New Zealand to develop national facilities benchmarking tool

The New Zealand Recreation Association (NZRA) and Sport New Zealand have teamed up to develop a tool to provide benchmarking data to aquatic facilities, stadiums and indoor recreation venues.

Sport New Zealand Community Sport Facilities Consultant Jamie Delich says there has been a great response since the National Facilities Benchmarking Tool’s release, with around 150 facilities indicating they will take part in the programme for the pilot year so far

Announced in August last year, this project is a partnership between NZRA, Sport New Zealand and Xyst that will enable facilities across New Zealand to improve their practices through online performance data that is comparable to a national median as well as individual facility data.

Delich says the tool will provide easily accessible comparative high level data, allowing facilities to benchmark their performance against other facilities of a similar size and type.

The project integrates with the existing Yardstick benchmarking suite, with NZRA overseeing its ongoing development, delivery and use. This will support facilities in offering the best possible service to their communities, enabling them to see where they are performing well and more easily identify areas for potential improvement.

Delich explains “essentially, as a sector we’re aiming for continuous improvement.

“Over time as facilities start analysing performance, they can become more efficient, more effective and better able to serve the needs of their communities based on best practice.

“When facilities register their interest, we ask questions about their facility and the nature of how it’s used, its financial situation and its personnel.

“From that information, reports can be provided on utilisation, financial and operational performance from a baseline of six different performance indicators at a high level.”

Individual reporting data is made available to facilities that join the tool, while another facet of the programme will provide a review of the data in a national report of key findings and trends collated by Sport New Zealand and NZRA, then presented to the industry.

Delich says although facilities can choose to remain anonymous, one of the project’s objectives is to identify opportunities for facilities of a similar size to network and share information that will improve performance and capability for the industry overall.

He adds “we sowed the seeds of this idea at the annual NZRA Just Add Water Seminar. Just from the aquatics sector there was strong support and a good level of enthusiasm. The fact that it’s free of charge helps as well.”

Around a third of aquatic facilities participating in the PoolSafe scheme have currently signed up for the programme, with strong interest shown by several others since the Just Add Water Seminar.

He says information gathered through the National Facilities Benchmarking Tool also benefits from the inclusion of the existing Yardstick participants’ information. Facilities wanting more in-depth analysis of performance area able to sign up to the full Yardstick Tool.

Sport New Zealand funding has enabled this project to be freely available to facilities across New Zealand, with the goal of developing better capability in the industry and opportunities to working with partners across the facilities sector.

Click here for more information about the National Facilities Benchmarking Tool, including instructions on how facilities can register their interest.

Images: Caroline Bay Trust Aoraki Centre (CBay), Timaru (top) and Stadium Southland, Invercargill (below).

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