Staff retention and facilities key for sport sector
SportWest managing director Troy Kirkham says those in the sport and recreation industry in WA are doing all they can to retain quality staff and maximize facility rationalisation.
With cost of living pressures and FIFO employment on the rise, Mr Kirkham said: Business News To remain competitive, talent retention was essential.
“We’re really trying to make sure we retain key people in the industry, managers and volunteers,” he said.
“That’s always a big challenge, especially in WA when you’re in a mining state where you might get some of the wages for FIFO (work).
“The fact that we’re still keeping the people we need to keep in the industry is one of the things we really need to pay attention to as an industry.”
However, a soon-to-be-published document may aid this process.
“We have a wage and benefits report that we do every few years,” Mr. Kirkham said.
“We are currently in the final stages of finalizing this with CCIWA, so this will be a good step both for the industry and where the benchmark is around wages and benefits for the industry.”
During SportWest’s annual WA Sports Industry Conference last year, the ability of AI to play a greater role in assisting with tasks and potentially reducing both volunteer burnout and workload was discussed in detail.
Mr Kirkham said this was a hot topic across the industry.
“It’s definitely something that I know a lot of sports ask us a lot of questions about as well,” he said.
“They want to be educated and be at the forefront of artificial intelligence developments.
“So this is definitely something that I know the industry is keen to explore and we will continue to support them in that.”
The importance of facility rationalization has increased over the last decade, not only due to growth in population but also due to greater focus on providing quality facilities to both male and female players at junior and senior levels.
“Some of the big challenges there are still infrastructure,” Mr. Kirkham said.
“Making sure we have the right infrastructure or rationalizing the infrastructure and using it in the right way – not falling into delivery models that are almost a thing of the past.”
Later this month, SportWest will also host the 2025 WA Sports Awards in Crown Perth, which has been held for almost seven decades.
“It’s the premier sporting awards in WA and the fact that it rewards everyone week in, week out, weekend, from grassroots club level through to our international and Olympic athletes… it’s one of those awards where you almost pinch yourself to be involved,” Mr Kirkham said.
