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Scott Dillon 
BASc Golf Course Management

Project Description

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Directed Field Study #4 - Employee Portal and Training

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Create an online portal for staff members providing access to important tools and tracking forms, integration of a staff handbook, as well as an outline of best management practices required at the facility. Additionally, producing online training manuals and outlines for each job found on the golf course, and define responsibilities for each level of staff member relevant to the golf course property.

  • Use a website builder to include many logging aspects of a golf course including;

    • Fuel use tracking

    • Employee hours (that can be used to calculate core standards)

    • Employee handbook and best management practices

    • Request forms (sick day notice, vacation request, union equipment subsidies)

  • Use online media and videos to instruct and train staff on individual jobs found across the golf course.

    • Include small online tests to verify employee is book trained before going for field training.

  • Create an employee calendar for staff to see schedules as well as a digital job board for upcoming cultural practices as well as other staff events. (This will also include staff parties, BBQ’s, and additional staff events.)

  • Define job descriptions, including what skills are needed to be successfully promoted within the property.

    • Validations:

      • Employer validation letter

      • Completed employee website will all portions outlined above (and more) included.

      • Digital Job Board

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Project Updates

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Under this heading you will find details pertinent to the completion of this goal. This section will effectively work as a type of blog used in the completion of the first directed field study goal:

 

DFS 4 - Employee Portal and Training

 

Update 1 - Opening Remarks

 

For this directed field study, a lot of thought went into what would be absolutely critical to have in place for the beginning of the season, and what could be phased in throughout the season. Additionally, I took into account looking at what would have the largest reduction of administrative work for the assistant superintendent's position. 

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The topics I have decided to pursue right off the bat would be;

  • Creating a system to track employee hours. Currently at our facility, we are fairly old school with reporting hours during a pay period. Designing a system to not only successfully track employee hours, but also create a summary of weekly hours for inputting into the companies payroll system. 

  • Secondly, creating a digital job board will further help the administrative issues on our property, allowing both the superintendent and assistant to spend more time out on the course working alongside the staff, or getting approvals for improvements to our property. 

 

These two topics I expect to take around a month to establish and implement across the property. Focus will then change towards the second portion of this project; 

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  • Staff Training; Since the majority of our staff returned this year (over 90%), I have decided that this portion could be pushed towards the end of the season. However, it will be critical to have in place for the beginning of next season for any new staff entering the property.

  • Cultural Practice Education; With the exception of core aeration on greens, the staff are the ones to initiate cultural practices at our facility. Most of the crew has numerous years of experience, however giving them the tools and knowledge of how each cultural practice actually impacts playing conditions can help make these decisions more educated.

 

Update 2 - Website Creation and Time Sheet Integration

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Step one in this project has been initiated with the creation of the Victoria Golf Maintenance website. 

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LINK: Vic Golf Maintenance

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The goal when creating this website was to protect ranges that we would not want people messing with. Protected ranges include staff forms and managerial planning pages. 

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After the website was created, work started on the hour tracking and the digital job board. The pertinent links to the hour tracking can be found below, as well as a short YouTube screen capture video that displays how the hour tracking program functions, and works to save the facility time. 

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LINK: Example Hour Tracking Form

LINK: Employee Timesheets

Update 3 - Digital Job Board Creation

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In the golf industry, more and more superintendents are integrating different technologies into their workplaces. Creating a live digital job board will be a helpful tool when planning different tasks around the property, as well as planning for future tasks. Working within the Google environment, the digital job board will be inclusive within the following areas;

  • Daily Job assignments, including morning job as well as 2 additional tasks to be completed throughout the day.

  • Tournament schedule integration, allowing for staff to adjust their mowing schedules to accommodate when necessary.

  • Weather Integration including a section for Frost warnings.

  • Yearly planning and historical data for use when planning future projects. The digital job board will be set up in a way that a manager can pull up previous dates of interest and review what occurred.

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Using all of these aspects will create a powerful tool that can be accessed from anywhere on the property. Whether it be from the superintendent's office, the break room, or on a staff member's mobile phone. Creating a uniform media for all staff members to use will work to create a more efficient workplace, which will strongly benefit the property.

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Work continues on the Digital Job Board portion of the project. The majority of this portion of the project is completed, however, some formulas still remain to be written. Completion of the digital job board should be by the end of this week.

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Update 4 - Digital Job Board Completion

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The Digital Job board has been completed and is fully functional. Use the link below to access the job board.

 

Work has now begun on additional aspects of the employee portal.

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LINK: Digital Job Board

Update 5 - Employee Calendar and Forms Integration

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Google Calendars is yet another great program available within their software. The superintendent is easily able to control staff schedules and cultural practices from within the office or home. Integrating this into the employee website and enabling staff to see upcoming events and their weekly schedule is important, especially in a smaller crew environment where there isn't necessarily a morning meeting before the work for the day begins.

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Unfortunately, while the website building program I use is fantastic for most things, an area where it does fall short is integrating calendars into an aesthetically pleasing format. However, that being said, there is still an employee and cultural calendar loaded into the website to be viewed by staff.

 

Ideally, the cultural calendar would be shared with the pro shop staff as well as displayed within the eyes of the public so they understand what is going on and when on the golf course.

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LINK: Employee Calendar

Password: Staff1

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LINK: Cultural Calendar

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The second portion of this update consists of the Google Forms integration. These forms will enable staff to complete some of the paperwork required by different departments to secure; time off, sick days, boot allowances, etc. By creating an easy way for staff to complete these forms, the superintendent will save time, allowing themselves more time for other projects. A complete list of employee forms can be found below, along with their respective link.

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  • Sick Day

  • Leave Request

  • Boot Allowance

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LINK: Employee Forms

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Update 6 - Employee Handbook / Training Manuals / Standard Operating Procedures Creation

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Employee handbooks serve an important purpose to both new and experienced employees. Using the handbook as a reference for all will help to create a united front for all employees to conduct themselves in a professional manner.

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Sections under the employee handbook are as follows;

  • About Us / Victoria Golf Course History

  • Score Card and Property Details

  • Victoria Golf Course Mission Statement

  • Industry Commitment

  • Golf Club Hierarchy

  • Victoria's Core Standards and Best Management Practices

  • Staff Scheduling Guidelines

  • Departmental Ethics as Outlined by the Collective Agreement

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LINK: Employee Handbook

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Sections under the Training Manuals / Standard Operating Procedures;

(each heading is a link to it's respective document)

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Update 7 - Establishing Job Definitions

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In any workplace a hierarchy should be established as well as clear job descriptions for each role on the property. In doing so, employees will understand the effective chain of command, as well as have an idea of what skills are required to move up through the ranks.

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Establishing job definitions also assists the superintendent when justifying wages and wage increases to inquiring staff members. These definitions are added into the website, along with a theoretical "job posting" for each attainable role. The list of included job descriptions is below, including the link to the staff website;

 

Job Descriptions:

  • Area Director

  • Operations Supervisor

  • Superintendent

  • Head Golf Professional

  • Operator II

  • Labourer II

  • Labourer I

 

LINK: Job Classifications

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Update 8 - Basic Website Instructions for Effective Supervisor Use

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Included in the staff website is a supervisor's only area. This area is host to the background spreadsheets that view the staff time cards, as well as the digital job board. To access this area; follow the steps below to create a supervisor account;

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Step 1: Click the supervisor log in located in the top right corner of the website. This will bring you to the log-in page.

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Step 2: Locate the "Don't have an account? Sign up" text and click the link to create an account. Enter your email and desired password, and click enter. Your created account will then go to the website administrator for approval.

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Step 3: Once you are approved by the website administrator, you can then access the supervisor only section. The website will log you in and bring you back to the home page.

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Step 4: Click the drop down menu where it states your name, "Hello first name" and click "my account". This will bring you to the area where you can change your name and email address.

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Step 5: On the left hand side, there is a link for "Manager Links", clicking this link will bring you to the area within the website that a supervisor can edit the spreadsheets.

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Update 9 - Final Remarks and Closing

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The skills learnt from this Directed Field Study will undoubtedly remain with me everywhere, in or out of the golf course industry. Learning how to create a fully functional website and integrating with Google products is useful in any workplace environment. The way these tools can be adapted can also work in the superintendent’s favour when scheduling or budgeting for future seasons.

The three major tools created for this DFS are the staff timesheets, the digital job board and the staff training and education center. Within the staff timesheets, within the staff timesheets, the staff members are able to enter their information for the day, and the superintendent or business manager can quickly open the associated spreadsheet and quickly determine how much to pay each staff member. The digital job board is primarily a tool the superintendent can use to organize staff members from day to day. Each morning, the daily jobs can be inputted within the spreadsheet and they are portrayed on the website for all staff to see. This should help with organization each morning, and will be especially effective on a property with a healthy sized crew. The digital job board can be used from year to year and serve as a historical tracker that can be used for future planning. Finally, the staff training education center, although originally designed for new hires, can be used as a refresher for all staff. This area includes the employee handbook, standard operating procedures pertinent to the jobs on the Victoria Golf Course property, as well as a test for new hires or any staff member to test their knowledge of golf course related tasks.

 

Throughout my ten years in the golf course industry, staff time cards have always been filled out by pen and paper, there hasn’t really been any other way. Through my time at Olds College and gaining knowledge about the technology available for free to everyone, I knew there had to be a better way to track the items pertinent to the property. I can now say with certainty that this tool I have developed will assist me and the property now and far into the future.

With the time saving features this website has created, as a superintendent, I will have more time to do the most important part of the job; and I don’t mean growing grass. I consider the most important part being a leader is to establish cohesiveness and respect with the crew. If everyone likes to work together, everything else should fall into place.

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Completed Project ​

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Use the links below to view the completed project file in your desired format;

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LINK: DFS 4 - Employee Website and Training

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Project Validations

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LINK: Employer Validation Letter

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LINK: Victoria Golf Maintenance Website

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LINK: Victoria Digital Job Board

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DIRECTED FIELD SCHOOL

Employee Website and Training

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