Aloha Pools & Spas Deep Dive Podcast

Working at Aloha — Jobs, Culture & What to Expect

Hosted by John Watts | Guests: Jamie Worrell & Pat Baker

John: Welcome to another edition of the Aloha Pools and Spas Deep Dive Podcast. Today we’ve got Jamie Warl and Pat Baker, and we’re going to talk about what it’s like working at Aloha — what kind of people we’re looking for, what positions are open, what it’s like during the season and off season, all of that for prospective job seekers or folks that just want to know how the sausage is made.

Our Company Values: SERVE

John: I thought we’d start with SERVE — our new company values. Jamie, can you walk us through it?

Jamie: Sure. SERVE stands for Steady, Educated, Reliable, Value, and Exceeds expectations.

John: Let’s talk about where that came from. We’ve been using EOS — the Entrepreneurial Operating System, based on Gino Wickman’s Traction — as a framework for the business. Part of setting that up involves asking: if you could take three people from your organization, multiply them, and take over the industry, who would they be? You put those people on the board and ask, “What words describe them? Why would you choose them?”

Every time a word came up more than once, you’d circle it. Step back, and you’d see the words that kept rising to the top. That’s basically how we landed on SERVE.

Steady was the first one — really just another word for consistent. And to be clear, these aren’t things we’re claiming to have perfected. They’re what we aspire to. We’ve got work to do, but that’s the point.

Educated is about more than hiring people with college degrees. It’s about making sure people have the knowledge they need to do their jobs well. In the last year and a half, we’ve done more training than ever before — sales coaching, EOS coaching, marketing. We’ve sent folks to trainings in California and Florida. We’ve brought coaches in.

On the service side, we brought Lisa in to do pool school — taking water testing knowledge directly to customers at our store locations, walking them through how to operate their equipment, understand their filter pad, and take care of their pool. The goal is to make pool ownership less intimidating. Nobody wants to walk up to their equipment and feel like a new parent who’s been left alone with no idea what to do.

Reliable speaks for itself, but especially this time of year it’s tested. Right now our phones don’t stop. You hang up, you pick up, you hang up, you pick up — all day long. Everybody wants everything at the same time because they’ve been inside all winter. We try our best, and I think our reviews reflect that we’re improving.

Value is about making sure customers walk away feeling like they got what they paid for — and then some. Which leads right into Exceeds expectations — not just doing what’s asked, but finding a way to do just a little bit more.

What Positions Are We Hiring For?

John: Pat, you do a lot of the interviewing. What kind of positions are we talking about?

Pat: Honestly, we’ll interview for pretty much any position. But some titles to give you an idea: service tech, service tech assistant, retail associate, store manager, construction foreman, pool liner crew, warehouse, runners, admin, construction admin, purchasing, marketing. The list goes on.

John: Tell us about the pool liner crew — that’s one people might not know much about.

Pat: Liner crews install pool liners. It sounds straightforward, but it’s one of the more demanding jobs we have. You’re draining a pool, pulling out the old liner, potentially doing floor or wall repair, then fitting and installing the new liner — and then waiting for it to fill to the right height before finishing up. It can easily take a full day.

The crew has to be meticulous, on time, and great with customers — because there’s a lot of communication involved. Homeowners have questions, and you need to be able to walk them through things like when to turn shop backs off and what to expect throughout the day.

John: So what kind of person fits that role?

Pat: Someone who loves being outside and doesn’t mind being hot. And I mean really doesn’t mind — because you’re in a hole. You’re in a pool, laying on concrete, working in the heat with no airflow. Some people love that kind of work. Others want no part of it. It’s physical, it’s hands-on, and it’s satisfying when it’s done right.

John: There’s actually something freeing about that kind of work — you know exactly what you’re doing, you’re focused on a task, and at the end of the day you can see the result. Not everybody’s wired for an office.

Pat: Exactly. And on the flip side, if you’ve got a marketing degree and you want to talk to us, come talk to us. We’re a growing company. You never know what doors are open.

Where Are We Located?

We’re not just in Tennessee. We have locations in Arkansas, Illinois, Missouri, and we do a lot of work in Kentucky too — we’re a regional operation.

Right now, the positions we’re actively pushing to fill are service tech roles in Cape Girardeau, Missouri and O’Fallon, Illinois and the surrounding areas. If you’re in one of those markets and looking for work, reach out.

What’s It Actually Like Working Here?

John: Pat, you’ve been here the longest of any of us. What would you tell someone who’s never heard of Aloha?

Pat: Working here can be intense, but it can be really fun. The honest truth is — you don’t really know what it’s like until you’ve been through a season. There’s no way to fully prepare for it. When it hits, it hits.

It’s family-oriented. We fight like family sometimes, and we have each other’s backs like family. There are moments in the spring where you just want to hide for five minutes because it’s a full-on sprint — but that’s also what makes it exciting.

The company has been around since 1969, and it has evolved a lot. But one thing that has never changed is how much Aloha cares about its customers. I mean that genuinely — sometimes we care so much about the customer that we lose sight of things we need to handle on the back end. I’ve never been around a company that bends over backwards the way this one does to make things right, even when it’s at our own expense.

We have a “make it right” kind of guarantee. If we’ve failed a customer, we sit down with them and ask: what would make this right? And then we get as close to that as we can.

John: I’ll add — I’m still pretty new here, and I’m just now starting to see what season looks like. Even tucked away in the marketing office, I can feel the energy shift. When I walk out front there are people everywhere. And what I’ve noticed is that we actually have the proof to back up what we say. Being ranked number eight in the nation among pool companies for service — that’s not nothing. When you tell people you work at Aloha, they know the name. That means something.

The team genuinely gets along. People look out for each other. We’re not perfect, but when there’s a misunderstanding, people actually care enough to clear it up. That’s not something you find everywhere.

How to Apply

If you’re interested in joining the Aloha team, here’s how to reach us:

• Call: 731-885-2020 and ask for Pat Baker
• Website: alohapoolsusa.com
• Social media: Send us a message — someone monitors all of our channels and will get it to the right person
• Indeed: We post skilled positions there regularly

We’re hiring in Union City, TN, Cape Girardeau, MO, O’Fallon, IL, Jonesboro, AR, Marion, IL, and surrounding areas. If you’re looking for work and you’ve got the drive, reach out. We’ll figure it out.

Have a question you’d like us to cover on the podcast? Drop it in the comments, or find us on YouTube and all the socials. And as always — dive safely.