BC Business
A new website connects resorts looking to hire with job seekers keen to hit the slopes.
Resort businesses have their own challenges when it comes to hiring. Hospitality wages are typically low. Housing prices are often high. This past July, after six years living and working in Canadian ski towns, Whistler-based Shane Martz came up with a potential solutiona website to connect ski resort employers with prospective staff. Modelled after travellers’ job site iBackpacker, which Martz previously launched in Australia, Ski Resort Jobs gives employers a choice of free or featured listings and a tick box for “Staff Accommodation Available,” if it’s offered.
“This way, job seekers can easily see which jobs provide accommodation right away when browsing,” Martz says. “While unfortunately we cannot do anything about the actual shortage in housing, at least we can show potential applicants the jobs that can sort this out for them.”
At the moment, Martz adds, the best the site can do to offset high living costs is to increase the exposure of ski resort job opportunities, on an easy-to-use platform that helps people potentially get a second or third gig.
The service is free for job seekers, 7,000 of whom were visiting each month by late November. Though Martz doesn’t yet track metrics for hires, at that time 400 employers had posted 450 openings and 4,000 people had submitted applications.