The New South Wales (NSW) licensed clubs industry forms a unique component of the hospitality sector. The evolution of the club industry in NSW has enabled present day clubs to become leading providers of leisure, entertainment and gaming services as well as being significant contributors to the NSW economy and large employers of labour.
The club industry is a labour intensive industry, with labour comprising the single largest cost. It is for this reason that the efficient and productive use of labour is critical to the success of a club. One method of encouraging increased productivity from employees is through the utilisation of employee reward systems.
There has been a lack of research conducted into the use of reward systems in the hospitality industry generally and even less research relating specifically to the clubs sector. This study addressed this situation by determining the extent and type of reward systems used in NSW licensed clubs and their perceived effectiveness.
It was established that approximately 63 percent of club managers believed that rewards were an effective tool for motivating employees. In addition, approximately 40 per cent of managers used formal rewards, 27 percent used informal rewards, 15 per cent used financial rewards and 6 percent utilised non-financial rewards to motivate staff. There were significant differences between small and large clubs in some areas investigated in this study.
Despite the use of rewards, this study’s findings suggest that many of the managers appear to have little interest as to what rewards appeal to staff and in turn what rewards are effective in motivating staff.