TRAVELS WITH TERRY

Golf course maintenance and smartphones: Interaction vs distraction

In my many travels visiting superintendents and directors, one of their dilemmas is what to do about golf course maintenance employees using smartphones during working hours. Is it helping or hurting productivity? How big of a distraction are they? Are employees being smart when using them? Are they a necessary evil? And do an employee’s OSHA safety guidelines come into mind?

Superintendents/directors often have a clear-cut policy of when phones can be used, such as for family or medical emergencies, weather emergencies, course issues, or communicating with the superintendent/director, assistants and equipment manager/technician. Sometimes there is a human resources policy for smartphone use for the club’s operation, but it might not be adhered to by golf course maintenance employees because of their department’s operational differences compared to the clubhouse operation.

Reviewing and updating the existing smartphone policy on an annual basis is common. Employees should be trusted when using them after the policies are fully explained. Smartphones are often used instead of two-way radios when there are not enough radios for the entire crew to communicate job assignment changes or other matters on the course or in the shop.

Because almost everyone on the crew has a smartphone, it can be advantageous for supervisors; employees usually pay for them instead of it coming from a line allocation in the operating budget. Plus, employees can be reached any time.

Connecting to the golf course maintenance Wi-Fi, audio/video on the course’s property and making phone calls, texts and emails on scheduled breaks and lunchtime policies should be clearly communicated to the employees. Having an established disciplinary policy, if well-founded, is necessary and appropriate. And, after having the bilingual policy rules document in place, each employee should acknowledge and sign the policy.

Superintendents and assistants like to operate a job board on their smartphones so tasks can be adjusted for second assignments and throughout the day. Irrigation systems can also be operated on mobile apps for seamless operation on the fly to program and operate the irrigation from anywhere at any time. Abilities to use data-collection moisture-meter apps and other task-specific apps are another plus. Some equipment fleets can be monitored in the movements throughout the course to locate employees’ locations at any time.

A significant negative of employee smartphone usage is they are probably the biggest contributor to productivity loss, especially if there is a no-usage policy in place. An employee’s attention span and attention to detail can be easily curtailed and distracted from what they are supposed to be doing when in use. Employees can be texting, emailing, calling other employees or using social media with friends. They can also be listening to music through earbuds, which prevents them from hearing equipment operations to recognize if they are functioning properly, especially when mowing. OSHA safety rules can be disregarded when employees are distracted by smartphones (making or receiving phone calls) while operating equipment instead of zoned in on the equipment’s operation.

Superintendents/directors and assistants can easily catch employees using smartphones instead of performing their appointed job duties. What to do about it is an interesting debate in the policy, discipline, warnings and termination. Many superintendents/directors have calculated how many labor hours are lost each day, month and year from distracted employees using smartphones when staff should be working.

I have seen some operations where there is a no smartphone usage policy and it works just fine, as the supervisors and hourly employees trust each other. I’ve also seen smartphone use out of control at some spots because there is no set policy. Some superintendents/directors even have a policy where all smartphones are gathered from hourly employees each morning before work begins and returned at the end of the workday.