I was recently part of a discussion with a group of doggie day care / dog boarding facility owners about the longevity of employees. It quickly became clear that most of these owners regarded having an employee stay with them for more than a year or two was regarded as a success and the average length of employment was less than 1 year!
I’m the first to admit I don’t know the average length of employment at Pet Camp – my math skills aren’t that good. But I’m very confident that I would not view employment of a year or two a success! At Pet Camp we want counselors who stick around for the long haul, who learn both our systems and more importantly our values as a pet care business.
As a small, family-run business, one of the things we struggle with is how to continuously challenge our longer-term counselors; how to make their jobs (it’s not just playing with puppies and kittens you know) more enriching; and how to promote counselors into non-management positions (we just don’t need that many managers.)
So how are we doing? Pet Camp has been open for 21 years. Of our counselors who have been with us longer than what others define as long term here’s our current break down:
- 3 years – 3 counselors
- 4 years – 2 counselors
- 6 years – 6 counselors
- 7 years – 1 counselor
- 8 years – 1 counselor
- 9 years – 1 counselor
- 17 years — 2 counselors
- 18 years -1 counselor
- 19 years – 1 counselor
While we know it will continue to be a struggle to keep our counselors in our current competitive employment market and, more importantly, in the ridiculously expensive Bay Area, we will continue to do our best to provide a compensation package and a work environment that allows us to attract and retain the people you want caring for your dog or cat.
Thanks for reading!
Are you a pet parent in the San Francisco Bay Area? Take a moment to visit the Pet Camp web site where you can learn more about our award winning pet care including overnight care (boarding), doggie day care, bathing, training and the Pet Camp Express. Need something special, ask about the Pet Camp Concierge service.