New Year, Same Struggles?
“It’s kind of always the same issue in this industry.”
Jenn Kenbeek is no stranger to the age-old challenge of finding workers. As vice president and CFO of Horizon Pool & Patio in Wellington, Fla., she faces all staffing shortages head-on. “We don’t have many issues with in-office staffing,” she explains. “The struggles come with the service technicians that clean the pool. We find there’s not a lot of people who actually want to do that work.”
In Culp’s opinion, these labor struggles pre-date the pandemic and were only exacerbated in the years that followed, as nationwide lockdowns saw millions of Americans fall out of work. But rather than focusing on the cause of ongoing labor shortages, we dove into the most successful hiring and employee retention strategies that have helped both Kenbeek and Culp offset their struggles and aspire toward their dream team.
The Hiring Game: Playing Matchmaker
It’s a no-brainer that nailing down successful recruitment and hiring strategies can lay the groundwork for a dream team — thus cultivating the perfect match. Both Kenbeek and Culp use their company social media accounts as primary recruitment vessels. Whether it’s Facebook, Instagram, Craigslist or Indeed, they find advantages in online recruitment; low cost is a big one. However, there is still a benefit to some of the old-fashioned techniques, like staff referrals. “We try to encourage anyone on our current staff to have friends or family members come in and discuss potential employment opportunities,” Culp says, whose labor shortages are primarily felt in the construction sector of Crystal Pools. “Even following COVID, we’ve shifted our focus to look internally. We ask the people that already work for us if they have a friend or family member that’s a good fit for an open position, to get them to come in.”
“Sometimes we put up flyers on distributors’ job boards, where our guys go to fill up their chlorine, for example,” Kenbeek concurs. “Even flyers in our own store help, so people can see when we’re hiring. Honestly, it’s worked a few times when a parent sees the flyer and thinks, ‘Oh, my child needs to get a job.’”
“Originally our mindset was to hire people with experience,” Kenbeek explains. “But we find that a lot of times, they’ve worked for other pool companies that don’t necessarily hold the same values that we do. Sometimes it’s harder to retain somebody in the way that we do things, versus training someone who’s never worked in pool service before.”
This idea rings true for many industries, not just our own; don’t count out potential employees that lack experience. The old “don’t judge a book by its cover” idiom can be helpful during this stage.
It also helps to reflect on circumstances that are more likely to pose additional trouble, Kenbeek adds. At Horizon Pool & Patio, the Florida sun can present a quick turn-off for new employees. “We have much more luck when we start new folks in the fall or winter so they can get acclimated to the heat by the time summer rolls around. If we start new hires in the summer, they’re usually gone in two weeks,” she says.
All it takes is a little understanding from an intracompany level that can help companies find the best match for their team and create that relationship-like chemistry they need to thrive.
Employee Retention: Securing the Match
So you’ve made the relationship official. You’ve done the round of first dates (hiring), the honeymoon phase (training), and now your team is at the precipice of becoming the best it can be. How do you secure the match, capitalize on the chemistry of your team, and make the match stick?
“I think [reasons for motivation] vary depending on the employee,” Culp says. “If it’s from a construction or service standpoint, lots of our guys take pride in the work itself. Turning a backyard from a blank slate to a beautiful final result. We definitely have employees that find the paycheck to be the most important, but it depends.”
Make 2026 the year that you get into the mind of your perfect match. As company leadership, you already know what you want out of this partnership. What do they want?
A number of retention strategies have made the difference for Culp and Kenbeek, including:
Meaningful benefits packages: From 401k plans (and a company match — “If they put in 4%, we’ll put in 4%,” Kenbeek says) to health, vision and dental insurance, think about the substantial ways that you can take care of your employees outside of work. An additional way to look out for your team is to use a PEO, Professional Employer Organization, to provide access to other savings programs and benefits, like mental health services should they be needed.
Commissions, bonuses and pay increases: Recognize the work your employees do by considering offering commission or using a bonus program throughout the year. Think outside the box for your service and repair techs — let them make commission on a successful upsell of a particular product or service.
Education opportunities: Our industry is built on continuing education. Are there circumstances that allow you to pay for your employees CPO tests, for example? “If we pay for their CPO tests,” Kenbeek explains, “we do have a caveat that if they leave us within a certain number of years, they have to pay half or all of that money back. If they stay with us for longer than that, then we pay for it ourselves.”
Labor of Love
February will end, Valentine’s Day will pass, but the task of strengthening your team in 2026 will remain. It’s time to set those annual resolutions and figure out exactly what you want your team to look like. Take Kenbeek’s and Culp’s opinions into consideration: “I think [our dream team] would be a team comprised of loyal and motivated people, like the ones that we’ve had with us for a long period of time,” Culp says. “A team built of familiar faces and that family atmosphere, but paired with some new faces that are willing to work and learn. People that we can teach, hopefully leading them to be with the company for a long time.”
“I think it’s just a family environment,” Kenbeek shares. “We say that we’re all family, that the people in the office each lunch together like a family. A dream team would be a team that’s built through a ‘we’re all in this together’ mentality. Everybody helps everybody out here.”
You’ll notice in the above statements that neither of them make a specific point on technical skills. No mention of hiring with prior experience, or education already under their belt. Instead, their focuses are on loyalty and motivation, soft skills that can serve as a foundation for technical skills to be developed later.
It’s like a love connection after all; when you find the chemistry in your connection, you’re on your way to a strong partnership and an even stronger year.
This article first appeared in the February 2026 issue of AQUA Magazine — the top resource for retailers, builders and service pros in the pool and spa industry. Subscriptions to the print magazine are free to all industry professionals. Click here to subscribe.
