Industry News
The Co-founders of SEE YOU NEXT SEASON, have called on the North American ski industry to “do better” in terms of attracting and keeping employees.
In a hard-hitting podcast, Matt Fuller and Iain Lygo highlight the global options available for young adventurous seasonal workers, and how countries are very willing to host working holidaymakers to fill labour market gaps.
“There really is a visa arms race when it comes to attracting young workers. Canada and the USA have relatively slow visa processing times which limits the number of people heading to ski resorts,” said Iain Lygo.
Japanese working visas are processed in 5-10 days. Australia offers three-year visas which are often approved on application day.
“With short visa processing times, easy access to ski resorts, and great employee housing, Japan is a lot more employee-friendly than North America,” said Matt Fuller.
North American ski resorts are not just losing staff to other ski destinations. “Rather than working in ski towns, many young Canadians and Americans are enjoying the beach lifestyle in Australia and New Zealand,” said Iain Lygo.
The podcast also discusses how early job applications in June and July went unanswered, resulting in two things: Seasonal workers sending out mass job applications, and eventually going to other countries due to slow or no responses.
“I saw plenty of evidence of young people sending out 40-50 job applications because they weren’t getting any replies, while others simply gave up on North America and went to Europe,” said Iain Lygo.
The podcast discusses how the housing crisis in so many North American ski towns, combined with relatively low wages, is driving people out of the ski industry. This is compromising service levels and potentially guest safety.
“Everyone knows the housing trends in ski resorts are unsustainable, and it’s time to stop kicking the can down the road and get building,” said Matt Fuller.
“November is crunch month for seasonal workers. We get people calling us in tears because their housing has fallen through, or they’ve just realized how bad the housing situation is in the famous ski towns. If they are lucky they still have enough savings to shift to a different resort, but many never make it to day one of the season. Those people are lost to the ski industry forever,” said Iain Lygo.
Fuller and Lygo acknowledge that many ski resorts treat their staff very well and have few problems with their hiring, but they also argue that too many ski workers are getting burnt.
“When a 19-year-old flies 12,000 km for a job in North America and gets told that his employee housing is no longer available, that seriously damages the resort’s and wider industry’s reputation. Kids love to talk about their experiences. They can be a resort’s best recruiter or worst critic on social media,” said Iain Lygo.
The North American ski industry does need to “do better.”
