“Hiring is the toughest and most time-consuming part of my job.” How many times have you heard this from a Director or Manager? Hiring is perhaps the single biggest decision a manager, company, or country club can make. How often does an employee leave after a few months in which the position just isn’t the right fit for the new hire. How can we achieve a great hire and find that perfect applicant who will improve the member experience while at the same time increase participation?
Why Allow A CEO To Hire A Tennis Professional
Country club management and the hiring of a Tennis Director of Head Tennis Professional is one of the most important tasks in a the leisure industry. The country club and leisure industry is actually seeing a contraction in new memberships. Country club membership, due to a more diverse population and changing demographics in the United States, is falling andhas been falling over the past 15 years. Increasing participation across country club programs and attracting those new members is essential and hiring is now even more significant than in the past.
CEOs Do Have Some Of The Same Skill Sets
A Director of Tennis is a position which requires a similar skill set in some respects to a CEO or CFO. Budgeting and payroll are both high on the priority list of any Director or Head Pro. But along with that comes human relations and the hiring and maintenance of an efficient workplace. How do you find good assistant professionals? Where does a Director look for new hires? Does he or she have access to a steady stream of assistant instructors that can work with both juniors and adults?
The duties of a good department head at tennis, as any Tennis Director should be within a club management employment structure, are varied. From a concierge mentality in membership services to creating a teaching environment where all the assistant professionals are teaching from the same book are just a couple of what to look for in a new Director. The fact that he or she played NCAA Division 1 is meaningless when attempting to quell a ladies team revolt and therefore the idea that your Tennis Director be the best player in the county is simply out of date as the country club industry grows more complex.
Just these three examples in the paragraph above show how difficult it is to find a true Director of Tennis or Head Tennis Professional who can fulfill such diverse needs within a country club or tennis facility.
In Conclusion
Search committees and tennis committees are of course not made up only of CEOs but are comprised of players and members from all demographics. From the mother of a rising junior to a father who is a weekend warrior to a college graduate at her first job in the city, committees should encompass individuals who see the club and tennis at their facility in different ways. This alone should help the hiring process. But how can we find that perfect applicant from the multitude of professionals in this country and abroad?
Firstly, defining the exact job and to create a full and complete job description which outlines the duties of the role and the desire of the committee and club management in regard to the position is crucial. This process can take days or even weeks and should be looked upon as an integral part of the hiring process.
Sifting through the hundreds of applications and resumes that are in due course received is a test in and of itself and education in this regard to knowing what to look for in past service and positions is one way to help separate the wheat from the chaff. Finally, contractual negotiation is as important with a tennis professional as it is with a general manager or golf professional and contracts are legally binding for both parties and should be part of the hiring process.
