Hiring Campground Employees in the Digital Age

Employees can make or break your business. Recruiting the very best talent possible in your local area is essential to the success of your campground. With the right employees, you’ll know that your visitors are satisfied and that your facility will run smoothly. For many campground owners, the hiring process can seem daunting. Maybe you’ve had a hard time finding quality employees or don’t attract many applications for open jobs. It can be frustrating to try to find employees if your recruitment tactics aren’t working.

Thankfully, this can also be an easy problem to fix. Posting jobs and building your brand reputation online are powerful ways to find the best employees. There is a huge pool of online job candidates in North America, and letting those individuals know that you are accepting applications can provide a significant boost to your recruitment efforts. While it might seem intimidating at first, using online tools for hiring employees is an effective and easy way to meet talent needs.

Why Hiring Online Makes Sense

You may wonder why posting jobs online makes any more sense than placing an ad in your local newspaper. The answer is found in some basic job-seeker statistics. Worldwide, 55 percent of job seekers looked for new positions online while only 33 percent looked for new positions in newspapers. Job seekers who looked for positions online used both traditional job listing sites and social media sites.

For the most talented job seekers, applying to companies accepting applications online is a great way to streamline their career searches. Instead of being constrained to one geographic area, candidates can browse anywhere in the country. With online and over-the-phone interviewing becoming increasingly popular, it’s getting easier to find job seekers who aren’t in your own backyard. This can be particularly advantageous for campground owners looking for seasonal employees who make a career working in different regions during different times of the year.

Hiring online also makes sense because it’s cost effective. Many websites allow employers to post openings for free. Websites that do charge for posting jobs tend to offer much lower pricing options than traditional media. In some areas, local newspapers provide job listing packages that feature both in-print and online job ads to attract the widest swath of candidates possible.

Where Should You Post Jobs Online?

If you’re interested in hiring employees online, one of the first steps you’ll need to take is deciding what websites you’ll use to list your job. There are a lot of options out there, but it’s generally best to stick with well-known sites that boast many job seekers. Posting jobs on these sites is typically easy, and many offer both paid and free job posting options.

Among the most popular, widely used sites for employers are

• Indeed
• Glassdoor
• Zip Recruiter
• LinkedIn
• Craigslist
• Monster

For work camping positions, several smaller sites are

• Workamper News
• Workamping Jobs
• KOA Work Kamper Program

You should also check with local colleges and universities to see if they will post jobs on their websites for free. The U.S. National Labor Exchange is another great site to post job listings that can be viewed by candidates around the country. Of course, your local chamber of commerce may also offer help posting jobs.

How to Write Job Descriptions that Attract Great Candidates

If you’re hiring employees online, nothing is more important than writing a great job description. A strong job description explains what you’re interviewing for, what you look for in employees and what the unique duties of the position are. As you write your job description, be sure to

• include details about the business and work environment,
• create a detailed list of day-to-day job duties,
• mention any special or occasional duties,
• share the years of experience you expect candidates to have and
• offer a general salary range.

Review these guidelines to make sure that your job description gives an accurate picture of the position for which your campground is interviewing.

Leveraging Social Media for Hiring

Accepting applications through online job sites can invigorate the interviewing process, but you might find that other online avenues are just as helpful for hiring employees. Be sure to post links to your job listings on your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn profiles. Encourage followers to let their friends know that you’re accepting applications. Of course, you’ll need to make sure that viewers can share or retweet your posts so they reach the widest audience possible.

Social media provides a powerful means to let job seekers know that you’re interviewing for an upcoming position too. If you want to hold open interviews, you can easily advertise your dates and times on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Posting both in advance of the interview date and on the day of will help attract a wider variety of job candidates.

Making the Most of Online Opportunities

Hiring employees online is a great way to staff your campground while attracting the best candidates possible. If you’d like to make the most of this strategy, make sure that your campground has a strong online presence. Use your social media profiles daily, or hire a company that can help you do so. Make sure that your website is up to date and includes plenty of short, snappy text and attractive photos. Building your campground‘s brand reputation online will help you attract excellent job candidates while allowing you to reach potential visitors too.