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NGOs and Social Enterprises · Clubs and gymkhanas

HR for Clubs and Gymkhanas: Member Service, Committee Control and Long-Serving Staff

A club or gymkhana serves members through dining, sport and events, under a committee that changes every few years. Here is how to keep staff terms, service standards and member complaints under control.

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A club or gymkhana runs a restaurant and bar, sports courts and a pool, a banquet hall, rooms and a library, for members who pay fees and expect good service. The staff include a general manager, department heads, stewards and bearers, cooks, coaches and markers, groundsmen, housekeeping, security and accounts clerks. Many have served for decades and know the members by name. An elected committee governs, and each new committee brings its own ideas, so the manager answers to many people and rules shift. Events, weekends, tournaments and festivals bring long, late shifts. Tips and service charges form part of earnings in some departments, which complicates pay records. Members complain loudly and directly to the committee, and staff can be blamed in public. Seniority, favouritism and informal arrangements run deep, while written terms are thin. See also HR for NGOs and social enterprises.

  1. Plan
  2. Hire
  3. Onboard
  4. Manage
  5. Develop
  6. Perform
  7. Engage
  8. Retain
  9. Exit
  10. Improve

When HR is weak in clubs and gymkhanas, you may see

  • Committees change and so do instructions
  • Members complain straight to the committee
  • Tips and service charge muddle pay
  • Very long service, old habits
  • Late shifts around events
  • Favouritism and recommendations
  • Coaches and contractors are in a grey area
  • Safety around water and sports

These are the places the people side of this kind of business tends to give way. The rest of this page works through them.

Who does the work in clubs and gymkhanas

HR here has to work for each of these groups, not only the office. The set-up below is written with all of them in mind.

  • General managers and secretaries
  • Stewards, bearers and bar staff
  • Cooks and kitchen staff
  • Coaches, markers and sports attendants
  • Groundsmen and pool staff
  • Housekeeping and room staff
  • Accounts and membership clerks

Roles we help you hire in clubs and gymkhanas

GullyHR runs talent acquisition for permanent roles in clubs and gymkhanas. For each role we agree the job description with you, find and screen candidates against it, and support the offer through to joining. Tell us the role and the number of people, and we start there.

Job descriptions for this sector

Share a hiring requirementTalent acquisition services →Role design and job descriptions →

We recruit permanent employees. We do not supply contract or temporary staff.

We set up the interview and hiring process for clubs and gymkhanas

Every business interviews, but few have a written process that works the same way for every role and every interviewer. GullyHR designs yours, from the role brief to the offer, trains your managers to run it, and can run it for you on the roles you hand us.

  1. 1. Role brief and scorecard

    We agree what the role must deliver, the must-have and nice-to-have skills, and how each will be scored.

  2. 2. Stages and sequence

    Screening call, assessment, interview rounds and decision points, sized to the role and the number of people you hire.

  3. 3. Question bank and scoring

    Structured questions for each role family and a rating guide, so two interviewers judge the same answer the same way.

  4. 4. Interviewer readiness

    A short briefing for your managers on what to ask, what to avoid and how to give a clear yes or no.

  5. 5. Offer and follow-up

    Who approves, how the offer is made, and how candidates are kept informed from first call to joining.

Set up our interview processRecruitment process consulting →Structured interviewing →Interviewer training →Recruitment software →

Where HR strains in clubs and gymkhanas

  • Committees change and so do instructions

    A steward gets one instruction from the president and another from the treasurer, and the manager cannot say no to either.

  • Members complain straight to the committee

    A member's complaint about a bearer becomes a committee item before the manager hears the facts.

  • Tips and service charge muddle pay

    Earnings depend on how tips and charges are shared, and nobody can explain the rule clearly when a dispute arises.

  • Very long service, old habits

    Staff with thirty years' service resist new standards, and managers hesitate to correct them for fear of the members who like them.

  • Late shifts around events

    Banquets, tournaments and annual days end late, and transport, rest and extra pay are settled informally.

  • Favouritism and recommendations

    Members and committee members recommend relatives or favourites for jobs and promotions, which weakens fairness.

  • Coaches and contractors are in a grey area

    Some coaches and service providers work on fees, some on salary, and terms, insurance and conduct rules differ.

  • Safety around water and sports

    Pool, gym and kitchen work carries risk, but lifeguard cover, first aid and incident records are inconsistent.

HR topics for clubs and gymkhanas

Start with the topics that matter most here: Policies, Compliance and Governance; Employee Relations; Compensation, Payroll and Benefits. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for ngos and social enterprises, not in general.

Policies, Compliance and Governance

Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.

Employee Relations

Two routes — one for complaints, one for conduct — kept separate.

Compensation, Payroll and Benefits

Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.

HR Strategy and Workforce Planning

How many people, in which roles, by when — and what they will cost.

Organisation Design

Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.

Recruitment and Talent Acquisition

Requisition to joining, the same way every time.

Onboarding and Probation

A first day that is the same for the fifth joiner as the first.

Employee Administration

Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.

Performance Management

Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.

Learning and Development

Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.

Career and Succession Management

Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.

Employee Engagement and Experience

Communication, recognition and the conditions people actually work in.

Health, Safety and Wellbeing

Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.

Retention and Attrition Management

Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.

Exit and Alumni Management

Resignation to relieving letter, in a defined order.

HR Technology and Automation

Records that survive people, and approvals that do not queue.

HR Analytics and Management Reporting

A short monthly pack management actually reads.

HR Operations and Governance

An HR function that runs the same way every month.

What a working HR set-up looks like

The pieces a clubs and gymkhanas business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.

Write a staff manual that outlasts a committee

Duties, grades, hours, leave, uniform and conduct in one document approved by the committee.

What this covers

Duties, grades, hours, leave, uniform and conduct in one document approved by the committee. The HR policy packages provide the structure.

Channel complaints through the manager

A simple member complaint form, a first review by the manager and a record of outcomes before anything goes to the committee.

What this covers

A simple member complaint form, a first review by the manager and a record of outcomes before anything goes to the committee. The grievance and disciplinary process shows the steps.

Document tip and service charge sharing

One page stating how pooled money is shared by department and grade, shown to staff each month.

What this covers

One page stating how pooled money is shared by department and grade, shown to staff each month.

Set a rota for event nights

A published roster with late-night transport, rest cover and agreed extra pay.

What this covers

A published roster with late-night transport, rest cover and agreed extra pay. The attendance, shift and leave process guides this.

Agree grades and a hiring routine

A basic grade structure and a rule that committee recommendations go through the same interview as everyone.

What this covers

A basic grade structure and a rule that committee recommendations go through the same interview as everyone. The recruitment process helps.

Check pool, gym and kitchen safety

Lifeguard cover, first aid, hygiene training and an incident register reviewed by a qualified professional.

What this covers

Lifeguard cover, first aid, hygiene training and an incident register reviewed by a qualified professional.

Start by checking where you stand

Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These checks take an afternoon and tell you which of the topics above to start with.

Share your requirements
  • List every staff member by department, grade, years of service and how they are paid, including tips.
  • Ask the manager how many committee members give instructions to staff directly.
  • Look at the last three member complaints and see how each was resolved.
  • Check whether the staff manual is current and whether staff have a copy.
  • See who covers the pool and gym and what first aid training they have.
  • Review how the last recommended hire was selected.
  • Confirm with a qualified professional the registration, employment and tip-sharing rules that apply to your club.

Confirm with a qualified professional. What applies to you depends on your business, your state and your arrangements, and it changes. This page describes practice. It does not state a legal position.

How GullyHR helps

The services below fit this kind of business best. Each starts by recording where you stand, and every later report compares against that. We do not promise outcomes.

Start with a free conversation, or see the paid HR Diagnostic.

Our HR transformation approach

  1. 1

    Assess

    Understand the business, its workforce, current processes and HR challenges.

  2. 2

    Identify gaps

    Find the missing, weak, inconsistent or person-dependent processes.

  3. 3

    Design

    Create the structure, processes, policies, SOPs, dashboards and systems needed.

  4. 4

    Implement

    Help HR and department managers actually adopt the new system.

  5. 5

    Automate

    Digitise repetitive and approval-based workflows where it is worth doing.

  6. 6

    Measure

    Track hiring, attendance, employee cost, performance, training and attrition.

  7. 7

    Improve

    Strengthen the people-management system continuously, not once.

Blogs worth reading first

From the GullyHR blog: one on HR in ngos and social enterprises, and one on each of the topics this page points to.

More on the GullyHR blog.

Questions owners ask

Through a written form to the manager, who checks facts, hears the staff member and reports the outcome. The committee reviews patterns, not every incident.

More on HR for ngos and social enterprises

All 43 business types in ngos and social enterprises · Find another business type

Alumni associationsResident welfare associationsProfessional bodiesChurches and faith-based organisationsGrant-making foundationsCommunity development organisationsPolicies, Compliance and Governance in ngos and social enterprisesEmployee Relations in ngos and social enterprisesCompensation, Payroll and Benefits in ngos and social enterprises

See all HR topics for ngos and social enterprises, or another industry.

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