French Lick Resort Has Hired Back All 800+ Full Time Employees Furloughed Due to COVID-19

FROM LOCAL SOURCES / PHOTO: FRENCHLICK.COM

FRENCH LICK -- The French Lick Resort has announced all of its 800+ full-time employees are now back to work following the COVID-19 closures.

One of the major side effects of the COVID-19 pandemic was the toll it’s taken on the tourism and hospitality. But as news of layoffs and unemployment have become a tough reality in the business, French Lick Resort can now make a claim few others in the industry can: All of the resort’s full-time employees are now back at work, and the resort even has plans to expand its workforce.

“As I say to all the associates coming back in their re-orientation session, these walls at French Lick Springs Hotel, the dome at West Baden Springs Hotel, they’ve seen pandemics before," says Chuck Franz, vice president of the resort’s parent company, the Cook Group.  "They’ve seen world wars. They’ve seen the Great Depression. I just liken this to the time of our ancestors. It’s our time to make these tough decisions; it’s our time to figure out how to operate through a global pandemic creating the safest place possible for anyone visiting here and working here.” 

The resort’s reopening plan calls for several measures to ensure guest and employee safety such as daily temperature checks for everyone on property, new social distancing protocols, and a closed campus with access limited to hotel and casino guests only.

Business at the resort is already doing well enough that officials have begun hiring for 40-50 additional positions.