CoolWorks.com Podcasts

We're always up to something new. The latestst and greatest is that we are now dabbling in podcasts using BlogTalkRadio. Our first podcast featured Tina Brudzinski, Human Resources Manager, at Crested Butte Mountain Resort. She was as gracious as ever and a perfect guest. She answered generic questions about working for a ski resort and also told us a bit about how she got her job at Crested Butte.

Interview with Tina Brudzinski from Crested Butte

Next up on our podcast will be my long time friend and former co-worker at Princess Tours, Rick Peterson, who is the Hotel Services Manager at the Mt. McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge in Trapper Creek, Alaska. Rick started his own hospitality career as a seasonal employee working for Princess at their Kenai property. On the podcast he will share some of his wisdom regarding how you not only decide if seasonal work is right for you, but also what to do once you've made that decision.

The Seasonal Employee Journey with Rick Peterson
Tuesday, October 20 at 3pm Pacific / 6pm Eastern

We'll cover the following topics on the call:

• Where to work
• When to apply
• How to get your application noticed
• What to expect once you're hired

If you or your organization would like to join me on one of our podcasts, please email me. We don't have a set schedule yet, but plan on doing a few of them each month, and they will be featured on the following sites.

• CoolWorks on BlogTalk Radio
• My CoolWorks

Also, if you ever want to interview one of us at Cool Works for your podcast or blog, please let us know. We're happy to share our knowledge about the seasonal jobs.

Now Arriving - Your New Summer Staff

It's that time of the year where the big kids head out to their summer jobs. I clearly remember being the Mom Cat as it were when my first round of seasonal employees / driver guides headed to Alaska in the spring of 1999. We all loaded up their stuff into the Gray Line of Seattle motorcoach and shuttled them to SeaTac. As they were saying their goodbyes in their Gray Line of Alaska red coats, I felt like a mom sending her kids off to camp. I hoped that each one would find what they were looking for in Alaska and that nothing bad would happen to them.

The enthusiasm right now on our social network is bubbling over. The countdown timers are mentioned daily. "Two more days left!" "15 days left!" "No fair, I still have month to go." They cannot wait to get to their new jobs and their homes in the parks and other great places.

So, my encouragement to you today is simple. Help them have the best summer job ever! The rewards to them will be great, but the rewards to you for being an employer of choice are greater. So here's a quick checklist of ways to start off on the right foot.

Make a great first impression!

• Smile, smile, smile!
• Know their names and be expecting them just like guests at your resort/ranch, etc.
• Be sure that employee housing is clean and ready for use.
• Hang welcome signs.
• Provide maps so they know where they're going.

Build Your Team

• Have a BBQ so that your new employees get to know their co-workers.
• Provide mentors to those employees who are new to your operation.
• Team them up during orientation.
• Find out what the one thing they want to do is this summer and help them do it.

Help your employees succeed.

• Keep your HR office door open for questions and concerns.
• Help them learn their jobs quickly.
• Buddy check with your employees to see how things are going early on.
• Let them know when they're doing a great job!
• Feedback is important. Encourage it.
• It's normal for people to be nervous when they reach a new place. Help them to feel comfortable by answering their questions and taking care of their needs.

That's enough for now since I know that you have plenty of items on your to-do lists. Treat your new employees well and they'll be champions for your organization in no time. I hear the train whistle now....

Your Employees Are Talking About You

It's true. For good or ill, they talk about you all of the time. And you know what? As much as you might like to believe that all of it is good, you would be wrong a good portion of the time. You may also believe that your marketing message will keep you in their good graces, but it won't. Actions speak louder than words.

If you haven't noticed, people seem to share their opinions with whomever will listen and the Internet along with the 24-hour news cycle keeps all of us informed about everything. Strong voices may sway a fine person from working for you or being a guest at your property. Quiet voices do also get their share of attention. In our experience, savvy job seekers will weigh all of the words before they decide for themselves. But what about the ones that just see one bad review and decide to never check you out? What about those that have a negative experience that stays with them for years that they just can't shake? Is it worth losing a potential employee or guest because you did not think about how you treat / treated your employees or applicants? I hope that the answer to that last question is no.

We at Cool Works pay attention to what these job seekers and employees have to say and we do so for several reasons.

1. We cannot be everywhere so we listen to what is being said about previous, current or future clients. We want to make sure that the employers we highlight pass muster. As best as we can, we do a gut check to make sure that the employers we feature not only fit our niche of jobs in great places (tm), but also pass the "niece test." Would we send a loved one to work at this place?
2. We've been at this a while - 13 years - and we have (almost) heard it all. We generally can tell the difference between one person's bad experience and everyone's bad experience. Four out of five of us at Cool Works started our careers in seasonal jobs and our lives are the richer for those experiences. We believe that seasonal and summer jobs change lives and we want everyone to have a good experience.
3. Lastly, and perhaps the most important, is that our reputation is directly tied to those employers who advertise on our website. If you treat an employee well, we feel great about working with you. If you treat an employee or job seeker poorly, it reflects negatively on us. We're very sensitive about that and very protective of our tribe. The bottom line is that if an employer no longer passes the "niece" test, we'll pull them from our site. We don't like to do it and it's generally messy, but for us, it's not worth sending someone to a place that will only dash their dreams. Please pass our test.

Just so you don't think that it isn't all negative, we so often hear glowing reviews of our employers and awesome stories about how their summer job changed their lives, or that they've made friends that they'll have forever, or that the folks that they worked for were amazing. We LOVE to hear those stories. They truly make our days and keep us motivated to serve our job seekers and help you as our employers find great people. Keep 'em coming.

So how can you get the glowing review by your employees and job seekers?

• For starters, treat them well.
• Respond quickly.
• Respect their time and effort.
• Remember the Golden Rule.
• Pay them fairly for work done.
• Give them a safe place to work and make sure to return them safely to their loved ones at the end of the day.
• Listen to them.
• Heed their suggestions.
• Provide secure and safe housing.
• Give them an opportunity to speak to you before they share their experience with all of their "friends" on the Internet.
• Be a GREAT employer!

By treating your people well, you'll have fans galore. You may even have future guests to your resort or ranch or camp or whatever. You never know who someone is or who they know until you spend a little time getting to know them. Be worthy of their good words, because like I said, your employees are talking about you.

Are You Courteous?

"There is nothing that costs so little and goes so far as courtesy."

I keep a quote book and this quote above is a keeper. My reason for sharing it now is simple. Now is the time when people really start to look for summer jobs. These people have high hopes of getting their dream jobs, meeting new friends, seeing new places, you name it, they're dreaming it. Nothing can dash job seekers' hope so much as "crickets." I'm talking about putting out the effort to learn about an employer, completing the application, submitting references, jumping through endless hoops and then hear NOTHING! Even an automated response is better than nothing, but what happened to common courtesy in this exchange. Has the web made us so ambivalent that we don't care anymore? I hope not.

I hearken back to one of my first posts after I joined Cool Works last spring - "Applicants are people too." Behind every completed form and electronic signature is a person; a living, breathing person. Are they not as worthy of time as you?

It is simple.

• Acknowledge the effort.
• Thank them for applying.
• Try to make it work. If it does, GREAT! If it doesn't, be nice about it.
• Be courteous.

Because really, isn't that what you would expect if you were the applicant?

73 Percent

More and more folks are using the Internet to find jobs according to a survey by The Conference Board. Of course this is something that we like to hear at Cool Works (tm) and we know it to be true because our clients find some great folks by using our website.

To read more about the The Conference Board's research, click here.

Currently on Cool Works (tm), the ski resort jobs are leading the charge paired with seasonal jobs in sunny climes like Florida. But, sooner that we all expect, summer jobs will be back again. Heck, we're half way to Halloween already. Where does the time go?