STANDARDS IN SPORT
Wendy Golledge investigates how management models and standards can help sports and leisure centres drive efficiency savings, earn improved perception in the eyes of customers and ultimately improve their business
SCRATCH? UP TO
I
n an economic climate where every customer through the door mat- ters, where efficiency drives are the order of the day and sports
clubs and leisure centres face ever more demanding financial challenges, can in- vesting valuable funding in management models and standards really help to ease off this pressure? “Effective and profitable centre man-
agement depends on constructive use of management time,” says David Monk- house, regional manager of Quest – the UK quality scheme for sport and leisure. “Achieving that requires staff to work to- gether and follow standard procedures plus tried-and-tested systems to ensure the basics are in place. A quality management award will assess these important criteria and provide recommendations to ensure the centre is working to its full potential. Only then can the management team truly concentrate on generating income.” Clare MacLeod, national manager for Clubmark, Sport England’s accreditation
Since attaining Clubmark status, Rochdale Company of Archers is recognised as a finan- cially secure centre of sporting excellence
scheme for junior sports clubs says: “External validation and adhering to ap- proved management models can also have a dramatic effect on customer approval. Management models mean sites can be confident that they’ve reached minimum standards across a range of criteria and that they have, for example, appropriate insurance,
coaching qualifications and risk assess- ments in place, which leads to improved customer satisfaction.”
The gold standard Management models allow sites to benchmark themselves, both internally to recognise good practice and externally to learn from organisations that are doing
CASE STUDY: ROCHDALE COMPANY OF ARCHERS E
stablished in 1954, Rochdale Company of Archers was keen to attain Club- mark status to reflect its position as a well run, organised and ambitious club, plus attract finance and grants to aid development requirements. Since obtaining the Clubmark, the club is now recommended by the local au-
thority as a financially secure and safe centre of sporting excellence, plus a best practice provider of qualified and appropriate archery training, and has been nomi- nated for Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council’s Sports Club of the Year award. It was awarded substantial funding to recruit, train and qualify nine Level 1
coaches, which also created opportunities to involve schools in archery. “With the help of Clubmark we have identified our opportunities for growth and been able to attract the funding and support to begin fulfilling our development plans,” says chair Bryan Woodcock.
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Issue 1 2011 © cybertrek 2011
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