BEES UNITED have received questions from supporter GARY BULLOCK on the recent changes in the backroom staff at Griffin Park. With Gary's permission, we are publishing his original question and the subsequent answer. If you have a question that you would like to see answered please email us.
Do BU have a record of the Job Decriptions for the for the recent personel changes at BFC, which has caused a furore among many fans?
I have no problem with staff earning a salary that equates to a level expected for positions held. However there seems to be some confusion over what John McGlashan & Roy King are responsible for and this has now meant that their changing titles/roles has led to an extra expense of another safety officer being required. So we now have 2 staff on higher salaries and 1 new staff member and they still cover the same roles that 2 used to do.
Now, if we were cash rich I wouldn't mind, but when we have, as reported in The Sun, players making their own lunches that may mean a saving to enable extra money for a player, surely it would be more sensible to see the costs of adminisration roles not rising so much. Maybe JM should have been offered a bonus deal based on the success of the Altonwood negotiations and new ground. Lets face it our players get bonuses based on their successes, why not the paid directors working under the same rules?
ANSWER FROM BEES UNITED CHAIRMAN, BRIAN BURGESS
Dear Gary
Thanks for your question about the roles and responsibilites of the senior managers at BFC.
Attached is my summary of the situation, based on discussions with, and information from, John McGlashan and Eddie Rogers. This includes some background to the current situation.
I always appreciate people taking the trouble to send questions directly to QUESTIONS AT BEES UNITED and always try to ensure that they get a clear reply. If you have any further queries please email me.
RECENT CHANGES IN MANAGEMENT RESPONSIBILITIES AT BRENTFORD FC
1. Background
Previous loss of staff
During the past two years or so the Club lost three senior members of staff: a Sales & Marketing Manager, Club & Company Secretary, and Managing Director.
None of them were directly replaced after they left. Not replacing staff was Club policy during Ron Noades’ last year and after he stepped down the two Executive Directors nominated to the BFC board by Bees United (BU) adopted the objective of trying to get by whilst they assessed the staffing needs of the business. The strategy has been to keep the Club in business whilst trying to find a way out of the financial mess that exists.
Cost savings
On paper, not replacing the three individuals saved the Club in the region of £130,000 per year. In addition Stephen Callen took over the functions of setting budgets, monitoring financial performance, and ensuring management accounts are produced for the board each month that were previously carried out by Altonwood.
Stephen Callen has been doing this work since April 2003 without payment. The other Executive Director, John McGlashan has been paid a salary of £25,000. Together they have been, and still are, responsible as Executive Directors for the total management of Brentford FC Ltd.
Priorities
Not replacing the professional staff that left also had a negative impact. Reducing costs is obviously a high priority, but it still takes people to run a business, and in the longer term the duties of these staff members had to be covered. Added to that, staffing levels had already been reduced and were less than ideal, and there comes a time when staff will resist the extra workload they face. Commercial activities to deliver budgeted income and to grow new revenue have been a priority and staff have been taken on to address this area.
From BU’s point of view the priorities to enable the Club to survive beyond the end of the current season are to find ways of restructuring its finances, enabling BU to exercise the share option with Altonwood and developing a new stadium project with the potential to unlock the necessary sources of capital and revenue. These are extremely challenging and time consuming tasks which have been given insufficient attention because they relied on the part time efforts of non-executive directors of BFC and BU, supported by John McGlashan who was getting bogged down in day-to-day management at the Club.
The recent changes in the responsibilities of the two Executive Directors and Roy King have therefore been implemented in order to make better use of Roy and to free up more of John’s time to pursue the day to day activities that are essential, working with the appropriate (BFC and BU) non-executive directors, to make progress on the long term issues.
2. Roles and Responsibilities of the BFC Management Team
The revised roles and responsibilities of the BFC Senior Management Team are as outlined below. Whilst this level of definition is necessary to ensure clear accountability, in practice the survival of a small company/club like this is dependant on flexible team working to target resources at sorting out the key issues.
2.1. Executive Directors:
The two Executive Directors are accountable to the BFC board for running the company. They work together but also have specific roles and responsibilities. They are members of the four man Senior Management Team, and are Roy King’s and Martin Allen’s line managers.
Together they are also responsible for negotiating alternative funding arrangements with Altonwood if Bees United are not able to exercise the share option by May 2005.
Stephen Callen:
Finance Director
Company Secretary (previously J McGlashan)
Responsibilities:
- All financial issues and management, finance staff and advisors.
- Statutory requirements of the company, including the annual report and the Annual General Meeting.
John McGlashan:
Responsibilities:
All other issues not covered by Stephen, including:
- Personnel
- All legal issues (liasing with Andrew Wainwright)
- Football Club administration (including the Club Secretary)
- The Football Manager
- Football in the Community & Centre of Excellence
- External relationships
- Progressing plans for a new stadium, liasing with others (including Doug White) as necessary
- Progressing plans for Bees United to exercise its option to acquire the majority shareholding in BFC
- Ltd and Griffin Park Stadium Ltd (GPSL) – this has the full support of the BFC board as being in the best interests of BFC.
2.2. Football Manager
Martin Allen
Responsibilities:
- All football and football management issues, performance and staff
- Member of the Senior Management Team
2.3. General Manager
Roy King
Responsibilites:
- All non-football operations and management issues, performance and staff, including contractors
- Customer service
- Member of the Senior Management Team
- Staff reporting directly to the General Manager, include:
- Commercial Manager (previously reported directly to John McGlashan) with responsibility for all Commercial staff and activities
- Head Groundsman
- Safety Officer (part-time)
- Reception
- Maintenance staff/contractors
- Catering contractor
3.0. Costs
The fact that John and Stephen have been prepared for more than a year to undertake the difficult and essential work of turning the Club around, without pay in Stephen’s case and for a low salary in John’s case, has saved the Club a significant sum of money. In comparison the previous Managing Director was earning a substantial salary.
It is simply not sustainable, however, for the Club to continue employing John and Stephen for total salary of £25,000 beyond the first year after they had given up their careers.
When the non-executive directors on the BFC board reviewed the roles of the Executive Directors during the summer they decided that their work is essential to securing BFC’s future and it was in the Club’s best interests to offer them reasonable salaries in order to keep them rather than be forced to recruit more expensive replacements. They therefore made verbal offers to increase John’s salary and to pay Stephen a part-time salary. These offers have not yet been confirmed in writing nor have they been accepted and this subject is still under discussion.
Including the new salaries verbally offered to John and Stephen, the annual budget for the current arrangements, with a Commercial Manager, a Club Secretary, a General Manager, a Safety Officer, and two Executive Directors is in the order of £35,000 per annum lower than the wage bill for the staff who were previously employed to cover these functions.
The views of BU board members and supporters (including the suggestion that remuneration could be performance related) have been passed to the BFC Chairman and have been discussed by the BFC non-executive board members. Whilst the BFC board are receptive to views and suggestions they ultimately have to make decisions, based on all the information available, that they believe are in the best interests of BFC. This includes the appointment, responsibilities and remuneration of BFC employees.