Tips to Craft a User-Friendly Camp Hiring Process

March 21, 2024

Hiring the right team can make or break your summer camp season.

Every year, camp directors face the same challenge — finding enthusiastic, responsible staff to keep camp operations running smoothly during the busiest months.

Whether you’re overwhelmed with applicants or struggling to fill positions, having a clear and efficient hiring system is key.

From attracting great candidates to reviewing applications, interviewing, making offers, and onboarding — each step must be timely, organized, and intentional.

Remember, applicants are exploring multiple opportunities. They’re eager for clear communication, quick feedback, and a transparent process. A disorganized or slow response can send your best candidates straight to another camp.

9 Hiring Tips for Summer Camp Success

In this post, we’ll share 9 practical hiring tips to help your camp streamline recruiting, improve communication, and secure the right staff — so you can focus on delivering an amazing summer experience.



Your hiring process should be as user-friendly as possible to attract the best talent and ensure a positive experience and timely response. But how do you do that, exactly? 

1. Create Maximum Visibility for Your Camp Job Posts

📣 Post job opportunities in multiple outlets and promote listings via social media.

This is the best way to ensure you have enough applicants entering your hiring process to come out the other side with a full staff roster. Try spreading word through summer job listing websites, local college job websites, your own website, and popular job hunt websites like LinkedIn or Indeed.

2. Make Working at Camp a Social Experience

👄 Take advantage of word of mouth!  Working at camp can be more fun with a familiar face around. Give candidates a way to easily share job postings or submit a referral for an acquaintance who may also be looking for a position. 

3. Publish Accurate Camp Job Descriptions

🤔 Write clear job and camp descriptions.  When applying for a job, no one wants to play guessing games about what the position entails and whether they are qualified. Be up-front about the tasks required, hard and soft skillsets needed, and any cultural expectations such as appearance or personal habits.

4. Be Approachable and Responsive to Applicants

👍 Make it easy to apply and interview. Consider the lifestyle of the types of people you are hiring. If your ideal applicants are in their late teens and early twenties, they may be searching for positions and applying from mobile devices. That means choosing technology platforms that are mobile-friendly will be critical in getting them to complete the process.

5. Keep Interview Availability and Methods Flexible

🌐 Leverage technology and offer flexible interview processes.  Remember, the candidates you’re hiring may not live nearby – so schedule interviewing hours that will be convenient across time zones and weigh the importance of in-person interviews versus virtual meetings accordingly.

6. Be Honest and Respectful of the Candidate's Time

✅ Include hard qualifiers early in the application and interview process. Getting hardline questions out of the way as soon as possible will make the entire process easier for everyone involved. Waiting until the end of the hiring process to ask questions that will immediately qualify or disqualify a candidate is not a good use of anyone’s time.

7. Have an Established Internal System for Qualifying New Hires

🎯 Create clear guidelines for moving candidates through the hiring process.  Set timelines for applying, interviewing, and follow-ups. This allows the hiring team to prioritize tasks and streamline decision-making, so applicants are not left with a wall of silence after clicking submit.

8. Make It Easy for Candidates to Check In, Prioritize Follow Ups

⭐ Organize a system to easily identify an applicant’s status. Not only will a clear status help to alleviate the wall of silence some applicants face – it also allows your team to quickly assess the fit and number of candidates in the hiring pipeline versus remaining unfilled positions; enabling you to take down listings or promote specific positions as needed. 

9. Keep Good Candidates in Your Good Graces

✨ Don’t dismiss potential...  It can be tempting to quickly eliminate good candidates for temporary issues, such as scheduling conflicts or candidates with a little less experience than you prefer. Instead, give honest feedback about your reservations and keep their contact info to check back in the next hiring season.

We Have Tools to Elevate Your Camp Staffing

Great news! iCampPro has many built-in tools to help your team set up a user-friendly hiring process – including custom forms for applications and interviews, a staff portal for candidates to apply and check on their hiring status, and much more!