Magazine - Is Now the Time to 'Sack' your Staff?

By Mike Orloff in Consultancy on 17th May 2010 13:00

This may sound a little ruthless during these uncertain economic times, but at the end of the day - business is business.

Let me clarify this statement a bit more. If you currently employ any staff members that have continued to regularly under perform, now is time to bite the bullet and get them out of your operation ASAP! I know what some of you are thinking, ‘it will cost too much", "he is a nice guy" or "they have been here for a long time". Well the simple fact is that they are costing you more money by keeping them on than what it would cost in the long run to get rid of them. How much is your operation under performing and how much extra time are you spending fixing their particular problems? This under performance hurts your operational efficiency, not just in financial terms, but also in morale terms with other employees also not achieving their individual potential. If they see another employee getting away with poor performance, it will also be a detriment to theirs.

What a difference a new staff member can make!

There are so many very good employees especially from the hotel industry that are currently looking for a new job, so why not hire them to work in the golf industry. A Sydney newspaper recently wrote that over 800 people (from all professional backgrounds) had applied for a kitchen-hand job at a major city’s golf club. Another report in the Sydney Morning Herald stated that "the Treasury's forecast is that one million Australians will be unemployed by mid-2011, after the jobless rate returned to a five-year high of 5.7 per cent in May."

You as the employer have the upper hand at the moment in attracting new, professional, and highly skilled service staff to your establishment. You may not get them all at a significantly lower salary, and in many cases it may cost a bit more than your current outgoing staff member. But remember: You do pay for what you get. The return on a new previously trained employee will reap you multiple returns compared to your current under performing employee. You would be surprised at what happens to the revenue line after they start working for you. Go out and raise the bar to your facility’s service standards, your staff and members will thank you for it.

If you need help with recruiting new staff to your facility, please contact me. We can help you with either the basic marketing to attract candidates or the full service of short listing and interviewing. We work for you on a ‘flat fee’ arrangement.

Written by Mike Orloff



Mike Orloff is a golf operations specialist with extensive management experience in the golf industry in Australia and United States. He offers operational advice for new and existing golfing facilities in Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia in the areas of staff recruitment, membership attainment, membership retention, retail management, new player development, event management and revenue generation strategies. (Click to see Mike’s Resume)

Currently Mike lectures for the PGA International Golf Institute and writes monthly columns for various golf industry publications and websites including Inside Golf, Golf Inc, Asian Golf Business and the former Golf Business News (Australia).

Mike started Golf Industry Central to support golf facility operations throughout Australia and New Zealand with industry news, jobs and operational advice.

Written by Mike Orloff Director Golf Industry Central ©2009
Head to www.golfindustrycentral.com.au

Read more articles in Consultancy, by Mike Orloff or from May 2010.