(Credit: Steve Thurston, 2022)
Rebecca Wood, president of Six Flags the Great Escape in Queensbury, speaks to hospitality and summer staff during a celebration of workers in September. The event, an effort to retain staff through the winter, was organized by Warren County's Director of Workforce Development, Liza Ochsendorf, at right.
Travelers spent $1.3 billion in the Adirondacks supporting more than 21,000 jobs according to data from New York State.
Many believe that those numbers – which date back to 2016 – could climb much higher, but meaningful growth is unlikely to happen if the area’s hotels, restaurants, and attractions are unable to keep pace with the demands of additional tourists.
Hospitality executives interviewed believe their ability to recruit employees to help fuel this expansion has been limited by a misperception that the industry only offers entry-level positions with limited prospects for advancement.
“Hospitality is an industry that gets overlooked as a career path,” says Carrie Hillenbrandt, Senior Vice President at BBL Hospitality, which operates 17 hotels and 10 restaurants along the East Coast.
“We explain during each employee’s orientation that they are part of a larger organization, and there are lots of opportunities for growth. We plant that seed right away,” she said.
One person who took that message to heart is Kyle Radzyminski.
After enrolling in the hospitality management program at SUNY Plattsburgh, he landed an internship with BBL Hospitality and continued working for the company in various capacities throughout college. Those experiences confirmed that “this wasn’t something I was just going to do for a short time to make ends meet. I wanted to make it my career,” he says.
After graduation, Radzyminski moved to Florida where he helped manage bars and restaurants for four years before returning to the Capital Region and reconnecting with BBL.
[Read our coverage of human resources and management, here.]
He was quickly hired as the front office manager at the Residence Inn in Saratoga Springs and placed in the company’s leadership training program. Two years later, the 29-year-old is the General Manager of the Residence Inn in East Greenbush.
While Kyle’s journey went through college, hospitality is one field remaining where having a college degree is not a requirement for advancement.
Kirsten Ogden began working as a breakfast and banquet server at the Hilton Garden Inn in Troy shortly after graduating from high school. She admits that when she started, the job was “just a paycheck.”
Over time, however, she began to realize the opportunities available to her, and “that’s when [my mindset] shifted from it being a job to being a career.”
After taking on roles of increasing responsibility, Kirsten is now a supervisor at the Recovery Sports Grill in Troy where she handles all aspects of the day-to-day operations. She hopes to one day manage her own restaurant and says, “I’m definitely on that path.”
Not only is the hospitality industry dependent on tourism, so are local communities. The numbers from the 2016 study found that visitors spent $577 million in Warren County. It’s little surprise then that the county’s Department of Workforce Development is also working to encourage and prepare more workers to join the hospitality industry.
Warren County launched the Pathways Up for Success in Hospitality (PUSH) program in 2021 to help recruit, train, and place new workers into the hospitality field. The core of the free program is 16 hours of online courses that span subjects such as professionalism, customer service, and problem solving.
Following years of working as a caregiver, Dawn White enrolled in the PUSH program when she was considering a move to the hospitality industry. She was hired by the Six Flags Great Escape Lodge in March 2021 and quickly promoted to front desk supervisor.
“A number of the skills that I learned in the PUSH program have since become part of my everyday routine,” she says.
Since joining the Lodge, White has been impressed by the company’s commitment to employee development and what that might mean for her own future.
“I work with people who started at the park as 14-year-olds and are now managers at the Lodge. They [Six Flags] want to help people keep growing at the company. That’s exciting to me,” she says.
The willingness of companies like Six Flags to promote from within is not unique says Kelli Hatin, Professor of Business in the hospitality management program at SUNY Adirondack. “These companies want to harness the employees they have so they give them the chance for advancement. They want to keep you if you’re good.”
Clarification: We misattributed some data to the Lake George Regional Chamber of Commerce that was New York State data provided to us by the chamber. We have made the correction.