Undoubtedly, 2010 will be another challenging year for most clubs. That said, your club’s website can be an effective tool to assist you in weathering the storm by increasing member engagement and thereby increasing club revenue.

Over the past decade, club websites have evolved from simplistic pages consisting of various pictures and static content to transactional websites where members can view important information such as their online statements and club rosters.

In 2010 the key to many clubs’ success is to implement a fully integrated and interactive website that is well designed, easy to locate in search engines, and provides fresh, relevant content to both members and the general public.

10 strategies for an engaged membership in 2010:

1. Invest in online statements and online payments. Online statements have proven to be a staple in the vast majority of club websites and continue to provide value to the club. This functionality provides several benefits including cost reduction through reduced calls to accounting staff and online viewing of statements, and increased website traffic on a weekly, monthly, and yearly basis.

2. Consider implementing online tee times in 2010. Many clubs have implemented the ability to book their tee times online. This is the single biggest driver of website traffic when implemented correctly. It is not uncommon to see login rates to the club website as well as site traffic double as a result of online tee times. It also provides the ability to reduce costs at the Pro Shop and offers better service to your members.

3. Implement member engagement strategies through online booking modules for event registration, dining, court booking, lessons, etc. When utilized effectively, these modules engage members - providing a compelling reason for your members to regularly visit your website.

4. Implement an email marketing strategy that is integrated with your website and club management system. It has been proven that email marketing is one of the most effective yet inexpensive tools available to drive club revenue. By combining member data, email marketing tools and your website, you are able to offer your members quality, personalized communication. Leverage the data in your club management system to implement your communication strategies. Using email marketing strategies, personalized messages regarding events can be targeted and sent en masse to relevant members with a link back to your website to register. This full circle communication strategy is a powerful, low cost strategy that can change your business in 2010.

5. Implement social networking tools. The social revolution is here. In 2010, take the time to become familiar with today’s tools. Is it a fad? Watch the following social revolution video on YouTube and draw your own conclusions - there are certainly some interesting facts brought to light.
Social Media revolution -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8

Some strategies to consider

• Enable RSS on your website so that users can subscribe to your content and allow other web sites to syndicate your content on their site
• Have a blog that is integrated into your website
• Create Twitter and Facebook accounts for your club. Cross-linking these to and from your website will garner interest and support for a Facebook group you’ve created.

6. Implement a junior program section for your website. There is really no magic in this formula as the current generation of youth lives and breathes the Internet and its social networking aspects. Consider a section catered to your youth programs at the club. Examples might include relevant YouTube videos for game improvement; a blog by your Tennis, Golf or Yachting Pro; or even a Facebook page for the club juniors. They are the future of the club and the easiest segment to engage through your website with the right tools.

7. Implement content creation and publishing strategies and stick to them. Fresh, relevant content is one of the keys to an active readership. Implement automatic date ranging of content to ensure that stale content around holidays, special events or tournaments does not remain on the site after their time has past.

8. Change your members’ only landing page frequently. This is the first page members see every time they login to your club website. Make the most of the member experience by providing relevant and timely content about upcoming events, birthdays, news items, etc. and provide intuitive links to the interactive features of the site.

9. Review your site’s SEO (search engine optimization) to ensure that your site can easily be found by Google and other search engines. Implement effective page descriptions and key words for your site’s pages to ensure that you are listed with Google local. There are several resources available on the Internet today to assist you in effectively optimizing your site with respect to search engines. Talk to your web provider about reviewing your current SEO strategy.

10. Monitor your site analytics to measure your site effectiveness. By utilizing tools such as Google analytics you can mine large amounts of user data in terms of interaction with your website. This information provides invaluable insight into how visitors are interacting with your website.

In conclusion, an effective website does not need to be overcomplicated or elaborate - it simply needs to cater to the needs of your existing and potential members. Remember, your existing and potential members are busy individuals just like you - they have come to expect the ability to view and book almost everything online in today’s marketplace. Make it easy for them to access your site, complete their club related transactions (viewing and paying statements, event/court/tee time bookings, etc.), and then get on with their day-to-day activities. Realistically, there is no single electronic silver bullet that can address all of your club’s needs; however, when your website, club management system, and email marketing tool are working in concert, together they provide you with a powerful toolset with which to increase member engagement at the club.

Steve Cowan, Vice President of Web Service, Jonas Software

Mr. Cowan is recognized for his expertise in online services and marketing and has been responsible for the launch of several key online initiatives that have significantly influenced the club management industry. Prior to joining CSI in 2004 as the Director of Sales Operations, Mr. Cowan held numerous leadership roles with organizations such as ADC Telecom and Business Objects. Mr. Cowan holds an Honours BBA from Wilfrid Laurier University and an MBA from York University.

This weekly blog comments on and discusses the club industry and its challenges. From time to time, we will feature guest bloggers — those managers and industry experts who have something of interest to say to all of us. We also welcome feedback and comment upon the blog, hoping that it will become a useful sounding board for what’s on the minds of hardworking club managers throughout the country and around the world. Club Resources International - Management Resources for Clubs!

What is a “wow factor”?  It’s anything, usually unexpected, that causes your members to say or think, “Wow, that’s really neat!” or “Wow, I didn’t expect that!” or “Wow, that’s impressive!”

Wow factors are characterized by their unexpectedness and as such any particular wow factor cannot become part of your club routine.  They are executed for one-time or short-term effect.  They are also characterized by being unusual — either cutting edge or just out-of-the-ordinary.  They can be extravagant and expensive, but these should be few and far between.  Most wow factors should be small scale, inexpensive, and momentary, that is, of short duration as in one day, one evening, or one event.

The key to making wow factors is to challenge your club’s department heads to come up with a specified number of wow factor ideas for their areas of the operation — say 10 new ideas for the coming busy season.  Each idea should be briefly described on paper — what it is, how it will be done, what items need to be purchased, any talent that needs to be contracted, any associated labor cost, and an overall estimated cost.  Then all department heads should meet with the General Manager in a brainstorming session to discuss, settle on, and schedule the roll out of each wow factor.

Here are a handful of ideas to give you a sense of the program:

• Complimentary mini-trio sampler of desserts or appetizers for all diners on a given night — this is also an excellent way to preview or market a new menu.
• Free soft-serve ice cream or smoothies for the kids (of all ages) at the pool on a hot summer day.  An alternative would be to arrange for the local ice cream truck to pull up in front of your pool with music playing.  Everyone gets their specialty ice cream treat and you pay the bill.
• Flowers for all the ladies dining on some non-special night just for the surprise effect.  Google search “special days” for calendars of unusual celebrations and holidays.
• Have the General Manager act as the club “doorman” on a random evening to greet each member and guest as they arrive.
• A giveaway of a sleeve of golf balls to each golfer on a busy Saturday morning.  Handed out by the Head Golf Professional on the first tee for maximum effect.
• Free mini-pizzas in the lounge on an unexpected evening.
• A themed ice carving for a ladies luncheon.
• Complimentary and unusual hors d’oeuvres for the weekly card game in the men’s lounge.
• Face painting or a clown or a balloon artist at your next children’s event.
• Complimentary wine for no special reason.  A great way to clear out dead stock or showcase new wines.

Again, the key to the wow factor is its unusual nature and unexpectedness.  Several tips:

• Execute your wow factors where they will have the most effect — food and beverage areas, golf areas, locker rooms, special events, activities, aquatics, tennis.
• Plan, budget, and schedule.  Formalize your program enough so that the wow factors are spread out and spread around.  Always have a budget.  Say you budget $500 per month for club-wide wow factors.  The cost to the club is $6,000 per year — not an inconsequential amount, but think of the benefit to member pleasure and even employee morale.
• Wow factor ideas are everywhere.  Borrow from other establishments or something you saw on vacation.  The Internet is a treasure trove of ideas.  Google search words or phrases such as “Fun,” “Fun Ideas,” “Fun Activities,” “Fun Recreational Activities,” and “Inexpensive Activity Ideas” and you’ll get a sense for how many resources are out there.
• To keep your costs down, get together with vendors for freebies.  Many would be thrilled to get some exposure to your members for their products and services.  Just make sure you prominently give them credit for their donations.
• Once you’ve used a particular wow factor, save the concept for some future time.  Avoiding routine doesn’t mean never doing it again, just doing it again when unexpected.  Over time, you’ll develop an extensive list of wow factors that can be deployed for maximum effect at some future moment.
• Keep your wow factor strategy, plans, and schedule under tight wrap.  Don’t ruin the surprise with “loose lips.”
• Let your members do the talking about the wow factor, not you or your staff.  Act like nothing special is going on, while the members “buzz” about the unusual and unexpected.  Certainly, you may acknowledge a wow factor when asked about it, but act like it’s no deal, just some little thing that happened “spontaneously.”

There are hundreds of websites offering unusual and fun ideas.  Get your department heads and staff excited by searching out the most unusual activities, events, or ideas.  Your members will still ask, “What have you done for me lately?” but they’ll be delighted by the unexpected moments and your staff will be energized by the fun of “giving” these special gifts to your membership.

Thanks and have a great day!

Ed Rehkopf

This weekly blog comments on and discusses the club industry and its challenges. From time to time, we will feature guest bloggers — those managers and industry experts who have something of interest to say to all of us. We also welcome feedback and comment upon the blog, hoping that it will become a useful sounding board for what’s on the minds of hardworking club managers throughout the country and around the world.

Club Resources International - Management Resources for Clubs!

This leadership style differs from others in its focus on serving the needs of employees to provide them with the proper tools, training, resources, motivation, and empowerment to serve the club’s members.  In simplest terms, when a club’s employees are served by their leaders, they will serve the members, who by their continuing patronage serve the club’s bottom line.  An understanding of the importance of this style of leadership can be inferred from the simple question,

“How can employees provide quality service if they are not properly served by the leadership and example of their managers?”

While it is recognized that the General Manager must be a strong leader, it is also critical that the club’s subordinate managers and supervisors are also trained to be strong service-based leaders.  While some degree of a leader’s skill-set seems to be inborn, such as personality and an analytic mind, and others, such as confidence, judgment, and basic communication abilities, are developed early in life, the great majority of a leader’s skills are attitudinal and can be learned.

But to expect that your managers with varying backgrounds, education, and experiences will have a common understanding of what constitutes effective leadership is naïve in the extreme.  Unless junior managers are systematically trained to develop the skills which have to do with building and sustaining meaningful work relationships with their constituencies, particularly employees, their leadership development will be hindered and haphazard.  This results in the General Manager’s vision and message of service not being communicated consistently or faithfully to line employees.  Instead of having a cohesive team dedicated to a common purpose and acting in a concerted way to further the aims of the enterprise, the club is a collection of tribes who don’t necessarily approach the mission or their jobs in the same way or with the same attitude.

Without leadership consistency, employees get a mixed service message, and their morale, engagement, and commitment will vary from manager to manager and department to department.  It’s really quite simple — if your management team does not provide consistent:

• Vision, values, and example,
• Communication and engagement,
• Training, resources, and support,
• Regard for and treatment of employees,

You’ll never gain consistency of employee commitment, contribution, and performance.

But the good news is that successful leadership skills can be taught and learned.  Warren G. Bennis, widely regarded as a pioneer in the field of contemporary leadership studies, has said,

“The most dangerous myth is that leaders are born — that there is a genetic factor to leadership.  This myth asserts that people simply either have certain charismatic qualities or not.  That’s nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true.  Leaders are made rather than born.”

So the solution to fragmented leadership is to promote a consistent style and application of leadership club-wide.  This can only be done by providing consistent leadership training to the entire management team.  But how does the General Manager teach leadership when you have so much else to do and possibly haven’t given a lot of thought to the issue?

Over the years while serving as general manager in hotels, resorts, and clubs, I searched a number of times and read a number of books — most extolling the successful leadership techniques of Fortune 500 or celebrity CEOs, or written by Academics with a lot of theory but little practical advice for those toiling in hospitality management.  My frustration in trying to find something useful finally led me to write my own leadership guidance for my team, and this ultimately became Leadership on the Line:  A Guide for Front Line Supervisors, Business Owners, and Emerging Leaders, first published in 2002 and now in its 2^nd edition.

This past year, in response to frequent requests to prepare a more “hands on” learning tool, I wrote and published Leadership on the Line - The Workbook, a companion piece to the original book that builds on the themes of Service-Based Leadership from the book by offering self-study sections on Leadership Basics, Values, Lessons, Applications, and Assessments.  Taken together the book and the workbook provide an effective way to teach and to learn a consistent, service-based approach to leadership.

Given the primary importance of leadership in any successful venture, it should never be left to chance.  Even if confident of your own leadership abilities, do yourself and your managers a favor by promoting a consistent, club-wide conception and application of leadership.  When consistently reinforced by your leadership and example, it will have a dramatic impact on their performance, as well as the club’s.

The book ($19.95) and workbook ($29.95) may be purchased at Amazon.com or on the Club Resources International website (never a shipping charge).

Thanks and have a great day!

Ed Rehkopf

This weekly blog comments on and discusses the club industry and its challenges. From time to time, we will feature guest bloggers — those managers and industry experts who have something of interest to say to all of us. We also welcome feedback and comment upon the blog, hoping that it will become a useful sounding board for what’s on the minds of hardworking club managers throughout the country and around the world.

Club Resources International - Management Resources for Clubs!

Sure, work planning takes time, particularly if you put enough effort into it to be of value . . . and finding measurable accountabilities for department head performance seems an elusive goal.  Now, though, on the tail end of my career, I have finally found the time to give the whole matter some serious thought.

As far as work planning goes, what I expect from subordinate managers is to meet goals and budgets and to help measure their progress toward specific objectives.  To do this I find it important to establish monthly reviews of financial performance, as well as timelines and milestones toward non-monetary goals, such as developing departmental operation plans and effective training programs.

On the other side of the coin, measurable accountabilities have continued to be a challenge.  Over the years I’ve developed and deployed several versions of managers’ performance evaluation criteria.  Each ultimately proved unsatisfactory though they included a number of meaningful and worthwhile objectives such as “builds teamwork and morale,” “directs work effectively,” and “follows through and implements well.”  As good as these criteria may look on paper; they turned out to be practically meaningless as I attempted to do reviews because I had no hard evidence or objective means of measuring them.  Once again my reviews degenerated to my “gut feel” or “overall sense of things.”  Clearly measurable accountabilities continued to prove elusive.

In recent months I’ve taken another stab at finding performance criteria for which I could establish specific measurable goals.  Here’s what I’ve come up with.

On the big picture scale, I’ve broken down performance expectations for department heads into 6 major categories — leadership, management, training, performance, compliance, and member satisfaction.  These can be weighted based upon changing emphases, but must equal 100%.  Within each major category are sub-categories that can in some way be measured.  These are also weighted, again totaling 100%.  The following chart lays out the major and sub- categories, as well as the means to evaluate and who is responsible for creating the measurements.

This whole process presupposes that the club has already instituted certain disciplines such as holding monthly reviews of financials and departmental plans with each department head; measurements such as departmental and personnel benchmarks; and both member and employee surveys.

I’m sure that there may be other worthwhile things to measure and for which subordinates should be responsible, and I’m equally sure that there will be some challenges in implementing such a system.  But ultimately I believe the benefits of holding subordinate managers strictly accountable for their performance outweighs any and all challenges encountered.

Thanks and have a great day!

Ed Rehkopf

This weekly blog comments on and discusses the club industry and its challenges. From time to time, we will feature guest bloggers — those managers and industry experts who have something of interest to say to all of us. We also welcome feedback and comment upon the blog, hoping that it will become a useful sounding board for what’s on the minds of hardworking club managers throughout the country and around the world.

Club Resources International - Management Resources for Clubs!

Most of us recognize that our business is not rocket science.  The basics of what we do are well-known to any club professional.  What makes our jobs so challenging is the sheer volume of things that must be attended to daily in a detail and people-intensive business.  Unless a club operation is well-organized and its managers highly disciplined, it operates in a state of barely-controlled chaos interspersed with periods of downtime.  The challenge for all is to transition quickly from storm to calm back to storm while remaining focused on long term goals, ongoing projects, and continual process improvement.  The solution is to organize the club so that most things happen routinely and that managers at all levels be highly disciplined in approaching their duties and efforts to improve the operation.

The great majority of private clubs suffer from similar problems rooted in the same underlying causes:

1. Standalone operations with limited resources and few economies of scale.
2. Clubs operate multiple businesses — food and beverage, golf, tennis, aquatics, retail, recreation, and the major maintenance effort involved in golf course operations.  The knowledge and skill set to operate clubs efficiently is large and complex, and especially challenging for lean management teams working long hours and weeks.
3. The club business is both labor and detail-intensive requiring significant ongoing training, yet without the necessary resources to adequately provide it.  As a result most clubs operate from oral tradition and service complaints are a continuing issue.
4. Most clubs operate without a written operations plan made up of detailed standards, policies, and procedures which, as Jim Muehlhausen says in his book, The 51 Fatal Business Errors, requires managers to reinvent the wheel every day.
5. The hospitality industry as a whole and clubs in particularly offer relatively low wage jobs, limited benefits, and challenging working conditions.  As a result high levels of staff turnover are common, particularly among line employees.
6. Older clubs with aging memberships and outdated facilities find it challenging to find the right mix of facilities and activities to attract new members.
7. In most markets, there is ample competition for the members’ discretionary spending — and often from operations that offer limited well-designed and executed products or services; whereas clubs must be all things to all members.
8. In a sense, club members are a “captive” audience and can quickly grow bored or dissatisfied with the same old events and activities.  A club staff, without the ability or resources to provide frequently changing “wow” factor events, will often hear the comment, “What have you done for me lately?”
9. In some clubs ever-changing boards offer little continuity of direction.

Given these and other specific challenges that vary from club to club, it is absolutely imperative that club managers organize their operations in detail.  My own list of requirements includes:

1. Leadership and management training for all managers and supervisors with an aim of having consistent and disciplined, service-based leaders taking disciplined actions (the benefits of which are discussed by Jim Collins in Good to Great, Why Some Companies Make the Leap . . . and Others Don’t).
2. Well-defined and consistently reinforced organizational values and culture of service.
3. A written operations plan made up of standards, policies, and procedures — absolutely critical for human resources and accounting, and fostering organization and discipline in club departments.
4. Communicate thoroughly with members through a variety of tools and techniques, including newsletter, members only website, management calling programs, and General Manager’s letters.  Understand members’ wants and preferences by taking the pulse of the membership with an annual online survey and monthly surveys of smaller subsets of members.  Analyze member spending habits and purchases to determine individual likes and dislikes, as well as popular and unpopular club initiatives and offerings.
5. Provide ongoing, thorough training of managers and employees.  This coupled with service-based leadership and a constantly reinforced culture of service will foster employee empowerment — and as John Tschohl, President of the Service Quality Institute says, “Without empowerment, an organization will never be a service leader.  Empowerment is the most critical skill an employee can master and a company can drive in order to lure and keep customers.”
6. Use Tools to Beat Budget or some other means of real time tracking of revenues, payroll, and other expenses to quickly spot and intervene to correct operational under-performance.
7. Benchmarking of all areas of the operation to establish the norms of the operation.  The value of benchmarks tracked over time is immense and includes establishing realistic goals for future periods, establishing measurable accountabilities for managers, and easing the preparation and improving the accuracy of future budgets.
8. Detailed planning, both strategic and tactical, at all levels of the operation and a habit of Continual Process Improvement.
9. Thorough work planning and performance reviews, coupled with a policy of strict accountability for performance.  This requires developing measurable performance criteria for all managerial positions.
10. A membership marketing plan based upon the realities of the marketplace and requiring weekly call and action reports from the membership director.  Recognizing that satisfied members are the best recruiters of new members, involve hand-picked members in the membership sales effort.

Each of these necessities, while challenging, will improve the organization and discipline of the club while fostering consistently higher levels of service.  The resulting efficiency and service of a well-run club will make it easier to attract members, which improves dues and revenues and ultimately better positions the club in the marketplace.

Many of the tools and resources to implement the initiatives mentioned here are available on the Club Resources International website — most at no charge.  Currently the website has 1,550 high quality, fully integrated resources available — and more being added all the time.  Come explore the site and see for yourself!

Next Week:  Creating Measurable Accountabilities

Thanks and have a great day!

Ed Rehkopf

This weekly blog comments on and discusses the club industry and its challenges. From time to time, we will feature guest bloggers — those managers and industry experts who have something of interest to say to all of us. We also welcome feedback and comment upon the blog, hoping that it will become a useful sounding board for what’s on the minds of hardworking club managers throughout the country and around the world.

Club Resources International - Management Resources for Clubs!

• Employee Handbook
• Managers Handbook
• Club Orientation
• Departmental Orientations

After onboarding, the club will use the following tools to train managers:

• Leadership training - Leadership on the Line and The Workbook
• Organizational Values and Service Ethic Training; Values Pocket Card
• Legal and Liability Issues Training
• Club Systems Training - Personnel Standards, Policies, and Procedures; Accounting Standards, Policies and Procedures
• Departmental Standards, Policies, and Procedures for their individual club department
• Basic Accounting and Financial Management for Managers
• HR on the Go Training
• Values on the Go Training
• Safety on the Go Training
• Ongoing Daily Huddles
• DVDs and videos as necessary.  These should be reviewed at the highest level (General Manager and HR Manager or other Subject Matter Expert) to ensure they meet training quality needs and then purchased for the club’s education library.

Ongoing training for line employees will consist of:

• Organizational Values and Service Ethic Training; Values Pocket Card
• Departmental organization and systems training
• Duties and expectations
• Service techniques training
• Training manual for their position
• On the Go Training
• Ongoing Daily Huddles
• Departmental safety training
• Purchase departmental specific DVDs and videos as necessary

To ensure all the necessary training is given, the General Manager will require all department heads to:

• Establish a departmental training plan and schedule,
• Benchmark and report their training on a monthly basis,
• Make training development and execution part of each department head’s performance review, and
• Make continual process improvement of training part of their annual departmental plan.

The end result of a formal approach to training should be to make training in all areas of the club part of the daily operational habit, as routine as punching in and out for work, wearing the proper uniform, ordering supplies, conducting inventories, and cleaning the facilities.  When this level of habit is achieved, all manner of benefits are realized by the club - from improved organization and efficiency to greater member satisfaction, retention, and sales, and finally, to a vastly improved bottom line.

Note:  Recognizing the sheer size of the formal training undertaking, start small because any improvements you make are better than no training.  Over time continue to add more training initiatives until you finally have a full-blown, club-wide training program and discipline.  I guarantee your work life will be much easier when you do.

Thanks and have a great day!

Ed Rehkopf

This weekly blog comments on and discusses the club industry and its challenges. From time to time, we will feature guest bloggers — those managers and industry experts who have something of interest to say to all of us. We also welcome feedback and comment upon the blog, hoping that it will become a useful sounding board for what’s on the minds of hardworking club managers throughout the country and around the world.

Club Resources International - Management Resources for Clubs!

Here are some of the strategies to design and field a more robust, formal training program for both line employees and management:

1.   Start with a plan.  As with any major project, there must be a plan.  Things to consider when planning include:  goals, program requirements, training principles, impacted positions, priorities, budget, timelines and milestones, curricula by position, equipment and supplies, resources and materials, benchmarking, administration and documentation, annual certifications, plan and implementation review, and designated responsibilities.

Tip:  Check out the sample Club Training Plan on the Club Resources International (CRI) website for ideas.

Tip:  Start small and grow.  You don’t have to do everything at once.  Pick key member-facing positions with the greatest number of employees to get your biggest bang for the buck.  But don’t forget the importance of manager/supervisor training.  In the long run a well-trained, knowledgeable, consistent, and disciplined management team will be far more valuable to your success than anything else.

2.   Appoint a Training Manager to shepherd the project.  Assign this responsibility to an existing department head.  This individual will draft and present the plan, oversee its implementation, and report directly to the General Manager on plan progress and developments.

Tip:  The training initiative must have the absolute and enthusiastic support, backing, and “will to make it happen” of the General Manager or it won’t go anywhere.

3.   Charge each department head with the task of developing a curriculum outline for each position in his or her department.  These are the topics that employees in any given position must be familiar with.  Much of this information should be written, but some must be communicated or taught by other means, such as demonstrations, videos, DVD’s, etc.  In addition to the “what” (curriculum topics by position), the outline should also include “who” must learn the material, “when” it must be learned, and “how often” it must be taught for material that requires ongoing refresher training, such as sexual harassment, safety training, sanitation, and others.

Tip:  For service skills positions, the standard four-step training process of “Tell-Show-Do-Review” can be improved upon by Jim Sullivan’s 7-step process:  1.  Say What:  explain what will be covered, 2.  Say Why:  explain why the information is important, 3.  Show How:  demonstrate the correct way, 4.  Detail Variables:  since service is situational, discuss acceptable variations, 5.  Guided Practice:  rehearse skills together, 6:  Spaced Repetition:  repeat the skills training over time until each employee “gets it,” and  7.  Teach Back:  have employees teach back lesson as an instructor.

4.   Charge the designated Training Manager with developing club-wide training topics.  Usually this would be done in cooperation with the HR Manager, Safety Manager, or other subject matter experts.  Club-wide topics include an overview of club amenities, facilities, and operation; member rules; employee rules and work-related policies; organizational culture; club operating systems; legal and liability issues; and leadership development.

Important point:  Keep in mind that while much of the information employees and managers must know is similar; there is often a different thrust to the material.  For example, line employees must know what to do if they feel they are being sexually harassed, while managers must understand the nuances of what constitutes sexual harassment, how to avoid it, and what to do if reported to them.

Tip:  Many of these topics have been covered in materials found on the CRI website, for example:  Organizational Values, Readings in Basic Leadership and Management, Leadership on the Line, Managers Handbook, Employee Handbook, Club Safety Plan, and Training-on-the-Go (such as F&B Training-on-the-Go, Safety-on-the-Go, HR-on-the-Go, Values-on-the-Go), and Daily Huddle topics.

5.   New hire training starts with basic information such as job descriptions, performance expectations, club orientation and departmental orientations (they are different, though covering some of the same topics for reinforcement), employee handbook, and managers’ handbook.  Any plan to provide a more formal approach to training must include a review of, or if not already in place, the development of such documents to ensure they cover all pertinent topics and are fully integrated, that is, they are consistent and reinforcing.

Tip:  Again, a good starting point for these documents is the material on the CRI website.  Follow the links above to check out the material.  Download or purchase the material and customize it for your own use.

Other Tips:

• Experience has shown that critical information provided in small doses over time (hence the training-on-the-go material) is the best way to provide ongoing training at the lowest cost. Instead of specially scheduled, on-the-clock training sessions, some sort of pre-shift meeting for every department and shift is an excellent way to do this. The key here is to have a pre-developed, organized system of material, so that managers can take advantage of such meetings without having to jump through hoops to find and develop topics. Keep in mind that once such material is developed, it is available for future use with little or no effort.

• Because of the one-time intensity of developing or gathering training material, this project should be done during the club’s “off season.” But to maximize the effectiveness of this limited time, the initial planning and timelines should be completed prior to the slow season to ensure that everyone “hits the ground running” when things slow down.

• Training resources can be found anywhere. The advent of the Internet and search engines makes it relatively easy and convenient to find training material for almost any topic or position. Some will be free and some will cost, but once department heads determine topics, they should begin searching for relevant material.

• Presenting the material in a professional manner is key! Do not hand your employees a 3-ringed binder filled with odd sheets of copied information. Efforts must be made to eliminate contradictory terminology and information written by different authors. Spend the time and effort to present it professionally — each topic should be presented in a common format with appropriate context, segue, and without extraneous information. You wouldn’t present such a jumble of information to your members, and you shouldn’t do it to your employees who you depend upon for your success.

As an aside:  the beauty of the Internet material is that is can be copied, pasted, and edited in your own formatted documents.  Also, when preparing training material, don’t forget to develop quizzes.  They can be used for formal comprehension testing or during informal teaching Q&As by supervisors.

• Developing and fielding training information is an ongoing process. Review material over time, adding to it and improving it as you go. Ask employees to give you feedback on the adequacy and effectiveness of the material — ultimately they are the best judges of what’s useful and what’s not.

Developing a comprehensive training plan and program is probably one of the most challenging things your club will do, but the time, cost, and effort is well worthwhile.  Over the long haul, the effort you put into developing the professionalism of your staff and improving the quality of service at your club will have far reaching positive effects on member satisfaction and your bottom line.

Next Week:  Training Tools and Execution

Thanks and have a great day!

Ed Rehkopf

This weekly blog comments on and discusses the club industry and its challenges. From time to time, we will feature guest bloggers — those managers and industry experts who have something of interest to say to all of us. We also welcome feedback and comment upon the blog, hoping that it will become a useful sounding board for what’s on the minds of hardworking club managers throughout the country and around the world.

Club Resources International - Management Resources for Clubs!

• Managers and supervisors direct your front line employees. If they don’t have a complete understanding of their duties and your expectations, your service message and vision for the operation will not be passed consistently to employees.

• A management team with different leadership styles ranging from service-based, to military, to athletic, to collegial, to Neanderthal, will not interact with employees consistently or fairly — and consistency and fairness are touchstone issues in meeting the requirements of equal opportunity, discrimination, morale, and motivation. Ideally, an organization would have one management and leadership style, promulgated by the Board or General Manager and practiced uniformly by all managers and supervisors; anything less invites trouble.

• A club’s organizational values and culture require constant reinforcement to all employees and must be consistently emphasized in word and deed to employees. Without appropriate manager training and development, the example and message will be inconsistent and confusing.

• Managers and supervisors are your people with the answers. In addition to their job specific knowledge and skills, they must have a thorough understanding of all the club’s rules, regulations, work policies, member policies, administrative and accounting systems and procedures. Without training they cannot have a firm grasp of these complex and interrelated matters. Stop for a second and consider the problems that can be caused by two different managers giving conflicting direction or answers to employees or members.

• Managers and supervisors act as agents of the club. If they do not have an in-depth understanding of all the laws and governmental regulations affecting your club, the club is open to liability issues and litigation. Examples include: the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, Alcohol Law Enforcement regulations, Equal Opportunity issues, Sexual Harassment, Food Sanitation, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Family Medical Leave Act, and others. While you may have experts in each of these matters on staff, their knowledge must be shared with other managers to avoid what could become significant problems for the club.  Throughout my career many of the most significant problems I faced were as a result of subordinate managers without a proper understanding of these important issues.

• Ethics training for all managers. Some think this isn’t necessary, but experience shows this to be a naïve assumption.

To expect that different managers with different backgrounds and experiences from a variety of operational disciplines — golf, golf course maintenance, accounting, personnel, facility maintenance, food and beverage, membership, activities, tennis, and aquatics — will have a common understanding of and approach to leadership and management is foolish.

Bottom Line:  Without strong, stable, and consistent leadership and management at all levels of your club, your staff is a bunch of tribes, often at odds or in conflict — and this is no way to run a railroad, much less a club.

We’ll talk about strategies to train next week.

Thanks and have a great day!

Ed Rehkopf

This weekly blog comments on and discusses the club industry and its challenges. From time to time, we will feature guest bloggers - those managers and industry experts who have something of interest to say to all of us. We also welcome feedback and comment upon the blog, hoping that it will become a useful sounding board for what’s on the minds of hardworking club managers throughout the country and around the world.

Club Resources International - Management Resources for Clubs!

Recognizing that we work in a detail-intensive business, most club managers understand that comprehensive and systematic training for both subordinate managers and line employees is an imperative.  Yet, the sad fact is that training is an afterthought in many operations, left up to department heads or front line supervisors to conceive, design, and implement.

Why is this so often the case?  I offer the following as some of the factors that make training so difficult for all of us:

• First, is the standalone nature of most clubs. Busy managers have little time and, in some cases, lack the necessary skill set to design a comprehensive training curriculum for employees. Complicating this is the fact that club operations span many disciplines, including accounting, human resources, marketing, member relations, golf operations, food and beverage, aquatics, golf course maintenance, and other areas. Few, managers have the detailed knowledge of all these disciplines to design the well-integrated systems, policies, and procedures that cover all areas of the operation.
• The general manager and management staff have not formally defined the standards of quality and service they wish to provide the membership. Without formal standards, how do they determine their training needs?
• Given the many positions inherent in club operations, there is the need to develop a curriculum for each position to provide employees the appropriate skill set.  This is a daunting task, though focusing on critical member-facing positions is the first step.
• In addition to individual skills training, employees must be trained in the club culture and values; laws affecting the workplace; employee work rules and policies; liability abatement training such as safety, sanitation, and public health; human resource issues such as sexual harassment, discrimination, conduct, and performance criteria; accounting policies and procedures relating to their work such as point of sale training, inventory procedures, and timekeeping; and all the club’s various organizational systems that allow it to function efficiently.
• Managers at all levels must be trained in a variety of disciplines including leadership; club culture and values; various laws affecting club operations; club systems; accounting standards, policies, and procedures; human resource standards, policies, and procedures — to name a few.
• Few clubs have a comprehensive training plan that guides subordinate managers in training standards, responsibilities, budgets, resources, and necessary curricula.
• There is no easy way for the general manager to monitor training execution due to the lack, in most  clubs, of training administration software and training benchmarks. Short of attending each training session, how does the GM know who is training and meeting the ongoing requirements of a multi-faceted curriculum.
• In times of tight budgets (and when is it ever not such a time?), the cost of every hour of training is multiplied by the number of employees being trained and their hourly wage — and this can have a significant impact on the bottom line.
• The management staff does not have the will to make it happen given all the other management requirements, demands on their time, and competing priorities.
• The club’s board, while demanding high service levels, does not understand the direct link between formal training and quality service or, even more importantly, the challenging task of designing and implementing an effective club-wide training program. In many cases, the general manager has not developed the training goals, assessments, plan, proposed budget, and “sold” the board on its necessity.

The bottom line on all these issues is that unless focused on and attended to religiously, they fall through the cracks.  While the training requirements of a well-run operation seem overwhelming, they can be effectively implemented by a variety of strategies which we’ll talk about next week.

Thanks and have a great day!

Ed Rehkopf

This weekly blog comments on and discusses the club industry and its challenges. From time to time, we will feature guest bloggers - those managers and industry experts who have something of interest to say to all of us. We also welcome feedback and comment upon the blog, hoping that it will become a useful sounding board for what’s on the minds of hardworking club managers throughout the country and around the world.

Club Resources International - Management Resources for Clubs!

Owners or shareholders are usually the smallest constituent group in numbers, but their needs are paramount.  Why?  Because it is their capital that has been invested in the enterprise and their need for return on investment that permits the continuation of the business.  If it is not making a profit, if it cannot gain credit based on a potential for future profit, if it cannot meet its cash needs for payroll or to pay vendors, it will quickly go out of business and the needs of all other constituencies will become irrelevant.

Obviously, a return on investment is important.  Consider why an owner would want to earn 2% in a business when he could invest his money in a less risky investment and earn a better return.  While there may be other reasons for continuing to own a business—such as prestige; a sense of obligation to family, community, or employees; or the expectation of improved future performance—over the long haul owners will not be willing to risk their capital on a poor-performing venture.

Next in order of importance are the needs of customers.  Without sufficient customers  patronizing the business, it will not be profitable or viable.  If not viable, it will not last long-and all constituencies lose.

Ultimately, customers are attracted by price and the quality of products and services.  Taken together, quality and price create a sense of value—the value perceived by customers.  If enough customers perceive value, they will frequent the enterprise to spend their money and will make it successful.  If not, the business will ultimately fail.

This statement brings us to our third constituency—the employees.  They are the ones who execute the owners’ vision for quality of product and service.  They are the ones whose daily interaction with customers creates the value customers seek.  Properly led, valued, and supported, employees will enthusiastically commit to serving the business’ customers thereby fostering levels of business that enable it to thrive.

Organizational Models

The basis for the traditional hierarchical organizational model is the military concept of “chain of command.”  In this model, management is represented as the sequence of authority in executing the will of the owners—and certainly management plays that essential role.  But in addition to not representing the importance of customers, it also places the employees at the bottom of the chain—thereby visually relegating them to the position of least consequence.

The Service-Based Organizational model depicts the importance of satisfying customers, as well as the important role of employees.  The organization’s leaders are placed at the bottom, clearly emphasizing their role in serving the needs of all constituencies.

Excerpted from Leadership on the Line - The Workbook.

Thanks and have a great day!

Ed Rehkopf

This weekly blog comments on and discusses the club industry and its challenges. From time to time, we will feature guest bloggers - those managers and industry experts who have something of interest to say to all of us. We also welcome feedback and comment upon the blog, hoping that it will become a useful sounding board for what’s on the minds of hardworking club managers throughout the country and around the world.

Club Resources International - Management Resources for Clubs!