Irreplaceable Relationships: Take the emotion out of it?....not really possible.

Right now all across the nation, and even more so in states where golf is still banned in populated counties, private club leaders are facing challenges unlike the industry has ever seen.

As ClubBenchmarking has shown, about 75% of the Clubs in America entered this crisis without adequate resources to weather a storm and 25% were already in severe distress to begin with.

Today we are about 45 days into it, and unfortunately many clubs are getting to a point where the well is running dry and clubs are starting to make some unfortunate and uncomfortable decisions – primarily about their #1 asset: their staff.

Most clubs have furloughed a significant portion of their hourly staff and now phase two begins where salaried senior managers are taking pay cuts.

A few days ago, I read a top ranked Platinum club make the statement, “We are keeping our staff whole through the crisis until they can return to work. The reason for that is because we have irreplaceable relationships with our staff and we cannot give them a reason to leave”.

Irreplaceable relationships. Think about that statement.

If you pull up the criteria that Platinum ranked clubs are judged by, look at #3 of the seven selection criteria:

Caliber of Staff and Professional Service Levels

A maxim of the finest clubs remains, ‘ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen with mutual respect’. Clubs who attract outstanding employees in the community are known to provide an excellent work environment, unique culture and leading compensation and benefits. Employees are a Club’s most important asset, and personal and professional growth is encouraged. The quality of management is reflected by a staff that is well trained, well-mannered and highly motivated to provide an extraordinary experience for their members.

There’s several thousand private clubs in the America. Only a fortunate few make the list of being recognized as the best of the best – 150 country clubs, 50 golf clubs, 50 city clubs, and 50 yacht clubs.

One of the attributes of all great clubs is staff tenure. The top clubs all have staff that have served 10, 20, 30+ years at the Club. Sure – every club has their “sacred cows” of tenured staff that become complacent and seem to get away with any and everything, but there’s also a group of “sacred work horses” that wake up every day loving their job, work very hard, and do an exceptional job at providing that extraordinary experience.

What many do not realize, and what members sometimes forget because many come from successful for-profit and often cutthroat business environments, is the irreplaceable value of long-term employees. Employees at private clubs are not a number in the corporate hierarchy. They are an extension of a member’s family. Over the course of 10, 20, 30+ years, private club employees have devoted a significant percentage of their life serving the membership. They have been a part of the member’s own life journey. They have been there for the highs and lows. Marriages, births of a child, celebrations and achievements, events, divorces, and deaths. The staff has been through all the emotions just as the member has.

This is very different from the public sector. Most corporations in America make a statement that they value their staff (and they do), but the difference with the public sector is their customer/consumer base does not have an intimate, tenured relationship with their employees. There is a transactional relationship in the public sector. A positive relationship, hopefully, but it’s a transactional and temporary relationship. I don’t shop at Best Buy because I am there to see a certain employee, and the employee there at the checkout line probably doesn’t care what’s occurring in my family’s life. But at a private club…. employees do care and members do care.

I was just talking a month ago to a GM of an elite Platinum club and he was telling me how after all the years, he feels his employees are all his children and he’s become another parent to them. He loves every one of them and will do anything to protect them. That is how it is at private clubs. It’s not that private clubs are out of touch with the public sector, it’s that private clubs are so different because they’ve touched our lives in such meaningful ways.

Our entire business model revolves around relationships and social interaction – not social distancing. Our business model revolves around gatherings, events, golf tournaments, weddings, swim meets, happy hours, league programming, memories and fun. Perhaps this is why this virus hurts so much more on so many levels internally and externally.

Today all around the country, many private clubs are saying goodbye to the people that make their business model work and to the people that keep members staying. People join private clubs because on the surface it seems like a great golf course or has nice amenities. But the reason members stay is because of the experiences and relationships. Private clubs cannot simply replace a 25-year tenured staff member with a new person and have members expect the same experience.

The majority of our employees only want a few things – to put a roof over their head and food on the table for their family. Most employees at private clubs don’t have a college degree. Most don’t own their home. Most have cars that break down. Most don’t have the luxuries our members have. They are the most vulnerable in times like this and at no fault of their own. Their club was their safe haven and a home away from home. A place where there are loved and respected. An environment that protects them and feeds them. Leadership that cares for them and provides them opportunity for growth and development.

No club leader wants to be in a position where they must furlough or cut out positions, but at the end of the day we still are tasked with operating a multi-million dollars business and if there is a major year-end shortfall it will likely lead to an assessment, more resignations and cause the 2021 budget and business plan to be in a dark place.

Right now our furloughed teams are unemployed, scared, and wondering if and when they can come back to our clubs. Many might be talking to their colleagues at top-ranked clubs wondering how they too can get a job at a club with significant resources, or perhaps even rethinking why they are even working for a non-profit like a club rather than a billion dollar company that is better equipped to weather a storm. Right now club leaders are also wondering if their staff will return, not can they return.

For a lot of us in club leadership roles, this business of hospitality is all we know. We are bred for servant leadership. It’s probably the tip of the iceberg, but I think there’s going to be a lot more discussions about protecting the mental health for private club leadership and the need for guys like Craig Marshal and Rick Ladendorf of America’s Healthiest Clubs. Just at our Club, we have 18 of our senior management staff enrolled in their Certified Mindful Professional program. One of our teammates made the comment a few weeks ago, “Is this leadership training? Or marriage counseling? Because it’s helping me with both”. Right now we all could use a little counseling.

All I know is I miss our team, I miss our members, and I miss the irreplaceable relationships that make clubs such a special place. I hope club leaders and club members across the country continue to make a commitment to protecting these irreplaceable relationships for as long as we can afford to financially do so.

If there is anyone out there battling these demons, just know you are not alone and you can always reach out for help. No matter where we are in this country, the nice part about the club business is we are one small fraternity/sorority and we are here for each other. Our relationships with each other are also irreplaceable.