MANAGEMENT
OPENING THE DOOR TO C By M. Kent Johnson, CCM • General Manager/COO Baltimore Country Club • Baltimore, Md.
AS CLUB ACTIVITY NOT only resumed but accelerated after the initial shock of the pandemic eased, Kent Johnson realized, like many of his colleagues throughout the country, that new and different approaches were needed to maintain proper staffing and service levels. “So many of us are experiencing a significant shortage of labor in the hospitality industry that doesn’t seem to have an identifiable end in sight,” Johnson said in a message he posted on LinkedIn near the end of October 2021. “As the challenges mount to find and select the quality of people we want and need, we have had to get creative and try new things.” A new approach that has proved effective for Baltimore CC, Johnson added, was to “source the help of a Maryland-based public relations firm, Maroon PR, to help make sure we were highly visible and appropriately positioned for jobseekers in our local market. One part of their overall strategy was to help us tell the story of why people should consider private clubs, and specifically BCC, for employment.” As 2021 came to a close, we asked Johnson for some insights into how this strategy was conceived and implemented, and for an update on how it has helped Baltimore CC address its hiring and staffing needs.
C+RB: Private clubs by their nature and tradition keep low profiles and try to 8
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Club + Resort Business
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January 2022
handle areas like staffing in-house, or through services that are tailored to the club industry. What led you to think of trying this different approach? Johnson: We first engaged Maroon PR to help us with communicating about a sale of 20 acres of land that had been a tumultuous issue in the past. Maroon was extremely helpful in their guidance and proactive approach in addressing this issue and coordinating contacts with the media. When it was clear that our traditional means of attracting staff were no longer as effective, we reached out to them again for help in that area. C+RB: Once the decision was made to engage outside help, how did you go about identifying a firm that would have a proper understanding of the special nature of private clubs and how your story and needs should be conveyed? Johnson: Maroon PR was a local firm that we had already worked with and trusted. They shared their approach to help us achieve our goal and were familiar with clubs and very understanding of our concerns. Maroon’s approach was to review our “owned” media first, meaning all of our social-media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and the BCC website. They helped ensure we were conveying the right messages and posting the right things, including carousel ads and video,
while also leveraging sponsored ads. We also used some “paid” advertisements in our local Baltimore Business Journal, and Maroon was instrumental in utilizing their relationships with local TV stations to arrange “earned” spots. C+RB: Once you selected Maroon PR, what key messages were identified as part of the strategy for raising BCC’s visibility and highlighting the benefits of working in a private-club environment? And what did you feel you had to address in terms of common misconceptions or barriers to attracting good candidates? Johnson: The most important thing for us was to demonstrate the culture at BCC, what “Great People Make Favorite Places” really means, and why job seekers should choose to work with us. We have been voted a “Best Place to Work” three years in a row for large employers in our market, but we still weren’t attracting the number and quality of candidates we should have been. In talking to a local restaurant group that indicated they were fully staffed at the height of the shortage, it really struck me that we needed to do a better job telling our story. I don’t believe that job seekers think about private clubs for opportunities in restaurants, landscaping, caddying, golf, etc., but that is a large part of what we do. Our pay is competitive and our environment is www.clubandresortbusiness.com
