Fall Is the Best Time to Plan Your Next Hiring Season

Why youth programs, camps, and community organizations should sort out seasonal pay before the recruiting cycle opens.

What you'll learn:

• An overview of why fall is the right planning window for winter programming and the 2027 summer season
• Who actually turns up on a seasonal roster, and why that shapes how you pay
• What a pay card and direct deposit setup needs to handle for minors, international staff, and workers without bank accounts
• How a smaller winter session can help you test changes before summer

Your summer season just wrapped. Program schedules are winding down, counselors have gone back to school, and the pool is closed for the year. For most youth and community organizations, this is the first real breathing room since March, and it's also the most valuable planning window you'll get all year.

Nearly all park and recreation agencies (97%) hired summer seasonal staff in 2023, according to the National Recreation and Park Association. And in that process, nine in 10 agencies ran into challenges hiring or keeping them.

Most agencies aim to start recruiting by February, which is a shorter runway than it sounds. Anything you want to change has to be decided before that cycle opens, because once it does, you're hiring under the same constraints you had last year.

And that’s not accounting for winter programming, which is still a popular, busy time that can catch many organizations off guard. If you run holiday camps, indoor leagues, or school's-out days, you're hiring again in a matter of weeks. The good news is that fall gives you the time to be strategic while the season is still fresh, turning this year's lessons into a hiring approach that makes the next busy seasons noticeably smoother.

Start With What This Summer Actually Cost You

Before you post a single job, look backward.

The NRPA found that 56% of agencies pulled permanent full-time staff off their day-to-day work to cover unfilled seasonal hours. The two challenges cited most often were staff who couldn't work the full season and the difficulty of matching wages offered by competing employers.

Wages may not be something you can move. How and when people get paid usually is, and it costs far less to change. A few questions worth answering now:

• How many days passed between a new hire's first shift and their first paycheck?
• How many seasonal staff needed a paper check because they had no account to deposit into?
• How much time did your team spend on off-cycle payments, replacement checks, and final paychecks after the season ended?
• How many people from last summer came back this summer, and what made it easy or hard for them to return?

Plan for the Workforce You Actually Hire

Seasonal rosters at YMCAs, camps, aquatics centers, and parks and recreation departments don't look like a typical year-round payroll. Three groups show up again and again, and each one strains a setup built for full-time salaried employees.

Teenagers and first-time workers

In July 2025, 21.1 million people ages 16 to 24 were employed, and a quarter of them, 5.4 million, worked in leisure and hospitality, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In parks and recreation specifically, 66% of summer seasonal staff are lifeguards, a role that draws heavily from high school and college students.

For a lot of these workers, this is a first job and a first financial account. Branch can offer accounts to minors 14 and older, so a teenager on your aquatics staff isn't waiting on a traditional bank before you can pay them.

International seasonal staff

The U.S. Department of State's Camp Counselor exchange category brought 32,470 participants to the country in 2025.

These are staff who arrive shortly before your season starts, usually with no U.S. banking history. Many are also waiting for  Social Security Number or ITIN before they can sign up for a formal bank account. Fast, frictionless set-up can make an incredible impact on you and your new team members.

Workers without a bank account

In 2023, 4.2% of U.S. households, about 5.6 million, were unbanked, and another 14.2% were underbanked, according to the FDIC. Unbanked rates run higher among lower-income, younger, and single-parent households, which describes a good share of any seasonal hiring pool.

Branch can offer accounts to workers with limited documentation, so a hiring decision doesn't have to turn into a banking problem.

Make Onboarding Fast Enough for a Short Season

Seasonal work has a hard stop built into it, so every day a new hire spends waiting to get paid comes out of a season that was already short.

With Branch, you can hand out Branch Cards on day one and start paying staff right away. Workers complete account set-up online in as quickly as 90 seconds and can add the card to Apple Pay or Google Wallet immediately, so spending doesn't have to wait on the mail.

Underneath the card is a digital deposit account with fee-free options and a suite of financial wellness benefits. Staff who already bank somewhere can keep using direct deposit, and staff who don't get a real way to access their earnings.

Make Sure End-of-Season Pay Actually Lands

Getting staff to finish the season is the challenge park and recreation agencies name most often, and many already spend money to solve it. A quarter of agencies offer incentives for completing a full term, and a flat bonus is the most common approach.

A completion bonus only works if it lands, and that's where the calendar works against you. Once a season ends, staff scatter. Some go back to school in another state, and some leave the country. If bonuses and final paychecks depend on paper checks or on someone answering an email in September, you're risking both delays and compliance headaches.

Branch lets you push wages, reimbursements, bonuses, and final payments at any time, including nights and weekends. No bank run, no overnight envelope, and no tracking down a counselor who's already three time zones away.

Give Returning Staff a Reason to Come Back

Returning staff already know your programs, your site, and your safety procedures, which makes them the easiest hires all season. Agencies know it too, since a guaranteed position the following year is one of the retention benefits NRPA found them offering.

A worker can take their Branch account with them wherever they go.. When a counselor returns next June, there's no new paperwork, no new card, and no new account to open. They're back on your roster and getting paid to the same account they used last summer, which is one less thing standing between a rehire and their first shift.

Begin Rollout in the Winter

Summer gets most of the attention, but plenty of organizations run a second hiring cycle for winter break: holiday camps, school's-out days, indoor leagues, and pool programming that keeps going after the outdoor season ends.

That cycle is only weeks away, and a winter session is smaller and shorter, which makes it a lower-risk place to test changes. Try a different way of paying staff in December, and you'll know how it works well before your 2027 recruiting push begins.

Your Fall Planning Checklist

Before the recruiting cycle starts, aim to have these settled:

1. Audit this summer's payment timeline. Document how long first pay actually took and where it broke down.
2. Count how many staff couldn't be paid electronically. That number is your case for change.
3. Map your winter hiring needs now. Holiday programming hires arrive in weeks, not months.
4. Decide on your pay setup before February. Implementation is far easier in October than in April.
5. Build the returning-staff list. Reach out while the season is still a good memory.

Give Your Next Season a Better Start

Short windows, young workforces, and a deadline set by the calendar aren't going anywhere. What you can change is how fast a new hire gets paid and how many of your team members you're able to pay electronically at all. Those are far easier decisions to make now than in the middle of a season.

See how Branch works for your YMCA workforce.

‍

Branch is not a bank. Banking services are provided by Evolve Bank & Trust, Member FDIC or Lead Bank, Member FDIC ("Sponsor Banks"), as listed on the back of a user's Branch Card. FDIC insurance only applies for eligible accounts should the Sponsor Bank holding the user's funds fail. The Branch Mastercard Debit Card is issued by the Sponsor Bank pursuant to a license from Mastercard and may be used everywhere Mastercard debit cards are accepted.