Staff Training for Retention, Part One

Staffing is one facet of club management that either excites you, or is put on the bottom of your agenda and keeps popping up. Either way, it requires significant time and attention. 

When you look at the time, energy, money and other resources that go into properly staffing your club and building your team, you want to maximize and expound on it. The ROI is the longevity of the employee and better member service. 

We like to invest in the hiring process by having a complete screening and multiple-step interview process. Once the team member is selected, we want to train and retain, and encourage that team member to grow with us.

Training is divided up into three areas: executive-led company culture and service training; departmental training; and peer mentoring and on-floor work.

Our first step is thorough orientations led by our executive team and a couple department managers, who offer anecdotes on what brings Stone Creek to life — the team members in the room. We focus on the Stone Creek experience and how critical our employees are to the company’s success.

Department training is key. By having the department director greet and lead the team member training, we are setting them up for success with the proper instruction — not a watered down version passed from staff member to staff member. The director leads the new team member on a complete tour of their department, both front and back of house, and tours them through other areas of the club they will interact with on a daily basis. Departmental tasks, checklists, safety notes and key service points are reviewed and demonstrated.

Once club and department trainings are complete, now the interactions on the floor with your members are where the rubber meets the road. By pairing experienced team members with new ones, we are able to ensure training continues, great service is continuously delivered, and our team members feed off of one another in delivering first-in-class club programs and services.

In part two of this article in the next issue, I will discuss the importance of reinforcing culture with staff and fostering a fun, welcoming environment they want to stay in. 

Marvin Gresse is the assistant general manager of Stone Creek Club & Spa.