Burnham & Berrow Golf Club
The prestigious Burnham & Berrow Golf Club in Somerset is ranked 33rd in the Golf Monthly Top 100 Golf Courses.
Golf HR has been working with Karen Drake, Managing Secretary of the club, for a year now. Their remit was initially to update the Burnham & Berrow Club Handbook which, when they came on board, hadn’t been reviewed for up to six years.
Back then, I was aware the handbook needed updating,” said Karen. “But it was only when I encountered Carolyne at a meeting of the GCMA, that I realised here was someone who came highly recommended and clearly knows what she is doing. I was relieved that having updated the handbook we now had something to refer to in the event of any possible misinterpretation of club rules.”
Golf HR also helped modernise the club’s contracts in terms of HR legislation. In addition, they proved invaluable to Karen when it came to dealing with a particular staffing issue. “We had one employee who was causing us difficulty earlier this year,” admitted Karen. “Carolyne definitely helped us work through the process of managing him in a better way. He was often poorly and she advised on how to both steer his employment and, at the same time, offer extra help when he needed it. It was exactly what we needed too.”
As a registered manager of the GCMA, Karen had already encountered Carolyne several times at meetings and events. “I’d always found her extremely personable, enthusiastic, knowledgeable and interesting to listen to,” she said. “And thankfully my instincts proved correct since we really have received an excellent service from Carolyne and her team over the past 12 months. We pay what we consider to be a very reasonable cost in terms of a monthly retainer and we can call her for advice as and when needed.”
Golf HR also proved extremely useful for Karen when it came to changing a few ‘entrenched ideas.’
“Our green keeping team in particular are long-standing and are used to doing certain things in a particular way,” she said. “Change was obviously necessary but I definitely didn’t find it easy to implement. However, being able to back up my requests with professional advice from Carolyne gave me much more authority.”
Karen said some of Carolyne’s work ethics had also rubbed off on herself. “She’s very good at rewarding people for a job well done and it prompted me to do the same,” she explained. “For instance, every so often I’ll invite all the green keepers up for a big slap-up breakfast, and which is definitely appreciated!”
Karen said that she is very happy to continue working with Golf HR for the foreseeable future. She added: “In these days of a constantly filling up email inbox, I even enjoy reading Carolyne’s online missives. There’s always an interesting story there before she gets to the HR part.”
Karen Drake
Managing Secretary