DIVERSITY: NOT JUST A TICK BOX, BUT ONE OF GOLF’S KEY ECONOMIC DRIVERS. GATHER WHITE PAPER #5

In January 2012, 3% of leisure and hospitality industry jobs were unfilled.

By January 2019, the percentage of open positions had risen to 6.5%.

In June 2021, over 9.5% of jobs within the leisure and hospitality industry remain unfilled.

In January 2022, the rate of unfilled jobs was 10%.

[Data is seasonally adjusted] US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2022

The State of Golf’s Job Market

Anecdotally, you may have lost staff or are struggling to fill open jobs. These anecdotes are supported by employment data. When it comes to job statistics, golf sits in the leisure and hospitality industry sector. Although we can’t separate golf from other industries in this sector, there is no reason to think it is an outlier to bigger trends. As with other leisure and hospitality industries, golf industry operators simply can’t hire who it wants, when it wants, to meet market demands.

Not only has the percentage of job openings grown over the last ten years in the USA’s leisure and hospitality industry (from 3% to 10%), but the rate at which workers quit has also increased (from 3% to 6%). To say the least, this is a bad combination.

But it gets worse. When Gather dug a little deeper into the employment trends, we found that over 50% of UK-based golf-industry professionals have thought about leaving their jobs in the last 12 months. Why? See our White Paper on the workforce HERE.

A Solvable Workforce Problem?

Obviously, the golf industry needs more workers to fill open positions. While golf needs a stronger workforce, women are heavily underrepresented in the ranks. Globally, women make up less than 10% of the professional golf workforce. This means that at the same time golf needs workers, it is not accessing the talent of almost half the population.

Yes, increasing women’s representation across all levels of golf is old news. Golf’s leadership has recognized the lack of women in the industry and has attempted to address it. Historically, however, the gender issue has been presented as righting a wrong. This is a mistake that is unlikely to yield sustained change. As researcher Karen Patterson has written, in rigid cultures like golf – with strong cultural and traditional barriers, diversity is more likely to be embraced if it is framed through economic need. In this case, the economic need is a stronger workforce to optimize golf’s economic potential.

A range of professional golf organizations have chipped away at employment challenges – including workforce diversification. Of all the organizations that feed golf’s workforce, national Professional Golfers’ Associations (PGAs) may have the greatest opportunity to chaperone change. Although they are by no means alone in this mission, national PGAs bridge the gap between a depleted workforce and bringing more women into the fold. They sit at the tension point between workforce shortage and workforce diversification. This is because for many people considering a career in golf, their national PGA organization provides an obvious pathway.

National PGA organizations bear a responsibility for training golf professionals – who in turn become their memberships. Therefore, if national PGAs can increase the number of women in their memberships, they will simultaneously increase golf’s workforce. And with a bigger workforce, golf operators will be able to fill more open positions. So, how should national PGA organizations do this?

CLUE…

“There is a positive correlation between the percentage of women in national governing body leadership positions, and the percentage of women members in those organizations. A study of 45 National Olympic Committees exemplifies how the percentage of women on boards relates to the percentage of women in the organization’s membership. The more women there were on boards, the more women were in the membership.”

Blundel & Fletcher, 2020

By looking at research conducted in other sports, we found that a winning strategy for increasing the number of women members in organizations is having more women on boards.

Yes, it is that simple.

Does this trend hold true for national PGA organizations? This White Paper will dive into the data to find out.

National PGA Memberships

National PGAs are committed to diversifying their memberships. We know that because they say so. Some have committed to the R&A’s Women in Golf Charter. Others speak about it at conferences. And others post supportive messages during International Women’s Day. But actions speak louder than words. And the national PGAs that have strategically made organizational change have a higher percentage of women members than those who simply give the topic lip service. Ouch. Like National Olympic Committees in Blundel & Fletcher’s study, national PGAs with more women on the board have more women members. Snap!

Gather reviewed the gender balance of 21 national PGA organizations’ memberships. (As a side note, we recognize that diversity extends beyond gender. The golf workforce also lacks ethnic and sexual orientation diversity. Additionally, people with disabilities are underrepresented. This paper, however, will focus just on gender diversity.)

We studied national PGA organizations across three continents and limited our analysis to those with a minimum of 100 members. The percentage of women members within those organizations ranged from 3% to 15% -- with an average of 7%. If the golf industry wants to bolster its workforce to meet market demand, an obvious place to start is recruiting more women. Of course, this is easier said than done. There are historical and cultural barriers that the golf industry needs to overcome to make golf an enticing career choice for women (as Patterson stated, golf is a rigid culture). But these issues are not insurmountable.

National PGAs, Their Memberships, and their Boards

Of the national PGAs in our study, the percentage of women on the board ranged from 0% to 33% (Note. National PGAs with the lowest percentage of women members had 0% of women at board level. The national PGA with the highest percent of women in its membership had the highest percentage of women at board level).

When we looked at the relationship between board and membership makeup, we found a statistically significant and positive correlation between the two measures (r = .49).

As the percentage of women on the board increased, so did the percentage of women members.

Before you say it. Part I.

Before you even say it, you are correct. We don’t know the directionality of this relationship between board and membership diversity. Is it a chicken or egg situation? Regardless of the relationship, diversifying the board in the hopes of diversifying the membership is a good bet. Beyond the benefit of injecting a new dimension into the golf workforce, board diversity is renowned for improving organizational performance. And who isn’t looking for improved organizational performance?

“When Fortune 500 companies are ranked by the number of women directors on their boards, those in the highest quartile reported a 42% greater return on sales and a 53% higher return on equity than the rest.  In addition, 55% of the companies that became inactive on the index had one or zero women on their boards.”

Blundel & Fletcher, 2020

Before you say it. Part II.

In the last five years, leading national PGAs have elected a woman as President or Captain. These appointments are momentous and worthy of celebration.

But…there is always a but.

Research from sports, politics, and business demonstrates that appointing one woman to a CEO or top leadership position does not change the demographics of an organization as much as diversifying the board. So, although it’s hoped more women will be organically appointed as future PGA Presidents or Captains, this alone won’t cut it.

Systemic change at board level is needed to make systemic changes within national PGA memberships. 

Before you say it. Part III.

(If you are thinking this one, we may not agree with you.)

A common response to the suggestion of board diversification in golf (and beyond) is, “We’d love to have women at board level, but there is no-one with the necessary experience.”

Seldom is this the case.

And if you don’t think there’s one or two women across your whole PGA membership capable of sitting on your board (very unlikely), then look harder. Another alternative is to bring in women with ‘acceptable’ experience from other fields.

If your board is already full and you have a pipeline of people slated to join it (who aren’t women), there is another easy solution. Expand your board.

Solving Golf’s Workforce Shortage Requires Diversification

The pandemic golf boom has been a good-news, bad-news scenario for the golf industry.

The good news is more people have taken up or returned to golf. The bad news is that the job market has changed in such fundamental ways over the last two years that the golf industry needs more workers at a time when workers don’t need the golf industry.

We offered short-term workforce solutions for golf industry operators in White Paper #2.

This current White Paper suggests that we need to get serious about expanding our workforce. National PGAs need an equitable and robust membership that utilizes talent from both men and women. And a good starting point for doing this is creating national PGA boards that look like the future workforce golf needs.

THREE takeaways…

1. PGAs that walk-the-talk and have diverse boards also have more diverse memberships.

2. Membership diversity is as much about industry and organizational performance as it is about equality.

3. Evolving golf’s workforce demographics will take time. So, there is no time like the present to give women representation on your board.

##womeninindustry

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