4. Seasonal Staffing Challenges and Solutions
Staffing Strategies that Work.
written by UCCR Staff
(We’ll cover balancing guest experience with facility realities in our next monthly post. To find blogs 1, 2, and 3 of this 8-part series, click here.)
The Seasonal Staffing Challenge
Most nonprofit camps and retreat centers face the same five staffing hurdles:
Short hiring window
High turnover
Compressed training time
Variable skill levels
Retention of important knowledge
If you run a camp or retreat center, you already know that facilities aren’t your only challenge; the people are. You’re not doing anything wrong.
Summer sneaks up fast, and before you know it, you’re scrambling to fill key roles.
Many seasonal staff commit for one summer (or even part of a season), forcing you to start over each year.
Staff arrive just days before guests. You’re expected to onboard, train, and certify them in record time.
Your team may include veteran counselors and first-time lifeguards, each with different needs and learning styles.
When staff leave, they take their hard-earned insights with them, leaving next year’s crew to reinvent the wheel.
Seasonal staffing is one of the toughest parts of operating a mission-driven property. Hiring enough staff, training them quickly, and ensuring they provide a great guest experience can feel like an uphill battle every year.
But it doesn’t have to be. With the right systems in place, seasonal staffing can shift from being a stress point to becoming one of your camp’s greatest strengths.
The Great News - Strategies That Actually Work
We’ve managed seasonal staffing challenges for many customers, and these tried-and-true approaches consistently help:
1. Start Recruiting Early
Don’t wait until spring to post jobs. Begin outreach in the fall to returning staff, local colleges, and faith communities. Many qualified candidates secure summer jobs before January.
4. Standardize Your Training
Develop a repeatable training program that combines online pre-work (policies, safety basics, HR paperwork) with in-person skill-building. This reduces the overwhelm of cramming everything into one orientation week.
2. Build a Strong Alumni Pipeline
Your best recruiters are past staff and campers. Stay connected with them year-round through newsletters, social media, and alumni events. Offer referral bonuses to recruit friends.
5. Invest in Leadership Staff
Returning staff in leadership roles (program leaders, retreat workers, etc.) provide stability and mentorship for new hires. Make it worth their while to come back by offering incremental pay raises, leadership development, and recognition.
3. Cross-Train for Flexibility
Train staff in more than one role. A counselor who can also lifeguard or a kitchen assistant who can step into housekeeping gives you flexibility when someone calls out, or a group arrives early.
6. Document Everything
Create manuals and checklists for each role. When staff turnover is inevitable, your systems carry the knowledge forward so each new team isn’t starting from scratch.
Case Study: Turning Overwhelm Into Stability
One camp we support used to hire half its staff just weeks before opening day. Training was rushed, and turnover was high. We worked with them to:
• Start fall recruiting at college fairs
• Build an online training portal for policy and safety basics
• Offer small stipends for staff who committed by February
The result? Their staff retention jumped by 40%, and orientation week was less stressful because everyone arrived with baseline knowledge already in place.
The Off-Season Opportunity
Just like facility maintenance, staffing benefits from off-season work. Use your quieter months to:
• Audit your job descriptions and pay scales
• Strengthen relationships with local colleges and nonprofits
• Update your training curriculum
• Plan staff housing improvements (a big retention factor!)
The Takeaway
Seasonal staffing doesn’t have to be a yearly nightmare. With early recruitment, strong systems, and intentional leadership development, you can build a reliable seasonal team that enhances your mission.
Struggling with seasonal staffing systems?
At UCCR, we’ve helped nonprofit camps and retreat centers create hiring pipelines, training programs, and retention strategies that reduce stress and build consistency. We’d love to talk about how to do the same for your property.
Once your staffing solutions are resolved, the next step is to balance the guest experience with facility realities. You can read that next month as part 5 of our 8-part blog series.