Alaska's Hospitality Recruitment Challenge: 'Who wants to work just four months of the year?'.

• Author: Mottl, Judy
• Position: EDUCATION

Alaska boasts incredible summers with long days and an abundance of natural beauty. As soon as the snow and ice begin to melt, tourists arrive en masse and businesses statewide open their doors to meet visitor needs: accommodations, food, and fun. For those in need of work, Alaska's summer season is burst-ing with hospitality and--tourism--related jobs, but there is one major hitch--most of these positions are seasonal, lasting just about four months.

Hospitality and recreational venues regularly seek out new talent by finding new and unique recruiting methods and establishing incentives for employees who return each year.

"It's interesting as it's kind of a bifurcated industry right now," says Economist Neal Fried, adding the state tourism segment is "looking really good" and he expects continued growth in the future. The local hospitality business segment, however, isn't as fortunate, says Fried--the restaurant and tavern sectors are experiencing a softening due to Alaska's recession.

Alaska's tourism industry is one of extremes with vast fluctuations in employment numbers. Fried uses the Denali region as an example: unemployment can be as low as 2 percent in the summer and hit 20 percent in the winter. "That is a real challenge for recruitment because who wants to work for just four months of the year?" He adds that trying to recruit from outside of Alaska is getting tougher as there are greater job opportunities in the Lower 48, also a result of its healthy economy.

Training, Incentives

At Alyeska Resort, employee training pro-grams play a critical role in retaining the resort's workforce, according to Human Resources Director Kaleen Haines.

As a year-round destination, the resort--located about forty miles from Anchorage in the heart of Girdwood--offers summer and winter excursions and features the 300-room Hotel Alyeska.

"Hospitality is a fast-paced industry that requires continual learning and growth to keep in stride with our customers' expectations," says Haines. This has prompted the resort to embrace several new technologies, including an online learning management system that helps the resort systematically train and develop employee skills.

"We hope that this leads to both an enhanced customer experience as well as an enriched employment experience for our staff," says Haines, adding that recruiting, hiring, and retaining workers isn't challenging on all fronts.

"It's yes and no. It really depends on the position. More...