The Club at Mediterra
A private club is successful only when it attracts, hires and retains great people. It’s that simple, and it’s that hard.
Unfortunately, many club leaders make the task of hiring and retaining great employees more difficult by locating the challenge outside of their influence or control. Good people are hard to find, goes the common complaint, and there’s always plenty of blame to go around—the economy, legislation, geography, to name a few.
Indeed, there might even be more reasons to despair in 2021, with recent federal data from March showing workers across the wage scale voluntarily leaving their jobs at historically high rates. The reasons are various and complicated, but many are suspicious of a post-COVID-19 attitude that diminishes the importance of career and the role of our traditional work ethic.
Set against this backdrop, what’s a private club to do?
Welcoming Staff
The Club at Mediterra, in Naples, Fla., offers up a model for how private clubs can navigate this tight labor market now and in the future. Like many of the best private clubs profiled in Club Trends throughout the years, Mediterra inverts the conventional thinking. “How do we find employees?” is the wrong question for leaders at Mediterra. Instead, the focus turns inward in asking, “How do we make our club a place potential employees would find attractive?”
This philosophy is embodied in the club’s on-boarding process for new employees.
Setting the Table
Carmen Mauceri, general manager/COO at The Club at Mediterra, likes to cite Richard Branson as an inspiration for his leadership philosophy, which places a strong emphasis on the needs and development of his employees: “Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t want to.”
For Mauceri, it all begins before new hires even step foot on Mediterra’s property. The club hires many staff from out-of-state, and when these new employees—servers, maintenance workers, line cooks—land in Naples, someone in upper management is there to greet and welcome them. It’s important, Mauceri says, for it to be their direct manager and not anyone else. That way, the message rings loud and clear: You’re important and we’re going to look out for you here.
The manager will then drive the new employee to their apartment, which has been readied and outfitted with a variety of welcome gifts and practical supplies, including Mediterra gear with personalized embroidery, brand new linens and a Naples to-do list for new arrivals.
After a little down time, new hires get a tour of the entire property. This tour serves a dual purpose: to familiarize new employees with their workplace, of course, but also to subtly initiate new hires into Mediterra’s culture of collaboration and professional growth. Maybe you’re a line cook with an interest in marketing. Well, let’s introduce you to our director of marketing. Or maybe you’re a server with a passion for fitness. Come meet the fitness director.
Herein lies another message: Mediterra will help you to succeed, both in this job and future jobs. Notice how from the vantage of the new employee, the club is, in these early days, cast not just as your workplace but also as a diverse ecosystem of professional opportunities and potential connections, an incubator for your personal growth, if you want it to be.
Extraordinary Claims and Extraordinary Evidence
Of course, Mauceri knows these early promises can elicit a healthy dose of skepticism. “You can’t convince people with a PowerPoint,” Mauceri says. “I truly believe it when I tell people that the leadership of this organization has vested interest in every single person. But you have to connect with your employees and follow through on your promises.”
You wouldn’t have to search hard among the staff at Mediterra to find evidence of promises kept. When Mauceri took over GM/COO duties in 2014, there was only one certified executive chef at the club. Four years later, they had five—all certified while with the club. Recently, a 10-year veteran server at the club expressed interest in getting his sommelier certification. Shortly thereafter a wine fridge stocked with level-one varietals arrived at this server’s front door. The club supported him as he passed his first certification and will continue to do so as he continues to the next levels.
New employees might hear a story or two like this in the full-day orientation seminar that also provides a primer on the club’s history, mission and vision as well as practical information related to rules and regulations. Pretty standard fare, but this seminar has a bit more substance to it than others given the lengths the club has already gone to make employees feel welcome. The orientation includes mock table service and interactive training modules that create a fun and informative atmosphere allowing the team to get to know each other while learning about their position and the club. The club is in the relationship business and fostering great relationships with its employees is the first step in creating a solid foundation for both the team and the membership.
When Mauceri talks about caring for individuals or compares Mediterra employees to puzzle pieces, each equally important to the harmony of the whole, the new hire doesn’t need to take it on faith. He has only to remember yesterday when the clubhouse manager picked him up at the airport herself.
Most clubs tell new employees, “Here’s what to expect, now wait for it.” Mediterra tells new employees, “Here’s what we’ve already done, expect more of it.”
That’s a powerful change to an old formula. Both make promises, but only one initiates trust.
Talent Attracts Talent
Viewed another way, the onboarding process at Mediterra is really the first retention strategy deployed by the club. First impressions being what they are, it’s probably the most important, too.
“If you’re able to retain the right people, and you have the programs in place to accomplish that, I believe your ability to recruit becomes a lot easier than just blank hiring,” Mauceri says. “Talent attracts talent.”
So, here we come full circle. Just as the best way to attract new members is to satisfy existing members, so the best way to attract great employees is to become a great place for employees to work. It’s that simple, and that hard.