Club Management - January/February 2008 - (Page 45) In an effort to improve feedback for cooks and wait staff, member comment cards are posted in the kitchen for all to read. This kind of quality feedback has given employees a real morale boost. Solutions Some problems were easy to fix, and for others, potential solutions were discussed. Everyone was told they would have another opportunity to make suggestions once the general manager and club manager had time to digest the report. Next, I helped the club manager prepare a summary for the employees. They wanted to know what “came out” of the work we did. This feedback would be important in securing their buy-in and help during the problem solving and solution implementation phase. Along with this feedback report we included a suggestion form asking for their ideas on making improvements to the areas discussed. Not everyone had attended a workshop, so this was a good way to get input from everyone. In a very short period of time, we had many good ideas, most of which originated from employees. Management Challenges Quail Ridge waws well above the industry standard for budgeted performance and cost of sales contributions. Yet a perception to the contrary existed. It is interesting to note that this subject only came up in the individual interviews. The first area of this issue was inefficient use of money. Here were the main concerns and the solutions: • The high cost of rental items. It may have been cost effective at one time, but purchasing linens and decorative items is now saving money. The elimination of more rental items is planned for this year. The estimated cost savings is $3,500/season. • Old maintenance contracts that could be re-contracted at a savings as well as provide better service. Several of these contracts have been renegotiated or the provider has been changed. Estimated savings are $10,000 annually. Service in these areas also has improved. • Too many last-minute changes to banquets and events that raise costs. Part of providing great service is always working with the members to ensure their expectations are met. Employees have been educated that at times this is an acceptable cost of doing business in this private, member-owned club. • Undercharging of sponsored nonmember events. Policy for these kinds of events has been clarified, and they are monitored closely to ensure that the club is not subsidizing non-member events. Estimated savings are unknown, but subsidizing has ended. The second area of this issue was food and beverage supplies. Employees felt that excessive waste, theft and unscrupulous vendors were costing the club. The balance sheet looked fine, so the suggestion to hire a purchasing manager didn’t seem practical at this point. But the club manager had an idea. The club was looking for a new head chef. The club manager previously had worked with a chef who had a reputation for maintaining very strict control over food and beverage costs. This season the clubhouse has been about $20,000 under budget per mont h compared with the last season. The general manager credits much of this savings to the new chef. Disorganization “Disorganized” is the word almost everyone I spoke with used to describe clubhouse operations. Here are some of the specific comments: • Too many managers giving different directions. • Some of the managers need to delegate more. • What are the responsibilities of each manager? • There is no specialization or permanent assignment of tasks for recurring events. • Employee schedules come out late. Additional specifics from the workshops: • A lack of clearly defi ned roles among employees. • Supervisors and key employees are making too many assumptions about their areas of responsibility. • New employees receive inconsistent direction and training. Manager roles needed to be clarified. Each manager wrote down every responsibility they believed they owned as well as everything they believed they should own. The club manager then made changes and additions to their submissions. Instead of giving each manager a document with his/her responsibilities, he gave all of the job descriptions to all of the managers. This cleared up the assumptions about responsibilities with resulting gaps and redundancy of efforts. It also gave the managers a model for defi ning roles more clearly within their departments. Two problems that arose from the disorganization were a lack of accountability and poor communication. It had become easy for employees to say they didn’t know about an assignment or thought someone else was accountable. I conducted three exercises in the employee workshops: a performance trend exercise, a core value grading exercise, and a loyalty exercise. One of the key findings from all three exercises was that clubhouse management was perceived as being less effective than it should be. Clubhouse management itself had a more pessimistic view of the current operations than the other employee groups. Based on this and other factors, it was decided that change was needed at the management level. The dining room manager was replaced with a very effective new manager. An additional dining room manager was hired to help during the day. These two new managers made a big difference in the accountability issues and improved avenues for employees to give and receive feedback. They also brought a fresh new sense of enthusiasm and were well received by employees. JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008 • 45
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