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With major hiring coming, Great Wolf Lodge CEO says he can find workers in competitive market

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Editor’s note: This is the latest in a series on Florida’s first Great Wolf Lodge, one of the most significant endeavors in Naples history that’s drawing plenty of questions from you. One of Collier County’s biggest private workplaces, the 530,000-square-foot retreat and water park is slated as Southwest Florida’s third largest employer in tourism, drawing by itself the same number of visitors in a year that all of Collier in its entirety attracts in nearly three months time.

It’s been a common inquiry about Collier’s Great Wolf Lodge South Florida.

“I was just wondering how they are going to find enough housekeepers when pay is only $14 per hour,” Reader Bob Di told me. “Hardly an affordable wage.”

“I’m curious how they will find enough employees to work so far out there,” said Tamara Crowell Chilver of Fort Myers.

“It’s too expensive to live in Naples,” added Deangelis Olive. “Where I live, to get to Naples takes a half-hour. (Is Great Wolf) going to have wages good enough for people to work here?”

So In the Know asked CEO John “Murph” Murphy and other Chicago-based honchos about it during a visit to the rising resort off Collier Boulevard and I-75.

Here’s what to know.

How are you going to fill jobs, and what pool will you draw from?

“Well, look, we’re going to be hiring 600 people here,” Murphy told me. “Those will range from senior-level managers to mid-level managers. Some of those positions will be part-time. Some will be full-time. So we have a wide variety. We’ll be hiring people coming back from college. We’ll be hiring high school kids who want to work part time. So we think we have a nice variety of positions to hire into.”

Do workers get a Great Wolf discount rate, and how will you compete?

“We have discounts for the employees, but what’s most important is that we pay a very competitive wage for folks,” Murphy said. “They have the ability to move up within our organization. We have fantastic health and welfare benefits. We have 401(k)s, employee emergency funds. We think a lot about our pack members, and it’s really a great place to work.”

Added Steve Jacobsen, executive vice president: “We like to promote from within. We like to give people the opportunity to grow and learn, and that’s our culture.”

What is Great Wolf doing to prepare SWFL workers for opportunities?

“We committed over a 10-year period to contribute a half-million dollars towards training specifically targeted for culinary hospitality,” Jacobsen said of a program in the works with local educational entities. “So the idea is that this training raises all ships and helps the entire community because as you know, hospitality tends to be one of those that’s it hard to find employees, so we’re here to help.

Resort and indoor water park: Virtual reality. Zipline. Translucent tubes. A lot of firsts for Great Wolf Lodge in Fla.

When will Great Wolf Lodge begin hiring in Naples and Collier County?

Department head positions that pay in the six figures were already being filled in anticipation of the Sept. 25 debut, with many other spots to come this summer on jobs.greatwolfresorts.com, depending on whether the start date is adjusted.

“Right now we’re looking at likely late July, early August for more of the mass hiring, but again, that could shift if we’re able move the opening date any earlier,” said Jason Lasecki, a Great Wolf vice-president.

In the Know: Lee hosted ‘largest gathering of CEOs.’ Where are 450,000 headed to in SW Florida?

What will other Great Wolf Lodge positions pay in Southwest Florida?

While the 20-lodge chain hasn’t revealed those wages, here’s a sampling from its closest and newest locales researched in Georgia and Maryland, respectively, including annually, $60,000, sous chef and $80,000, assistant engineering director. Hourly: $14, housekeeper and lifeguard; $15, front desk; $17 park services and public area attendants; $18, banquet server and $20, banquet captain; $18.50, maintenance tech; $22, food outlet supervisor; $25, sales associate; and $31, aquatics technician.

Based at the Naples Daily News, Columnist Phil Fernandez (pfernandez@gannett.com) grew up in Southwest Florida and has led Pulitzer Prize-winning efforts. He writes In the Know, one of USA TODAY Network’s most read local news columns in the state. Support democracy. Subscribe to a newspaper.

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