Seasonal Recruiting: Best Practices for Golf Course Hiring

Golf course customers expect more than immaculate greens and available tee times. They expect employees who understand the game and customer care in equal measure. The success of your seasonal recruiting practices determines everything from your budget to online ratings from golfers with discerning tastes. If you can optimize golf course hiring, you can improve retention of the most talented, knowledgeable, and customer-focused team members.

How can you make this happen? It takes more than clever ads and salary increases to attract the right employees for your golf course.

Start Early and Plan Ahead

In most locations, golf course success depends on revenue from only part of the year. This makes seasonal employees a huge part of things. You know you need the best but recruiting them presents challenges. Many people yearn for warm weather work even if they don’t have the skills to elevate your golf business.

Start well before the hiring season. Maximize the benefits of online ads, recruitment channels, referrals, community events, and technology to hire and onboard the type of people who will make every golfer satisfied.

Craft Clear and Attractive Job Descriptions

Provide enough information about the job role, responsibilities, and expectations in the description to attract the most qualified people. Also, include benefits such as free golf games, insurance, or others to sweeten the deal. Transparency and honesty help you find applicants with the same essential qualities.

Utilize Multiple Recruitment Channels

Golf requires supreme accuracy, but a skilled golfer can start from anywhere. Post your jobs in a wide range of places and use all available employment options. These include things like online job boards, social media pages, golf association sites, job fairs, community events, and more. Many seasonal employees are students, so high schools and local colleges offer ready recruits.

For many businesses, referrals from past employees help fill current ranks. As a seasonal employer, you can benefit from treating workers well, so they recommend the job to their friends. Set up a referral program with incentives to get the ball rolling.

Implement a Strong Employer Brand

A large part of this includes creating a strong employer brand. More than attractive salaries and occasional perks, people want to know they’re taken care of at work. Showcase a supportive, fun, and honest company culture. Encourage past seasonal golf course employees to share their experience with new recruits online. This is so much easier when you maintain a talent pool database. The right tech platform for employee management can help you stay in touch with your best golf course workers so you can reach out to them in the new year.

Streamline the Application & Interview Process

Create the best impression of your golf course job opportunity by making it easy to apply and interview. Use mobile-friendly online forms accessible from anywhere. Avoid excessively long or complicated questionnaires. 

After collecting and vetting the applications, start the interview process with only the best candidates. Keep things well-organized in this step. Let your company culture shine through. Prepare the most relevant questions about not only golf knowledge and customer service practices, but also their expectations from the job. How their personality fits with your brand matters just as much as technical skills.

Offer Competitive Compensation and Perks

Employees with high levels of ability, service skills, and enthusiasm deserve competitive compensation. While bigger paychecks top the list, also work in company specific perks and performance benefits. You want to hire seasonal employees who love golf, so earning free games or gear is a great option.