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W O R K F O R M E / S P R I N G 2 0 2 6 24 Seasonal needs The Nonantum Resort in Ken- nebunkport doesn't hire foreign workers with visas, but it still uses creative approaches to hir- ing. The resort has about 30 full- time employees, but has about 200 workers when it's open from May through December. In 2019, the Nonantum creat- ed its Raising People Up program to hire people recently released from prison or on work-release, people in recovery, new Mainers and people with disabilities, says Jean Ginn Marvin, who heads the family-owned business. L a s t ye a r , t h e i n n s e n t a van every day to the Southern Maine Women's Reentry Center in Windham to pick up women on work-release for jobs at the Nonantum. Besides helping with employment, the Nonantum helps them get ID cards, phones, bank accounts and clothing. The inn also hires workers from a community of Ango- lan immigrants who are in the United States legally and live in Sanford. So far, Marvin hasn't seen any indications that they would hesitate to return to the Nonantum for the summer be- cause of immigration enforce- ment concerns. Most of all, Marvin said her best recruitment tool is the Non- antum's culture of employee appreciation that brings workers back year after year. "The upshot of it is that each season 90-odd percent of our people come back," she says. "That's a crazy number in this industry. Most places are like half." The shoulder seasons Getting through the summer is one thing, but having enough staff to make it through the busy fall months is another. Staffing at the Bay View Col- lection hotels in Camden and Rockport typically go up about 40 percent during the peak season of June to October, says Erick An- derson, area general manager for the Bay View Collection-Camden. Anderson is in charge of the Lord Camden Inn, the Grand Harbor Inn and the 16 Bay View Hotel in Cam- den, which are open year-round. The hotels fill many of their seasonal jobs with college and high school students and teach- ers who live in the area, offer- ing them set schedules and dis- counts at restaurants, hotels and the Maine Sport Outfitters retail outlets owned by the hotels' parent company. But students and teachers typically return to school come late August or September, putting pressure on the hotels to make sure positions are filled for the busy fall season. One way to help is hiring stu- dents with J1 visas from Bos- nia, Romania and elsewhere in eastern Europe. The hotels have "fine-tuned" their hiring model through the years, Anderson Scarborough, ME // Pittsseld, ME // Auburn, NH A FAMILYOWNED BUSINESS SERVING OUR CLIENTS SINCE 1948 AAAENERGY.COM Contact us to learn about customized HVAC-R service plans for your facility. HVAC, PLUMBING & ELECTRICAL 24/7 EMERGENCY SERVICE DESIGN/BUILD SERVICES COMMERCIAL REFRIGERATION BUILDING CONTROLS MAINTENANCE PLANS Building efficiency. It's what we do. « C O N T I N U E D F R O M P R E V I O U S PAG E H o s p i t a l i t y P H O T O / C O U R T E S Y O F B A Y V I E W C O L L E C T I O N Workers at the Nontantum Resort in Kennebunkport.