The Northeast Spa and Pool Association has prioritized two initiatives meant to help solve problems both local and national.
To address the industry’s most prevalent national pain point — the labor shortage — NESPA has formed a task force. Co-chair Jeremy Hasbrouck has formulated a presentation that he gives at local career days and job fairs in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. NESPA and the task force are working to document and package the presentation so industry members around the country can use the materials to reach out to local education and training institutions in the hopes of generating interest in the pool and spa industry as a career.
The materials provide talking points and slides, as well as advice about logistical issues, such as how to gain access to job fairs and other appropriate events.
One strategy Hasbrouck uses is asking the children and young adults what they want to do when they grow up, explained NESPA Executive Director Dominick Mondi.
“He explains that almost everything you can say, you can tie back to what we do,” Mondi said. “If you want to be an engineer, you can work in the pool industry. If you want to be an architect, come work in the pool industry. If you want to be a plumber or to drive heavy equipment, you can have a place in the pool industry. If you want to get an MBA, we need those in the pool industry at every level.”
The presentation also emphasizes the fun aspect of the industry. “Why wouldn’t you want to have a career doing what you love in an industry that gets you excited?” Mondi said.
The information will be made available to anybody in the industry who would like to make similar presentations in their own region.
The task force recently held a pool design competition for students, with the winners to join the Penn Jersey Chapter as guests at a Philadelphia Flyers hockey game.
The program is not meant to provide instant solutions to the labor shortage. “We’re playing the long game,” Mondi said. “We understand that there are businesses that need labor right now. But at the same time, you have to build recognition for the industry and get people excited for the fact that there are real careers here.”
The organization has taken on another significant initiative — trying to solve a problem specific to the cold-weather regions. When opening pools in spring, service technicians sometimes come across crystalline formations on the pool walls. To the touch, they feel like salt on a pretzel. Oftentimes, the problem can be solved simply by balancing the water and getting it up to temperature for the season. Other times, an acid wash is needed. In the most extreme cases, the formations must be ground off the pool surface, says Rob Romano, general manager of Dave Cooke Plaster Co. in South Windsor, Conn.
“You don’t want to grind a brand-new finish,” he said. “That’s not a good day. It’s like you have a new car and you get a dent in it.”
Just figuring out the solution can delay pool use by days or weeks, which is especially frustrating where the season is so short and opening season so hectic.
The industry does not yet know what causes the formations. The problem doesn’t seem to be restricted to any particular surface finish material or geographical area. Nor do they know why some cases are easier to fix, while others require more extreme measures.
To gather information, NESPA is coordinating a campaign to collect samples of the crystal formations and send them for testing. Members hope to learn the makeup of the crystals, as well as how they form, so the group can move toward discovering a solution for preventing them.
All professionals who discover the formations are asked to scrape off a sample, bag it and send to NESPA, which is collaborating with the Pool & Hot Tub Alliance and the National Plasterers Council. A website has been set up — GotScale.org — with instructions on how to collect and send the samples.
There need to be numerous samples, from a variety of areas and pool professionals. Attempts in the last couple years to collect samples have yielded very little participation, so NESPA is making a big push and asking that any pro who comes across the phenomenon help out.
“There are a lot of opinions and theories being floated around out there at the moment,” about why this problem is occurring, Romano said. “We’re trying to collect the data and follow the science.”
