Solutions Group: Recruiting, Hiring, & Retaining Staff (and Policies)

Let's find real solutions to the staffing crisis - together! 

For many years, camp professionals around the country have talked about staffing challenges. Each year, the difficulty for finding and retaining seasonal camp staff has grown more difficult. The sudden onset of the pandemic only amplified this problem - it's not new, it just got harder. It’s time we start getting real about changes camps can make to recruit, hire, and retain seasonal staff - because our camps cannot function without them.

Join a think tank group searching for intentional ideas and solutions to address this problem for their camps. Tackle questions around benefits, wages, time off, hiring procedures, culture, recruiting strategies, retention, and more. This group will lean on each other as we embrace, with curiosity, new and past methods to recruit, hire, and retain staff. 

Why this Solutions Group on staffing?

Promoting that working at camp is fun and builds leadership skills is not enough - camps have to rethink how they pay, recruit, train, schedule, and more in order to find the right staff to accomplish the goals. 

FAQs about Solution Groups

What’s a Solution Group?

A Solution Group is a gathering of camp professionals who seek to find solutions, workshop ideas, and actively engage in solving a problem, challenge, or crisis.

Who should attend a Solution Group?

Any professional who is actively involved in the area of focus for the problem the group is addressing. For example, a group focused on hiring staff may include directors, managers, human resources staff, and others who participate in the hiring policy development and process. 

What is the difference between a Solution Group and a Networking Group?

A Solution Group requires everyone in the group to be actively involved in finding solutions. This may look like asking questions, being vulnerable with sharing new ideas, sharing real challenges, being open to new concepts, providing constructive feedback to others, and a willingness to change from what’s always been done in the past.  

Why a Solution Group?

Certain challenges and problems facing the camp industry are not new and are rooted in past traditions, cultural norms, bureaucracy, and the mindset of “we’ve always done it that way!” Solution Groups set out to form new ideas and develop policies and procedures that turn into change. The group will tackle hard topics from a lens of intentional and curious problem solving. Every solution may not be right for every camp, but every camp must be willing to open their minds to new strategies in order to continue to serve our campers, families, and communities.