

Vandenberg, 19, was a lifeguard at the West Burlington pool last year for about $8 per hour. She was asked to take on a managerial role this season after a former manager quit just before opening day.

Vandenberg said she would have applied to again for the same rate, but was excited to see that the pay had increased to $11 per hour for first-year lifeguards, with an additional 25 cent increases for each year of previous lifeguarding up to $11.75.

Mandsager said pay for pool staff was adjusted twice in an effort to attract more applicants and keep pace with other communities.

"Just like everybody else is, we're competing with hourly wages in other industries and businesses in the area that are charging higher rates, so we did bump up our concessions and lifeguard and slide attendant rates, and our pool manager rate, as well," Mandsager said.

To help retain staff amid summer vacations and other summertime disruptions, the city also is offering end-of-season bonuses for lifeguards, admissions and concessions workers who work a minimum of 150 hours and/or are able to work through July 31.

"It's basically like end of the season bonuses I've seen other communities try just as an incentive to keep staff longer and through the end of the season, which in any year can be difficult when you have kids going back to college and getting back to activities and ready for school, so we add that extra dollar on as an incentive to stay longer," Mandsager said.

The pool now has 12 certified guards and is looking to boost that number to 15. That goal may be helped by 10 of the 15 admission, concession and slide attendant workers who have expressed interest in obtaining their lifeguard certification. Bethany Nannen, general manager of the pool, spent the past week completing training needed to provide certification training to those interested.

"We would like to get those who are interested up and trained so that we have more flexibility with our guards," Mandsager said.

The city of Burlington also increased its starting hourly pay for lifeguards from $8.50 to $10.

Brad Selby, recreation, golf course and pool manager for the city of Burlington, said 15 of Dankwardt Park Pool's 20 needed lifeguards have been hired.

Prior to the pandemic, Selby said, that number at this time of year would typically be about 17 or 18, if not 20.

Still, he said, this year's hiring process has been far easier than last years.

"Coming off of COVID was like starting over," he said, noting that all of last year's lifeguards needed to be certified following the summer of 2020, when public pools were closed due to the pandemic.

This year, more applicants came in already certified while others took certification classes in May.

Peer recruiting proves effective

While hiring began for the season began somewhat slowly this season, applications picked up pace as more hires were made.

"In my experience, lifeguards recruit other lifeguards," Selby said, explaining interest in pool positions began to pick up after a round of lifeguard training classes in May.

Vandenberg has been working to recruit staff, as well. Her brother is still in high school, and she's the first one friends of his go to when they're looking for a job.

"With lifeguards and stuff, we did struggle (at first), but now we're getting tons of applications," Vandenberg said.

Burlington's swimming pool has not yet opened for the season due to the pool lining needing to be replaced. Selby said pool staff are filling in with the city's summer camp and at the golf course in the meantime.

"We're trying to find some things for them to do that are a little bit non-traditional, whether that be some extra cleaning or painting or stuff like that at the swimming pool here," Selby said.

Some are taking advantage of those opportunities, while others are biding their time until the pool opens, a date for which has not been determined. Others are spending time they had planned to spend at the pool at other jobs.

"I noticed a lot last year that we're their second job," Selby said. "That's the first time that's kind of been the case for us. Lots of times, we are somebody's first job, their first employer when they're in school and they're only maybe working during summer break, maybe not working during the school year, and it seems like that's changed quite a bit. ... It just may be a sign of the times, I don't know. It's not getting any easier. I know that."

City forestry department in need of seasonal, part-time workers

Seasonal jobs have been filled relatively quickly in Southeast Iowa as people seek out extra spending money — or just money to fill their gas tanks — and emerge from their pandemic shells.

"We've been very busy this year with the seasonal workers," said Wanda Hind, secretary of human resources for the Burlington School District. "We have a lot of people who were interested. A lot of them were our employees, too. They like to keep busy over the summer."

The district was able to fill each of its 77 summer positions, which range from summer school to maintenance, concessions and technology.

Henry and Lee counties also reported having good luck filling seasonal positions. Des Moines County Conservation had to cut back on its seasonal workers from three to one.

"We were lucky enough to have last year’s intern come back for this year so we didn’t even have to search," Des Moines County Conservation Director Chris Lee said.

The city of Burlington, however, is still in need.

Parks Superintendent Ryan Gourley said Parks and Recreation needs to fill two three-quarter time positions for $12.50 per hour and two year-round 29-hour-per-week forestry positions for $19 per hour. Both pay out a dollar higher than they did last year.

Gourley said the unfilled positions have resulted in upping the number of spots it contracts out for mowing from 38 last year to 50 this year.

Gourley also said he has been coming in earlier to do paperwork so he can spend more of his workday out in the field, but even still, he said some projects and duties like shelter facility upkeep are being put on hold as his department allocates its resources to maintenance and "keeping things looking as good as possible."

"Working with the parks is a great job," Gourley said. "You get to be outside and help improve our community. People do appreciate that. We're definitely family-oriented and we care about our employees."

Michaele Niehaus covers business, development, environment and agriculture for The Hawk Eye. She can be reached at mniehaus@thehawkeye.com.

This article originally appeared on The Hawk Eye: Burlington, West Burlington pools increase pay to attract lifeguards