The picturesque Malden Golf Club in Surrey is a wonderful parkland venue with a friendly atmosphere, welcoming staff, and a course suitable for players of all skill levels. Club Manager Neil Coulson-Bence has utilised the expertise and knowledge we provide at Golf HR, and is delighted at how much time this has saved him.
“It’s easy peasy now, for the sake of what the amount is every year, It’s warranted to the committee as I now just go on the phone, ask a question and get an answer. It’s great!”
“I met Carolyne at a Golf Club Managers association meeting; I was looking to change contracts as there were things that needed to be altered. I was impressed with her presentation, communication and her follow-up afterwards.”
Like many other busy club managers, Mr Coulson-Bence relied on his own expertise to deal with HR matters before he became involved with Golf HR.
“It’s fair to say I used experience, ACAS, a mixture of knowledge and external sources, but no fundamental process, having to do a lot of work really! A lot of self-investigation.”
“There’s always an element of risk, the risk was probably to my time, because to not have a risk you spend so much time checking and double checking it to make sure you’ve done the right thing.”
“I would hope that I was doing things right, but you can’t keep on top of everything, that’s why big companies have HR departments. It’s made it a lot simpler and I now have confidence in the questions I ask them and the answers I get.”
“I’ve had someone on long term sick who wanted to swap statutory sick pay for holiday pay, Golf HR sent me a form and instantly it was done. I can put that form straight in the file knowing it’s been signed by the individual and it covers me in the future.”
“The initial thing was to update my staff handbook and contracts. We’ve done it all within the timescale, that’s all been completed. There’s now the issue of flexible contracts, people that work on zero hour contracts, and just making sure that we pay them the right holiday and working out the right hours.”
Mr Coulson-Bence is keen to stay with Golf HR to use our expertise regularly, and is of the opinion that hiring us in the short term in an effort to glean some basic knowledge is not a wise strategy.
“I don’t foresee working with them for just a year, I’ll learn everything and then that’ll be it, it’s something I’m happy to retain. The two things I always say are human resources and health and safety are the two things management are culpable for. I always think paying a professional for those things is worthwhile.”
“Hopefully you don’t have to help with too much in the future, in a good sense! But least I know you’re there if needed.”