b'Q AFOGHORN FOCUS &with Bob Lawler: Hiring 2021BY KAREN RAINBOLT // FOGHORN MANAGING EDITORFOGHORN had the opportunity to catch up withWhat is the biggest challengeFortunately,withvaccineswidelyavailable Bob Lawler, PVA Past President (2019) and theto passenger vessel operationsthroughoutthecountrynow,wehavea Vice President and General Manager at Bostonattempting to reopen this year? chancefi nallytoopenupandselltickets Harbor City Cruise (BHCC), in Boston, MA.to passengers to ride on our boats. Thats one BHCC is one of a family of companieswithinCityTherehavebeenalotofchallengesfacinghurdle, but there are more. I think the most Experiences, Hornblower Groups new brand namepassengervesseloperatorsintheU.S.intheunexpected phenomenon that we are battling for their water- and land-based o erings. Lawlerpast year. I think this pandemic has been thenow is fi nding enough staffand crew to work. spoke about the hiring challenges facing ourtoughestobstacletocommercethatweveFor months weve all seen the labor statistics industry this year.had to deal with in our lifetime, and were notput out by the U.S. Department of Labor, and through it yet.I guess we assumed that when we were able to reopen thered be a lot of eager people ready to get back to work. But, thats not the case. In fact, its the exact opposite. We havent been able to fi nd enough people who are willing, or interested, in working for us this summer. Why do you think that is?I think there are lots of factors. And, I also know that our operation isnt the only one facing this hiringcrisis.IveheardaboutcountlessPVA members who are, excuse the pun, in the same boat. Basically,itappearsthatwithsomany companies ramping up to open all at the same time, we are competing for the same pool of employees.Forexample,hotels,restaurants, resorts, theme parks, summer camps, retailers, and of course, passenger vessel operations are vying for the same prospective employees. What other factors are compounding this issue?Iveheardotherpassengervesseloperators talking about additional factors that are making it even harder to fi employees. Some PVAnd membershaveidentifi edlegalmarijuanaas FOGHORN FOCUS: HUMAN RESOURCES 8 FOGHORN'