Golfdom, November 2017

practices are employed in place of more conventional ones They are the stabilizing links in case of the unexpected absence of management Without this safety net the maintenance manager is forced to reinvent the wheel to come up to speed RETAIN RETAIN RETAIN Yet with all of its importance little or no emphasis is regularly placed on this aspect of golf course management Its a mistake made by course A PROPER CORE OF EMPLOYEES WILL BE TRAINED BY EXPERIENCE OR DIRECT TUTELAGE HOW TO HANDLE DETAILED ISSUES THAT ARISE THESE EMPLOYEES ARE INSURANCE THAT LITTLE ISSUES DONT BECOME BIG ISSUES owners operators boards of directors and only comes to light as a crisis Retaining quality employees is crucial to building a core However the seasonal aspect of work on a golf course acts as a significant obstacle to this effort Current federal law requiring that all year round employees be offered medical insurance a cost that significantly affects the bottom line of any employer makes the establishment of a core of employees even more difficult The powers that be use the insurance issue as an excuse to put off or ignore the need for core development The question we all need to ask Are the risks of continuing to ignore this issue worth the reward THE COST OF RISK There is no illusion here The bottom line is always the deciding factor A course can only afford what it can afford A maintenance structure that employs a superintendent two assistants two second assistants and a mechanic as its core employees may be ideal but also is unrealistic for a daily fee course with a 160000 maintenance budget But its just as unrealistic to have the superintendent as the only core employee in the maintenance division All eggs in one basket risks a messy result In the event a hypothetical superintendent relocates becomes infirm or even dies the only hope for a replacement coming up to speed with the intricacies of the course is if the predecessor kept outstanding notes and records And those only go so far On site daily experience from other employees is the ultimate assurance of a smooth transfer of authority and minimization of risk How much you may ask does risk cost Any time we ponder the application of an insurance product which is how we should view an employee core we must weigh the cost of the insurance against what the event insured against would cost In this case we are considering the cost of continued course maintenance operations course business operations against the cost of employing individuals to assure a smooth transition if required Consider the risk involved if our hypothetical superintendent who is the only core employee is killed by a runaway beer truck A DIFFERENT KIND OF INSURANCE after an early July delivery to the clubhouse Who holds the pieces together at the course Certainly the most critical time is immediately after the tragedy before a competent professional is recruited and takes over But nearly as precarious are the weeks that follow Warranting concern here are individual idiosyncrasies of irrigation systems the variety of annual issues each turfgrass manager must deal with and the menagerie of daily gotcha problems Add to these that this replacement superintendent must also become familiar with all operational processes great or small that exist at the course sometimes a daunting task in itself There are more than enough opportunities in all this for declining course conditions Such deteriorating conditions only hurt a bottom line BY THE NUMBERS Assume that during this hypothetical transition period course conditions suffer On a course with annual revenue of 1 million a mere 3 percent reduction will mean a loss of 30000 And that does not reflect additional losses that might follow if the organizations reputation becomes sullied a situation that could take years to repair and includes countless lost revenue Continued on page 26 LETS SPREAD WITH EASE Compost Sand Top Soil November 2017 Golfdom 25 Golfdom com Golfdo ISTOCK COM MICHAELSVOBODA www ecolawnapplicator com 1 866 ECO LAWN 326 5296