If you’ve dealt with committees before, then this won’t be news to you, but I just felt the need to write this after dealing with several incidents recently made a whole lot worse by committees…
- A club manager we were helping being told not only NOT to pay for HR advice (standard) but also being told off for getting free advice from ACAS “because the government will log what problems we have and use it against us”!
- A chairman deciding to cancel ALL HR support because they hadn’t had enough issues to justify the cost (Note – not NO issues).
- A committee member refusing to ask for a sick note from an employee who was off because “we are a caring organisation”, ignoring the actual process, although that would imply that they even knew there was a process.
- A committee failing to manage a head greenkeeper for 15 years, giving very limited feedback, and then deciding that he “had to go” because the course “isn’t as good as it could be” and, because they are a “caring organisation” paying him a year’s salary to go without fuss, rather than managing him properly over the years and having a better course!
So I am sure that you can see how committees are like teenagers now:
- They think they know it all
- They won’t listen to good advice
- They want to do what they want and stuff everyone else
- They don’t even do effective research on the internet to answer their questions
- They get in a strop if they don’t get their way
Jean, who works for me, is a school governor, with far more restricted responsibilities than a committee member at a golf club.
But even though Jean’s responsibilities are much less onerous than a golf club committee member, every governor has to attend a one day training course before they are “let loose”.
Why has this never been made a requirement for golf clubs?
All clubs have turnovers running to hundreds of thousands of pounds (if not millions), with premises, staff, and members of the public coming onto site.
If someone tried to run this setup in the private sector, they would be severely chastised (if not financially penalised) for not having expert advisors and knowledge.
So I want to do something about this!
Under my hashtag:
#CommitteesNeedToKnowThisToo
I am offering free Induction Training for committees on Employment Law, so that everyone can get up to speed. My only requirement is that all of the committee attend; otherwise those that aren’t there will undermine the work that has been done.
I’m feeling indignant now, so there is a time limit on this – if you are on a committee, reply by Friday saying “yes, please help them to understand!” and we can then talk about dates.
If you know of a business that could do with our help, please let us know – we always reward referrals with chocolate!