Sport facility manager

Sport facility managers lead and manage a sport facility or venue, including its operations, programming, sales, promotion, health and safety, development, and staffing. They ensure it provides excellent customer service whilst achieving business, financial and operational targets.

The following job titles also refer to sport facility manager:

sport venue manager
fitness club manager
swimming pool manager
director
stadium manager
sport hall manager

Bachelor’s degree is generally required to work as sport facility manager. However, this requirement may differ in some countries.

ISCO skill level is defined as a function of the complexity and range of tasks and duties to be performed in an occupation. It is measured on a scale from 1 to 4, with 1 the lowest level and 4 the highest, by considering:

• the nature of the work performed in an occupation in relation to the characteristic tasks and duties
• the level of formal education required for competent performance of the tasks and duties involved and
• the amount of informal on-the-job training and/or previous experience in a related occupation required for competent performance of these tasks and duties.

Sport facility manager is a Skill level 3 occupation.

These occupations, although different, require a lot of knowledge and skills similar to sport facility manager.

tennis coach
spa manager
hospitality entertainment manager
gambling manager
contact centre supervisor

These occupations require some skills and knowledge of sport facility manager. They also require other skills and knowledge, but at a higher ISCO skill level, meaning these occupations are accessible from a position of sport facility manager with a significant experience and/or extensive training.

sport administrator
front of house manager
director of compliance and information security in gambling
railway station manager
recreation policy officer

This knowledge should be acquired through learning to fulfill the role of sport facility manager.

These skills are necessary for the role of sport facility manager.

Manage sport facility finances: Manage finance in sport and physical activity to achieve the stated objectives for the organisation. Develop a master budget and use this to monitor, evaluate and control performance and take action to deal with identified variances. Delegate responsibility for budgets for clearly defined activities.
Provide first aid: Administer cardiopulmonary resuscitation or first aid in order to provide help to a sick or injured person until they receive more complete medical treatment.
Lead a team: Lead, supervise and motivate a group of people, in order to meet the expected results within a given timeline and with the foreseen resources in mind.
Coordinate events: Lead events by managing budget, logistics, event support, security, emergency plans and follow up.
Promote equality in sport activities: Develop policies and programmes that aim to increase the participation and involvement of underrepresented groups in sport, such as women and girls, ethnic minority groups, disabled people and, in some cases, young people.
Handle customer complaints: Administer complaints and negative feedback from customers in order to address concerns and where applicable provide a quick service recovery.
Involve volunteers: Recruit, motivate and manage volunteers in the organisation or in a department of the organisation. Manage relationship with volunteers from before they make a volunteering commitment, throughout their time with the organisation to beyond the conclusion of their formal volunteering agreement.
Manage personal professional development in sport: Take responsibility for developing own knowledge, skills and competence to meet the current and future requirements of the work and to support personal and career development in sport.
Recruit employees: Hire new employees by scoping the job role, advertising, performing interviews and selecting staff in line with company policy and legislation.
Handle incidents: Handle incidents, such as accidents, emergencies or theft in a appropriate manner according to the organisation’s policies and regulations.
Ensure health and safety of customers: Promote and maintain a culture of health, safety and security among your customers by maintaining policies and procedures for the protection of vulnerable participants and when necessary, dealing with suspicions of possible abuse.
Organise facility activities: Design and promote activities to meet customer demand and generate revenue.
Implement operational business plans: Implement the strategic business and operational plan for an organisation by engaging and delegating to others, monitoring progress and making adjustments along the way. Evaluate the extent to which strategic objectives have been achieved, learn lessons, celebrate success and recognise people’s contributions.
Ensure health and safety of staff: Promote and maintain a culture of health, safety and security among the staff by maintaining policies and procedures for the protection of vulnerable participants and when necessary, dealing with suspicions of possible abuse.
Supervise maintenance of sport facilities: Ensure sport equipment and facilities are properly checked and maintained. It also covers supervising major and minor repairs and improvements to equipment and facilities.
Manage physical resources: Manage the physical resources (equipment, materials, premises, services and energy supplies) required to carry out planned activities in the organisation
Manage customer service: Manage the delivery of customer service including activities and approaches that play a vital part in customer service by seeking and implementing improvements and developments.
Manage a team: Ensure clear and effective channels of communication across all departments within the organisation and support functions, both internally and externally ensuring that the team is aware of the standards and objectives of the department/business unit. Implement the disciplinary and grievance procedures as required ensuring that a fair and consistent approach to managing performance is consistently achieved. Assist in the recruitment process and manage, train and motivate employees to achieve/exceed their potential using effective performance management techniques. Encourage and develop a team ethic amongst all employees.
Perform project management: Manage and plan various resources, such as human resources, budget, deadline, results, and quality necessary for a specific project, and monitor the project’s progress in order to achieve a specific goal within a set time and budget.
Implement strategic planning: Take action on the goals and procedures defined at a strategic level in order to mobilise resources and pursue the established strategies.

This knowledge is sometimes, but not always, required for the role of sport facility manager. However, mastering this knowledge allows you to have more opportunities for career development.

These skills and competences are sometimes, but not always, required for the role of sport facility manager. However, mastering these skills and competences allows you to have more opportunities for career development.

Sell services: Encourage sales by identifying the customer’s buying needs and by promoting benefits and features of the organisation’s services. Respond to and resolve customer objections and agree to mutually beneficial terms and conditions.
Apply conflict management: Take ownership of the handling of all complaints and disputes showing empathy and understanding to achieve resolution. To be fully aware of all Social Responsibility protocols and procedures, and to be able to deal with a problem gambling situation in a professional manner with maturity and empathy.
Maintain working relationships: Ensure effective working relationships with colleagues and others. Maintain them over long periods of time.
Sell products: Encourage sales by identifying the customer’s buying needs and by promoting benefits and features of the organisation’s products. Respond to and resolve customer objections and agree to mutually beneficial terms and conditions.
Facilitate physical activity in the community: Promote and deliver sport and physical activity in a community-based context, establish effective working relationships with key contacts in the community, deliver programmes and enable communities, through professional advice and expertise, to establish and sustain opportunities for participation and development.
Coordinate marketing plan actions: Manage the overview of the marketing actions such as the marketing planning, internal financial resource granting, advertising materials, implementation, control, and communication efforts.
Contribute to the safeguarding of children: Understand, apply and follow safeguarding principles, engage professionally with children and work within the boundaries of personal responsibilities.
Support the development of sport activities in education: Support sport and physical activity in an education context. Analyse the educational community in which the sport organisation will be working, establish effective working relationships with key stakeholders in that community and enable the educational community, through professional advice and expertise, to establish and sustain opportunities for participation and progression for children and young people.
Promote sport activities in public health: Support the delivery of sport and physical activity to promote general health and wellbeing, decrease risk factors for disease and prevent chronic disease and disability.

1431 – Sports, recreation and cultural centre managers

 

 

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References

1. Sport facility manager – ESCO