Many lifeguards were students who had gone back to school and university. Photo: 123rf.com
If you are thinking of heading to the public swimming pools to cool down- you might find the doors shut.
Some centres are grappling with a shortage of lifeguards, with a lack of international workers and tertiary students heading back to school.
Queenstown Lakes District Council sport and recreation manager Simon Battrick said the area was "desperately short" of lifeguards.
He said a staff shortage meant Queenstown's aquatic centre Alpine Aqualand would have to close on the weekends from 18 February, until positions were filled.
Battrick said a lot of the district's lifeguards were students who had gone back to school and university, which had made their staffing problem worse.
"We have had quite a bit of a shortage of lifeguards for the last probably six to nine months at centres but it's been exasperated a little bit more in the last while. We probably need about ten shifts filled, and we essentially just need them as soon as possible," he said.
Canterbury's Hanmer Springs Thermal Pools & Spa had been forced to reduce its hours for the first time ever because it could not find enough lifeguards.
General manager Graeme Abbot said the centre was about 11 lifeguards short, and from 13 February would be closing two hours earlier each day.
"It's with regret that we do this over summertime. This is very unusual for us, we have never done this before and it is a direct relationship between numbers of staff that we're able to have working for us at the moment, and how many staff we need," he said.
Abbot said the centre was only able to attract three staff after advertising throughout January.
He said a lack of international workers was a reason for the lifeguard shortage.
"There is still not the level of internationals in the country and certainly not the levels of backpackers in the country that there have been prior to Covid-19. Normally in the summer we would have 20 internationals working for us, this summer we've had 10," he said.
Abbot said he had been consulting with others in the aquatic industry as to how they could collectively make it more attractive, and make roles more attractive to people.
Auckland Council's leisure network service manager Garth Dawson said the recruitment and retention of lifeguards had been a challenge across the country.
He said Auckland Council centres had around 40 roles needing filling, and the staffing shortage put more pressure on full-timers having to cover vacant shifts.
Wellington City Council community pools manager Amy Carter said council pools had been under pressure with lifeguard shortages for the last year.
She said the greatest impact was in July, with one pool having to close down temporarily.
"For the last six months we've put a really big push on bringing more people in, interviewing a lot, training people, there's been a huge push on it, but it definitely needs to be ongoing so we don't find ourselves in that position again," she said.
Recreation Aotearoa acting CEO Tracey Prince-Puketapu said the entire recreation sector had been facing a workforce shortage - largely due to a lack of international workers.
"In the aquatic space we normally do see a bit of a pinch point in February and March, with university students who were getting some summer work at summer pools now leaving to head back to university. That definitely kinda adds to the pressure, and when there's already a shortage there it just increases that pressure," she said.
Prince-Puketapu said the sector needed to look at its recruitment strategies to attract more lifeguards to fill the vacant roles, such as promoting the opportunities workers had for growth within the recreation workforce.
