Troll the internet, LinkedIn, social media, and you’ll find things like, “advertise, publish a flyer, buy ads on Indeed, or expand your reach!” You’ll get the tried and true predictable instructions that you’ve tried over and over and don’t work.

I’ve been recruiting swim instructors and lifeguards for over 20 years and I wanted to share the two absolute best things that have worked for me.

1. Word of mouth: friends working with friends
   • A generous referral bonus is gravy on top, not the driver
   • Having a collaborative, fun, and empowering workplace culture is the single best thing you can do to make this work.
2. In-person recruiting presence at locations your staff population go
   • I hire part time staff primarily from my local high school. I spend 4-6 hours each month during lunch periods giving out candy.
   • No hard sell.
   • No “ask.” (fill out an application today)
   • Brand awareness, personal connection and familiarity building.
   • Drive people to website applications; if they want the job they’ll know where to go and remember you.

Beyond the “Magic Ad”: Why Relationship Recruiting Wins

We’ve been conditioned to believe that if we just find the right platform or spend enough on a “Featured Job” credit, the applications will pour in. But the reality of our industry is that we aren’t just hiring workers; we are building a team of first responders and educators. To win, we have to move beyond the “ad game” and master the “relationship game.”

Here is how you turn those core pillars of word-of-mouth and in-person presence into a self-sustaining recruitment machine.

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The Culture-Referral Engine: Turning Staff into Brand Ambassadors

The most successful recruiting starts inside your own pump room. When your current staff—your 17-year-old WSI or your lead lifeguard—enjoys their work, they naturally become your most effective recruiters. They want to work where their friends are, and they value those friendships too much to recommend a job that doesn’t offer a great experience.

Culture is the Meat; the Bonus is the Gravy A generous referral bonus is a fantastic way to say “thank you” to your team, but the true driver of recruitment is an empowering workplace. In an elite aquatic environment, empowerment looks like:

• Autonomy in the Lane: Giving instructors the agency to organize their teaching stations within safety guidelines.
• Professional Respect: Treating every staff member as a professional. When we treat a teenager like a first responder, they rise to the level of that expectation.
• A Path for Growth: Providing a clear trajectory from “new hire” to “leader.”

One of the most effective ways to foster this is through a structured Staff Mentorship Program. By allowing employees to work directly with leadership to solve real-world facility problems, you aren’t just giving them a paycheck—you’re giving them a stake in the organization. When staff members document their progress and see their innovations implemented on the deck, they develop a level of professional pride that they can’t help but share with their peers.

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The “Long Game” High School Presence

Success at the local high school isn’t about a one-time event; it’s about consistency and familiarity. High school students are bombarded with “asks” all day long. When you show up without a “hard sell,” you stand out.

The Power of Personal Connection Spending 4–6 hours a month during lunch periods allows you to leverage “Effective Frequency”—the marketing principle that people need to see a brand multiple times before they trust it.

• Consistency: You become a fixture in their environment. You aren’t a recruiter; you’re the “Swim Lesson Guy” or the “Pool Lady.”
• The “Non-Ask”: By giving out candy and simply being available for a chat, you build a bridge of trust. You are planting seeds.
• The Transition: When a student eventually decides they need a job or wants a change from their current role, they don’t go to a search engine. They go to the person they already know and like.

To make this work, keep the barrier to entry low. Have a small, professional sign with a QR code that leads directly to your application.

I like to have our website be super simple like https://yoursite.com/jobs

Have a list of your open jobs on that page and let people pick the position that best fits them. They’ll remember your kindness, interaction, and giveaways.

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Onboarding for Retention: Setting the Standard Early

Once your recruitment efforts bring new talent through the door, the focus shifts immediately to retention. The first 48 hours of employment are critical for setting the tone. If a new hire feels overwhelmed or under-prepared, they are less likely to stick around—and certainly less likely to recruit their friends.

The key is to provide professional, accessible training tools from day one. Utilizing a Swimming Ideas Membership allows you to hand your new hires a suite of PDFs, guides, and online courses the moment they are hired.

This immediate investment in their skills does two things:

1. Builds Confidence: They walk onto the deck on their first day with a clear understanding of lesson plans and safety protocols.
2. Validates the Culture: It proves that you are committed to their success, reinforcing the “collaborative and empowering” environment they were promised during the recruitment phase.

The Bottom Line: Be the Person, Not the Post

If you want to stop the cycle of being short-staffed every June, focus on the people right in front of you. Invest in your current team so deeply that they feel compelled to invite their friends to join. Build a presence in your community that is based on connection rather than desperation.

When you focus on a culture of mentorship and a consistent, low-pressure presence, you don’t just fill your schedule—you build a legacy for your pool.

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The initial visits

When you first start in-person recruiting you should have a table and a tablecloth with clear and distinct branding. If you don’t have a tablecloth, then make sure you have a large enough sign with your brand and QR code super visible.

The table is to hold your giveaways and display your brand. Any signage should have the minimum necessary text possible. 1 line. 1 website. Avoid anything longer than 1 sentence in total. This is not the time to practice your grade school diorama or tri-fold presentation for the science faire. One sign with your brand and link to your site and that’s it. Fill your table with your give-aways and your roadblocks.

That’s right. We’re going to be doing challenges. Challenges are the quintessential tool that drives memory, achievement, and joy. We’re going to apply the exact same psychology we use in our swimming lessons and in-person training to recruiting.

Giveaways for Challenges

I’m recruiting for swim lessons and lifeguards so all of my challenges are Aquatics specific.

Spread out your candy or give-away on the table and when someone approaches tell them they can earn a piece of candy or the toy or thing by doing a simple challenge. Here are a list of potential things you can have people do quickly and easily.

• Get 2 people to wave at you, but you cannot talk and it cannot be your friends standing next to you.
  • This is a social experiment that forces people out of their comfort zone and shows you people who are willing to blow their whistle at an adult breaking the rules, or able to tell a swimmer they need to change their stroke technique.
• Get 2 people to jump two times, but it cannot be one of your friends standing next to you.
  • Similar to the get 2 people to wave. This is interacting with their peers and strangers to do things; swim lessons, rule enforcement, etc.
• Put out a spread of 3 diving rings and 4 diving sticks. Ask people to invent a game with them that isn’t “ring toss.”
  • Can they be creative?
• Have a CPR dummy, an O2 tank with tube, and a face mask and ask people to assemble the oxygen and put the mask on the dummy correctly.
• Have a CPR dummy and ask people to do compressions correctly.
• Have a box of nitrile gloves on the table and ask people to put them on and take them off safely.
  • Are they teachable? You can teach a brief easy blood-borne pathogen training in safe removal of bloody gloves.

All of these challenges are simple asks that are game-ified to drive interaction. When people are participating you can talk about your job offerings, what the positions entail and how people can apply. You can talk about your pay rates, benefits, and other things you think they might want to know.

You are building a base of expectations for the first few visits: simple interaction for a high-quality reward.

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How things change after your initial visits

I’m going to assume that you will have a regular presence at the venue. If you’re going to the same recruiting location every month for a couple hours each month, then its time to change things up.

You’ve done your challenges, had amusing and interesting interactions with people and you’re a known quantity. People will approach your table expecting you to require the same challenges and effort for their rewards.

Remove the roadblock for a while; maybe for the whole quarter if you’re going regularly.

Stop doing challenges. Make them entirely optional.

Give your candy away for free; no challenges, no requirements. You’re providing a free service. The people that are interested will build up the courage to talk to you when they’re ready. Your current employees will socialize and talk about work or the upcoming season, and you’ll recognize the people that are bold enough to get candy but will never join your staff (and you’ll know who you don’t want to work with).

For repeat visits you’re there as a resource, a guide, and a positive candy machine with minimal social cost to earn. Every toy, candy, and reward you hand out is another reminder of your brand.