The number of respondents who consider staffing to be a top industry concern continued to fall in 2024, though staffing is still the No. 1 issue for the aquatic professionals surveyed, with 63.5% selecting it as one of the greatest challenges for the industry. This is down from 69.8% in 2023, and 82.3% in 2022. (See Figure 28.)
As the challenges around staffing have lessened, other concerns become more prominent, including equipment and facility maintenance, up from 53.3% in 2023 to 60.5% in 2024, and budgetary issues, up from 54.6% to 58.4%.
Lower-intensity challenges, including safety and risk management, conservation of energy, water and other resources, marketing and improving attendance, managing water and air quality, and regulatory issues remained steady from 2023 to 2024. At the same time, the slight decrease in those who considered outreach to disadvantaged populations to be a top industry challenge was matched by an increase in those who said coming up with new programming ideas is a top challenge.
Asked about their top facility-related challenge over the past year, respondents offered a range of responses, with many citing ongoing staffing difficulties for lifeguards as well as other staff members, budgetary issues, aging facilities and facility maintenance issues, the need for updates to equipment and amenities, and specific issues like weather impacts, and the scarcity and cost of chemicals. Here’s a sampling of their comments:
- “We service a small, rural community. We rely primarily on high school or first year college students for our lifeguarding staff. The community would love our pool to be open either longer, into the fall, or year-round. We cannot attract adult age guards to staff the pool. Our operating costs far exceed the mill levy which supplements our admission rates. So staffing and operating expenses are very challenging each year.”
- “We lack the budget to switch to energy-saving equipment, and in general. There are several renovations we would like to do but our current income is not able support those projects.”
- “We have been dealing with aging pools and pumps. We have two separate community pools and are considering closing one and upgrading the other.”
- “Unexpected maintenance. We are approaching the 10-year mark for our facility. Although we do annual PMs of all major equipment, we have had several unexpected breakdowns in the past 12 months that have caused service disruptions.”
- “Staffing has been an ongoing and one of our greatest operational challenges the past few years.”
- “Our facility is aging and therefore is facing even greater budgetary issues. Staffing is always an issue. The COVID bubble of lifeguard shortage is being felt in two places: lack of experience for developing supervisory staff and lack of prerequisite qualified candidates for lifeguard training.”
- “Managing the increase in attendance. I guess that’s a good problem to have.”
Looking Ahead
We also asked respondents to tell us their top goal for their facility for the coming year. Many said they wanted to get staffing levels right, continue to improve attendance and update their offerings, boost their revenues, or simply maintain. Here’s a sampling of top goals for 2025:
- “ADA improvements (just received a grant from the Lions to make these improvements)”
- “Add a new piece of equipment that offers children more things to enjoy.”
- “Bringing back more group exercise instruction”
- “Continue to build and maintain the strong instructional programing that we offer.”
- “Expand the learn to swim program and scholarship program to remove financial barrier for local youth to learn to swim.”
- “Filtration equipment is getting old. I am concerned about ongoing maintenance, upkeep and the replacement costs.”
- “Getting systems into place to make sure all onboarding and inservices are covered and understood by all staff members”
- “Improve staffing numbers by increasing wages to a competitive rate.”
- “Keep it safe and healthy, as always”
- “To build staff and develop new strategies to get the most from Gen Z. Managing them is very different than managing millennials!”
- “Update one thing at the pool.”