Departmental Communication Dashboards

Description

At Cherokee, each department uses a communication dashboard for the dissemination of information both up and down. This communication dashboard takes the form of a report template in a Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet with a new tab created for each meeting week. The template is stored on a shared network drive and is standardized for all departments. It serves as a meeting agenda, minutes, and an electronic bulletin board for each meeting.

The dashboard includes an attendance grid showing each person in attendance at the meeting. A safety report is included and reported accidents are discussed including a follow-up discussion on prevention measures. A record is kept for all actions and decisions as a result of the meeting. Each week the actions and decisions recorded and reviewed at the end of the meeting. A parking lot section is included for all follow-up items until complete or closed.

The next section of the meeting is used for mid-level manager reports and hyperlinks are used to link and access their respective reports. These reports include what each manager is working on for that week, their priorities and challenges. For the golf course maintenance department meeting, we then discuss things like the golf calendar, the agronomic plan, and cutting unit adjustments. These items also include hyperlinks for each piece of information for meeting discussion. Next there is a hyperlink to a membership and employee happiness or satisfaction dashboard where satisfaction levels are discussed and reviewed. These dashboards contain timely and up to date information on specific metrics used to measure satisfaction levels. These sections also include sub-hyperlinks that dive further into the data. Club communications for the department are discussed and recorded next. Timely and relevant topics for club-wide communication are carefully mapped and assigned through the calendar year.

Implementation

The Departmental Communication Dashboard was established by the Senior Leadership Committee to utilize in weekly departmental meetings. It keeps our operation running smoothly by recording thorough, concise, and up-to-date important information for each department. Our weekly manager meetings are more organized and efficient. Although this appears to be a lengthy and time-consuming process once the flow and repetition of the meetings are established the meeting moves along extremely efficiently. The organization allows the meeting to keep flowing and all items are usually discussed in under an hour and a half.

The use of the dashboard has enhanced our budget process for both capital and operating. We are able to see positive and negative variances along with forecasting information that is reviewed and recorded. We also use the information from the dashboard for committee meeting preparation. Agenda items for the next meeting as well as follow up items from the previous meetings.