12 Human Resource Best Practices to Improve Your Operations

Of all the potential minefields that managers and supervisors must walk through, the requirements of human resource management are by far the most fraught with peril. Based on federal and state law, they are the fantasy dreams of many lawyers hungering to “redress wrongs.” And unfortunately, many employers make it easy for the lawyers – like shooting fish in a barrel –when they don’t train their management staff on the pitfalls of labor laws, equal opportunityemployment, discrimination, fair pay, disability issues, family medical leaves, privacy laws, andthe basic requirements to document personnel actions.Private clubs are especially vulnerable due to their small size, lack of resources, and limitedeconomies of scale. Yet even stand-alone operations can protect themselves by a process ofself-education and review. HR on the Go is a series of 52 human resource topics that can bereviewed and discussed briefly at weekly department head meetings. Designed to take no morethan 5 to 10 minutes, these issues can be raised and discussed by the general manager, HRmanager, or assigned to different department heads each week. Experience has shown that the awareness of issues raised by such discussions will greatlyreduce a club’s liability exposure, as well as enhance the professional awareness of allmanagers