It is no secret that the pandemic has made hiring and retaining good employees more challenging than ever. Increased government subsidies, remote learning, and the desire to have a flexible work schedule have all played a role in minimizing the number of candidates applying for jobs.

As important as it is for your club to be member-focused, it is now equally important to create an employee-focused culture to ensure the club is delivering the level of service your members expect.

GGA Partners’ Patrick DeLozier, the director of executive search for the firm, offers five insights to help you find and retain great employees.

1. Recruit with retention in mind

Retaining great employees begins with recruiting great people. A descriptive and succinct job description will provide a clear understanding of what the position entails. The interview process should be focused on the candidate and their capabilities rather than what the job you’re hiring for entails. During the interview, ask thought-provoking questions.

You want to understand why the applicant is interested in the position and how this position fulfills his/her career aspirations. You also want to learn how an applicant will react to different situations so prepare scenarios and let the applicant describe how they would handle it. Through the responses to these types of questions, you will gain keen insight into whether the applicant will thrive within the club’s culture now and in the future.

2. Train for the vision and mission

Once on board, new employees will only succeed with the proper training and tools to get the job done. Before learning how to set a table, greet a member, or mow the 15^th fairway, your employees need to clearly understand the club’s vision and mission.

If your vision is to provide the highest level of personal service, then it is important to provide a toolkit that includes photos of members and their families along with their special interests. Or, if your vision is to be the best club in the area, it is imperative that your orientation process include an explanation of what your management team defines as best practices.

3. Provide clear paths for advancement

Some of your employees will be perfectly content to stay in the same role throughout their tenure at the club, while others are keen to advance. For the latter, a lack of opportunity to grow and advance is the reason they will move on.

The best way to retain great employees is to take an interest in their career goals, offering opportunities such as advanced training, continuing education, shadowing, or mentoring programs. A clear commitment to cultivating a successful future for an individual employee creates a compelling long-term value proposition that enables them to see why, in turn, they should commit to the future of your club.

4. Listen and you’ll learn

As important as it is to poll members about the club, it is equally important to allow your employees to have an open door to provide ways to improve procedures, systems, and training. After all, they are on the front lines, interacting with fellow employees and your members every day.

Using survey tools to engage your workforce to seek feedback, hosting department listening sessions, or placing an old-fashioned suggestion box in the employee lounge provide opportunities for employees to offer ideas to improve overall service. Not all suggestions will be on point, but many will. In those cases, employees should be recognized and rewarded. Listening to employees not only helps to uncover new ways to improve but also shows the employee that their opinion matters and that they are part of furthering the club’s mission.

5. Invest in your human capital

The pandemic caused employees to rethink what truly matters in their job. What matters beyond earning a living wage are intangibles such as a diverse work force, an environment that recognizes outcome over output, mangers who trust employees to do the right thing, and workplace flexibility.  Creating a workplace built on trust, flexibility, and diversity while providing expected benefits such as health insurance, paid vacations, and personal time is the investment your club should be making to attract and retain great employees.

Recruiting employees with the potential to be great employees is not an easy task. It requires asking the right questions from the onset, proper training, an open-door communications policy, taking the time to understand and help advance their careers. But most of all, it requires that you trust and empower them to do the job of which they are capable.