Avoiding HR Pitfalls
Before Brickendon Grange Golf Club engaged the services of Golf HR it was doing what many member clubs do when it comes to the managing of human resources and that was to rely on the expertise of members of the board. Fortunately, Lesley Carter was on hand to put her more than 40 years’ worth of HR experience to work on the club’s behalf. Although she handled HR matters on her own for several years, she felt it was important to bring in outside expertise to get some “double checks in place”.
“I have the experience and the knowledge, but the legislation changes all the time. I am retired, and I knew I wasn’t up to date and so we needed to have the current expertise that I no longer have.
“Also, although I’m an HR consultant, I’ve always worked with a lawyer. They’re the ones who tell you what to do and what the risks might be and then it’s down to me to assess whether it’s worth taking those risks.”
It wasn’t just HR expertise that Lesley and Brickendon Grange Golf Club wanted from an HR company they also wanted specialist knowledge of the specific issues and challenges that golf clubs face.
“I don’t have any experience of other golf clubs, but Golf HR has experience of all their clients. They have an understanding of the dynamics of golf clubs and the issues that are actually quite specific to them. So that is really useful.”
Golf HR has worked on the whole gamut of HR matters for Brickendon Grange Golf Club including challenging issues involving dismissal. When a problem arises, Lesley is straight on the phone to Carolyne.
“I’m always confident of knowing how to get to a resolution, but Carolyne is very useful because she provides another perspective. Sometimes, I can have my blinkers on. I can see the end goal, but she’ll say, ‘hang on you’ve got this coming in from the left and this coming in from the right and we need to deal with them’.
“She’s absolutely great at making sure that I have thought about all the potential pitfalls I might be ignoring. It’s then up to me to decide whether I want to ignore those pitfalls or not.”
In all Lesley’s dealings with Golf HR, she has found Carolyne to be refreshingly different from the lawyers she dealt with during her working career.
“I’ve worked with employment lawyers the whole of my career. I’m singularly unimpressed by all of them. They’re always about what you can’t do and not about how you can achieve what you want, to which is absolutely what Carolyne is about.
“She is very much about getting you to where you need to be but at the same time ensuring you don’t end up in trouble as a result. Carolyne and the team at Golf HR are wonderful.”
Lesley Carter
Committee Member