Understanding Your Neighborhood in a Post-2020 World (of Golf) – for Employers
Last month, the focus was on how PGA professionals, in the role of employee, can approach their career to better understand their neighborhood and the factors that define it, including the obvious factors and the new megatrend demographic factors. Click the link below to review:
Part 1: Understanding Your Neighborhood
This article’s focus will be on employers (whether as a supervisor, owner, club board of directors, etc.). We will examine how top talent think about these factors and how they affect the “application considerations” of nearly every potential candidate.
As stated in Part 1, the golf industry is being impacted by some social megatrends and industry specific trends. These trends are now factors that define the “employer’s neighborhood” and the manner that top candidates see (or rate) the quality of the opportunity as well.
- Type of facility: (These distinctions matter.)
- Private: What are the tangible and intangible resources for the staff provided by the membership (Specifically of the PGA professional staff?) These would include quality health benefits, a full “suite” of them vs just health, 401k with a match, access to the facility for the family, staff contract, dues, etc.
- Public: Similar to private but it really depends on the facility. Some municipal jobs have amazing benefits but salaries versus private or daily fees can be on the lower side. Candidates are “doing the math” on the value of the benefits, the possibly shorter work week versus the potentially lower income when they look at an employer. Shouldn’t the employer do the same?
- Location of the facility: (These distinctions matter.)
- How close is the facility to good housing options? “Good” is defined differently by different people of course, but often the aspects of the definition include affordability, security, proximity to work, to recreation and other family-centric details.
- Commute factors: Based on the location of the facility relative to “good” options for housing, the commute is either an obstacle or a benefit. Savvy employers will know what their neighborhood really is, and do what they can to alleviate any of the factors that are hindering their employment capacity.
- Employer’s Commitment to Equipping for Success
- Does the facility annually commit enough resources (financial and human) to get the job done at the level “asked for” in the customers expectations?
- Is the team “big enough” to do the job, or will the team be smaller than it needs to be based on the “hours of operation” and require a huge drain on the team and the team leaders just to get by?
- Does every team member receive a “constructive coaching” session with their supervisor once a month or at least bi-monthly? Jaime Sharp reminded me that “Leaders at their best are modeling gratefulness, purposefulness and mindfulness about the individual and collective development of their team…an encouraging, genuinely praising director of golf can lead, through modeling, their entire team to be about ‘catching each other doing the right thing’ and it can become a cultural strength.”
Besides the above “employer differentiators,” the most obvious one is compensation. The question and impact of the median average and percentile view in an employer’s (facility) “neighborhood” has proven to be effective in comparing clubs, positions, jobs and more. To get a more “apples to apples” snapshot to accurately understand the “comp neighborhood” we must think carefully about “neighborhood” factors above including:
- The tangible factors of the given location, the cost of living, availability of suitable housing options, plus, regional or locality factors that we can’t control
- The reputation and expectations of the clubs in that neighborhood, while asking:
- What level of experience do we need for the position for our needs and for them to be successful? (e.g. Don’t think about the “compensation for an average professional if you want an ‘above average’ professional.”)
- Do we want a “75th percentile level” professional? If yes, are we willing to step up our compensation within our neighborhood to attract and eventually retain the employee we want?
- What is the WAR (Wins Above Replacement) for the options we have in the “field” versus what we have already? More than once in 2021, I’ve seen an employer let a professional leave (on purpose or through apathy,) only to find that they had to pay the next professional significantly more. Sometimes the WAR doesn’t pan out when they have to pay more for what feels like “the same.”
Fact: Every employer needs to evaluate and understand the “neighborhood” they’re in. Fact 2: It’s an assessment that nearly every candidate makes when looking at a job (one they are considering or sometimes one they already have).
Whether you’re primarily an employee in the golf industry or you’re both an employee and an employer, let me know if I can help you with finding a deeper and more meaningful understanding of “your neighborhood” and the “position you have in that neighborhood” in the next few months. Now is the time to make your case and I’m here to help you make it.
With that said, I want to say how grateful I am to be able to work with the PGA Professionals in this Section, with the Section’s Board of Directors, each Chapter’s Board and with the amazing Section staff. I am so grateful to be a partner with each person and group in the list above – I am the blessed one, that is certain! (Special thanks to my editor for these articles, Marlena Cannon, who is just awesome.)
Best wishes to you, your families and the facilities you serve for Christmas, the holidays and I wish happiness, health and success for you in the coming year.
Kind regards, Monte