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Slow start means pinching pennies for SkiCo Workforce

Alycin Bektesh
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Aspen Public Radio News

It’s a cold night in early December. It’s already pitch black outside, even though it’s just after 5 p.m. A few snowflakes are coming down, which is a good sign for those whose entire jobs rely on snowfall.

Tables start to fill up inside of Bumps restaurant at the base of Buttermilk Mountain. It’s bright and warm. The smell of dinner spreads through the massive lodge-like seating area.

 
Tonight’s menu includes two kinds of roast chicken, as well as garlic polenta, roasted chickpea, caesar salad, rolls and apple fritters for dessert.

 
And it’s all free.

 
SkiCo executives have aprons on, and are doling out the meal to hourly employees who haven’t been able to work yet this season because of the late snowfall. Many in the room have just arrived in Aspen for their first time. They have traveled from all over the country: Texas, Alaska, Arizona, Ohio, Missouri.

 
They are mostly chairlift operators. Mostly snowboarders. And have mostly been getting by on frozen pizza as they wait for their paychecks to roll in.

 
Among the top brass present for the free company meal is Jim Laing, vice president of human resources. He has overseen SkiCo’s workforce for decades, but that first moment with the new recruits still rings special.

Credit Alycin Bektesh / Aspen Public Radio News
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Aspen Public Radio News
SkiCo's top chefs and executives serve the free meal to new employees.

 
“Every day it’s so fun and exciting because people walk into the office, and they just got here, they just got off the plane and it’s fun and ecstatic at the same time,” said Laing.

 
When Laing first started,SkiCo got its seasonal hourly workforce through in-person job fairs. Thousands of people would camp out in the Buttermilk parking lot, having driven to Aspen from all over the country; 90 percent of seasonal employees were hired in two days.

 
Now, most of the job postings are done online with a few job fairs held locally and across the world. This year included Argentina and Peru. Laing said international workers help improve the the SkiCo culture.

 
“It’s really a guest service experience. 20% of our guests are international and at our peak about 10 percent of our employees are international,” said Laing. “It’s a little more work, it’s a little more expensive, but guests love it.”

 
As federal labor laws have become more strict, SkiCo has shifted from H2B visas — which allow for temporary work permits for non-citizens -—to J1 Visas, which are geared specifically for students and educational experiences.  

 
The size of SkiCo’s workforce is relatively consistent year in and year out. But the crew is growing up; 500 employees have over 20 years with the company, and 200 have over three decades. And factors throughout the valley are also affecting the workforce.

 
“Housing has become increasingly more difficult, particularly seasonal housing,” said Laing.

 
Laing said new technologies that allow for short term rentals like Airbnb and VRBO are taking units off the market that in the past had been rented to winter seasonal employees. The company is trying to combat this. This year, SkiCo hired Phillip Jeffries, whose sole job is housing strategy. Plans are in the works for new SkiCo housing units specifically for some of the 2,200 seasonal employees.

 
A group of attendees to the free meal are new workers at the Aspen Mountain Club. They all found housing in Basalt, through Craigslist. Six new Snowmass lifties all live together in The Commons, part of the 600-plus beds in the SkiCo inventory. They keep referring to the Snowmass Village housing as “the dorms”

Credit Alycin Bektesh / Aspen Public Radio News
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Aspen Public Radio News
SkiCo employees sign in for the free meal to tide them over while paychecks are light at the beginning of the season.

 
The Aspen Skiing Company never charges more than a third of a worker's gross income for housing. Laing said it's important that their employee only has one job, and are able to enjoy life in the valley when they are not at work, instead of having to pick up extra hours elsewhere.

 
Another step SkiCo takes to retain employees: supplementing year-round health insurance, even for temporary workers. They also have progressive allowances in their care packages - including paid maternity and paternity leave.

 
Along with the early season free dinners, there is an all-staff welcome party and separate departments each have welcome orientations as well. This past weekend, lifts finally began spinning on all four mountains… meaning those paychecks will start rolling in, and those frozen pizzas will only get eaten by choice.

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