Boat & Motor Dealer / Marina Dock Age, December 2005

The Challenges of Hiring the Right Person
by Dennis P. Kissman

Marina owners and managers often express frustration at not being able to hire quality people. The reason for their frustration is almost always that there’s “nobody out there to hire.” That’s a cop-out! The real reason is that marinas have not approached their search in the right way or, most likely, have not made the job as appealing as it needs to be to attract the type of person the marina is looking for.

Most positions offered by marina owners do not warrant relocation by the potential employee. This will dictate where and how you need to conduct your search. To complicate the process, you may be the only marina in the area, which limits your ability to attract someone with marina experience.

Another important factor that must be taken into account is the seasonality of the industry. Although seasonality is much more dramatic in the northern parts of the country where there is a definitive boating season, it also occurs in the south (to a lesser degree. but it is still a factor you need to consider).

Regardless of where your marina is located, you’re going to find that a lack of any clear career path is one of the biggest deterrents for ambitious young people considering employment in the marina industry. The ability for someone to advance within an organization is a big factor when considering a job. When employees must change employers to advance their career paths, it often looks like the teeth on a saw — three steps up and forward and two steps down and backward.

Overcoming the challenges

Having identified some of the obstacles marinas face in hiring employees, how are the marinas going to overcome them?

First of all, marinas cannot deal with each of the challenges individually; they all interact to one degree or another. Also, keep in mind that there is no magical way to overcome a hiring challenge. Each situation will present its own difficulties, and the solution one marina comes up with may not work for the next marina, or even the next time the marina needs to hire someone.

I’d like to talk about some of the challenges we just mentioned, and offer my answers on ways that worked for me.   Continue »