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Employee Engagement

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This article continues a series of communications from GGA Partners to help leaders of private clubs address challenges arising from the COVID-19 coronavirus that are confronting their businesses and their employees. Today, Patrick DeLozier, a director of our firm, offers some ideas on keeping the team engaged.

Employee Engagement: It’s now more challenging, but also more important.

At the top of our priority list during these unsettling times is making sure our employees are not forgotten. They need to know that their clubs genuinely care for them and their well-being, and that you are mindful of the economic and social consequences that accompany this pandemic.

You also want to let employees know that they are valued members of a team that needs to stay connected during these tough times, so that they are ready to ramp up full-scale operations once it is safe to do so. Staying together even when you’re apart starts with communications, but also includes working effectively from remote locations and finding balance in a new work and home routine.

Social distancing doesn’t mean social isolation.

Leaders should make sure they are communicating with employees regularly and consistently. There are a number of ways to do this, some that take advantage of technology and others that rely on old-school practices.

You can write personalized notes to employees to keep them up to date on club news and plans. You can do this electronically, of course, which gives you an opportunity to add a video message. But this is also a good time for an old-fashioned handwritten note that arrives in the mail.

For those employees celebrating birthdays and work anniversaries, a phone call is a simple but effective way of showing that they’re a valued member of your team and further establishes you in their minds as an empathetic manager.

Make sure employees are included on any communication sent to club members. Keeping everyone informed at the same time builds trust and the sense that we’re all in this together.

Being comfortable – and productive – at home.

Most of your employees are probably not accustomed to working from home, which means they’re dealing with a new set of distractions—a dog barking, a child wanting attention – while trying to be productive in an unfamiliar workspace. Here are a few suggestions for working remotely:

Create a comfortable and separate workspace. Resist the temptation to pull out your laptop and plop down on the sofa, which makes it too easy to be distracted by other household activities.

Use one of the many video tools, including Zoom, WeChat, Skype and FaceTime to replicate the social interaction and brainstorming opportunities that a meeting at the club would provide.

It’s a balancing act.

Balance your day. Try not to fall into the trap of working too much. Instead, maybe watch an online concert, take an online yoga class or go for a walk with the dog. One of the best things you can do for your employees is to stay healthy, both physically and mentally.

Make time in your workday to speak with co-workers, friends and family about subjects not related to work. Share a funny story or compare notes on a favorite show or movie.

Now’s the time, carpe diem.

How many times have you thought, “If I only had more time, I would … .” Now you do, so take advantage of your down time to plan, dream and innovate. You might consider creating an idea think tank with your team and challenge them to submit ideas that support your member enhancement program. Have department heads dissect their business unit with the goal of improving efficiency, productivity and profitability.

John Quincy Adams said, “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” Now, more than ever, employees are looking to you for leadership. Those who feel their employers are communicating consistently, openly, honestly and with empathy will stay engaged and return to work feeling connected to a team and a mission.

Because sometimes we just need to laugh…

Sample Coronavirus Planning Framework

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This week GGA Partners continues its series of communications to help leaders of private clubs address challenges confronting their businesses and their employees with three perspectives from the front lines of club management.

Today: Robert Sereci, GM/COO, Medinah Country Club, Medinah, Illinois.

A Comprehensive Project Plan for Responding to Rapidly Changing Circumstances Focuses Efforts and Assigns Responsibility

You can’t predict a crisis, but you can – and should – plan for one.

Having a plan for how to respond in times of crisis is essential to ensuring that all critical action elements are addressed. Equally important, a comprehensive plan helps your leadership team understand their individual responsibilities and the actions for which they will be held accountable. In addition, a timeline sets out clear deadlines and helps track progress toward your goals.

We developed a comprehensive COVID-19 project plan for our leadership group at Medinah and with the help of GGA Partners (with whom we recently collaborated on a strategic planning project), loaded the plan into the Smartsheet software tool to assign tasks, track project progress, manage calendars, and share documents. Below is the template we developed, which we’re happy to share with fellow club leaders.

To see a clean templated version that readers are free to use as a starting point, click here. Users can also download the corresponding Excel export that is editable and able to be imported directly to their instance of Smartsheet (click here to download).

From the planning template, we wrote a summary of the four key elements of the plan. In total, we viewed the actions under each section as a non-negotiable checklist for our leadership team.

Communication

  1. Assemble a COVID communication/response team – Should include members of the management team and the board.
  2. Member Communication – Focus on awareness, early measures and key dates, including club closure, locker and club storage pick up, etc.
  3. Staff Communication – Determine potential payroll taxes relief and other payroll aid tools available and seek legal advice. Identify the work-from-home capabilities and obstacles for team members.
  4. Board Communications – Brief the board and seek approval on immediate priority policy changes required.
  5. Committee Communication – Work with committee chairs to reschedule future meetings and determine conference call solutions.
  6. Other Stakeholder Communication – Plan for reaching out to vendors, prospective members, group reservations and other relevant stakeholders.

Operations

  1. Member Offerings/Venues – Separate into short-term versus long-term. Key checklist items include F&B menu/offering, vendor relationships, golf course opening plan and member access to pick up property.
  2. Cleaning Action Steps – Update the cleaning checklist with added preventative measures and assign personnel.
  3. Facilities – Define the future usage of each core facility at the Club (clubhouse, pro shop, F&B, admin offices) and any policy or function changes required.
  4. Other Operations – Define the operational plan for other areas of the business, including turf maintenance/engineering facilities, prospective member programs and non-member business- related income such as existing bookings for banquets and tournaments.
  5. Staff policy/scheduling and pay scenarios – short-term and long-term policy, and expected costs for salaries of full-time, part-time and seasonal employees (full shutdown vs. partial shutdown).

Financial Impact Planning

  1. Scenario Planning – Identify the most likely shutdown scenarios and model assumptions that have the greatest impact on the financial model (i.e. change in dues, wages, etc.).
  2. Preserving Cash Plan – Review all capital projects, loan schedules, outside revenue contracts to identify ways to conserve cash. Adjust assumptions for new member forecasts and resignation forecasts.
  3. Cost Cutting Plan – Based on the new assumptions for revenue and cash, determine the most prudent areas for cut-backs to payroll, operating expenses, contracts, events, etc.
  4. Revenue Generation Plan – Identify any new offerings the club can provide to support revenue generation, such as meal replacement, to-go orders, limited golf, event catering, etc.

Contingency Plans

  1. Determine a plan for shelter in place – Determine the trigger that would lead to no staff or members on property (i.e. order from city officials) and the time-sensitive steps to be taken in that event.
  2. Determine trigger and plan to close club completely – How does the plan change if shelter in place orders are extended or if a member or employee is diagnosed with the virus?
  3. Determine trigger and plan to reopen club completely – Leadership team develops a back-to- work protocol and a ramp-up plan.
  4. Club Events/Golf Tournament Status – Determine how each scenario above affects the status of scheduled club events that have not been postponed.

A note about Smartsheet: there are several different project planning tools out there, but I am quite fond of Smartsheet (www.smartsheet.com). I use the software extensively for project planning and highly recommend it. From a strategic planning perspective, it has been a great tool for us to keep track of progress on our strategic action plan and to keep our leadership group aligned on performance against our goals.

Because sometimes we just need to laugh …

Putting Planning First

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This week GGA Partners continues its series of communications to help leaders of private clubs address challenges confronting their businesses and their employees with three perspectives from the front lines of club management.

Today: Jan Bloemraad, CEO, The Glencoe Club and The Glencoe Golf & Country Club, Alberta, Canada.

In times like these, the impulse is to act. To take decisive action in response to the enormous challenges the coronavirus has placed at our feet.

But before you do – before you rally your team and charge into battle – my advice is to step back and make sure you have an effective plan in place. That’s what we did at our club, and the decision is paying dividends.

As the pace at which the coronavirus pandemic has picked up speed, it has become increasingly more challenging for business leaders to devote precious time on constructing and reconstructing a response plan. But in our experience, whatever time is lost while planning is more than compensated for in making sure your actions are the right ones.

In our planning process, we have identified three key elements that can have the greatest positive impact on focusing your team, making swift decisions and maintaining the trust of staff and members.

3 Critical Elements to Planning in Times of Crisis

1. Objective Setting.

There is never a more important time for setting objectives and goals than when planning a crisis response. Goals should be focused on immediate-term, short-term and longer-term time horizons.

Our team has organized our goals during this pandemic around five key pillars: communications, which must be open and honest; administration, operations, human resources and innovation.

2. Response Teams.

In times of crisis, an effective approach to organizing involves the creation of special response teams to ensure there is accountability, focus and resources assigned to every primary action required.

It is important to remember that in times of crisis a new layer of organizational structure is required, one that goes above and beyond your normal operating structure.

Our leadership team’s approach has been to assign a champion to each major goal and to form a team under each champion to ensure their work stays true to the goals we’ve set. Each response team ultimately reports to and takes direction from the Senior Leadership team.

3. Decision Criteria.

When circumstances are evolving rapidly and emotions are running high, data and facts are important allies. One of the more time-consuming aspects of planning in times of crisis is the design and development of critical decision criteria.

Having established decision-making criteria tied to objective data and facts sourced from experts are incredibly powerful resources in supporting swift action and building trust.

Our team set out to develop decision-making criteria and critical triggers for every major decision we knew we would face. These triggers, underpinned by data and facts, have guided all major decisions, reduced stress and empowered our team to meet this enormous challenge head-on.

As leaders, our first reaction to crisis is to run into the fire and toward the crisis. But the most important job of leadership, in my opinion, is first to point our teams in the right direction. A plan that embeds these three elements is a good way to focus everyone on the big picture and then on the tasks at hand, so everyone is working toward the same goals.

Because sometimes we just need to laugh …

What we’re going through is obviously no laughing matter. But according to Psychology Today, humor can be a great mechanism for dealing with stress. Jokes and witty conversation even in a time like this can make you feel closer to the people around you. Have you heard the one about …

In Times of Crisis, Customized Communication Is Key

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This week GGA Partners continues its series of communications to help leaders of private clubs address challenges confronting their businesses and their employees with three perspectives from the front lines of club management.

Today: Trevor Noonan, COO, Toronto Club, Toronto, Ontario and president of the Canadian Society of Club Managers.

It’s easy to say and it’s been said so often that it should be hard for any leader to forget: In times of crisis, communication is key.

Three weeks ago, when it was apparent the coronavirus was headed to Canada, I drafted the first of many memos to our members and our team of employees.

Based on what we knew (or thought we knew) at the time, I did my best to answer the most obvious questions: What is coronavirus/COVID-19? How is it contracted? What are its symptoms? What should you do if you think you’re infected? What personal protection measures should you take?

Then I tackled the personal side of the issue: How the club was responding to the threat, and how it was preparing for the possibility of a confirmed case amongst members or employees.

Not being an infectious disease specialist, I looked to outside resources for guidance, starting with WHO, the CDC and the Public Health Agency of Canada. I was also alert to information from other sources. The general manager of the Hong Kong Club was especially helpful in providing real-life experiences I could relate to. I even found relevant information from the property management company that manages my condominium building. Crediting these sources in my memos added credibility, trust and a level of comfort for our team members.

Since those first memos, I’ve written eight more, each customized to a specific group: members, employees and our management committee, plus two more as president of the Canadian Society of Club Managers. At the end of each memo, I said when each group could expect my next communication. This establishes a schedule and lets recipients know that I am going to continue to keep them informed.

I’ve also enlisted members of my management team as content contributors. Their participation promotes buy-in from all aspects of club management and helps them feel part of the solution. In addition, it was important to assure employees that wholesale layoffs were not imminent and that the club would be taking care of them. Early on we had meetings with employees where we asked for their suggestions on how the club should be responding. Some of their ideas were immediately implemented, making employees part of the solution and increasing pride in their club.

In meetings with employees, I do my best to be prepared with answers to the questions I can anticipate. But I quickly learned I cannot anticipate all of their questions, nor will I have all the answers. One phrase I’ve used a few times that’s helped with trust and credibility: “I don’t know all the answers; I’m still learning all the questions.” When you admit that you’re learning, and that you’ll do your best to find the best answers to their questions, it shows your commitment to informed decision-making and adds to their trust in you as a leader.

Of course, we should not overlook another important group in the communications process – family. Your family is going through this too. They’re worried about the virus and how it might affect family members. They’re also worried about club members, employees and their families. Now that I’m working from home (our club is closed), my family sees firsthand the challenges with which my fellow club managers and I are dealing.

You need to communicate openly about the coronavirus, but be sure to focus your discussions on other topics too. Don’t let the virus and its effects consume your entire time while home or your stress will be passed on to others around you.  Finally, don’t forget about taking care of yourself; in other words: practice what you preach.  Those who follow me on social media will have witnessed numerous #selfcare posts, and now with a community challenge to my colleagues and friends. The reaction to this challenge is heartwarming to say the least.

When it comes to guiding our clubs and our people through these challenging times, we’re all learning on the job. The first lesson, as I’ve been reminded, is to promote open, honest and clear communications.

Need something to lighten up your day? What could be better than a good, old-fashioned sitcom? How about 15 of them? Here’s a summary of some of your favorites and maybe a few you never got around to watching. Happy viewing.  

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