Yardstick is a benchmarking project, focused on parks and recreation activities. It collects and compares a range of information relating to the provision of services, cost of service provision, asset management processes and planning and policy information.
Yardstick comprises several subprojects including:
- Yardstick Parks – a benchmarking tool for the parks industry
- Yardstick ParkCheck – a benchmarked park user intercept survey
- Yardstick Pools and Leisure Centres – a benchmarking tool
for swimming pools and multi use leisure centres - Yardstick LeisureCheck – a benchmarked pool and leisure
centre user intercept survey.
The project provides management information to facility and swimming pool asset managers. This is complemented by the LeisureCheck customer survey project, which in partnership with SIL Research Ltd measures the expectations of facility users against their satisfaction
with what is being provided, thus providing a gap analysis.
In 2008, 33 organisations in New Zealand representing 70 swimming pools/leisure centres, and currently 30 pool facilities in Australia representing 13 swimming pools/leisure centres, are to participate in the project.
You can also participate in the project for 2008 if you join now.
The project is owned by the New Zealand Recreation Association and operated in Australia through Aquatics and Recreation Victoria (Victoria) and the Institute of Public Works Eengineering Australia (IPWEA) for the rest of Australia.
The wider pools and leisure facility industry is represented in the project through a technical group of managers who decide annually the information to be measured, design the questions and their definition and then review the draft report before publication.
Yardstick Pools and Leisure Centres enables straightforward comparisons of operational practices, user costs and asset management planning to be benchmarked across the membership. The project gives the opportunity for pools run by trusts, councils, contractors or via management contracts to participate together.
While not a competition, the Yardstick format of reporting is clear and concise, with each organisation’s facility openly reported for clear benchmarking.
Averages and medians are provided enabling easy comparison. Many of the tables are split into subcategories for indoor pools, outdoor pools and mixed indoor/outdoor pools, for example.
LeisureCheck in 2008 will provide the qualitative assessment of pools for those wishing to measure levels of service.
A standard customer survey will be undertaken at the nominated facilities over a specific period during the summer of 2008/09. The survey enables each facility to include a few specific facility related questions to complement the standard questions being asked across all participating facilities. SIL Research Ltd undertakes the analysis and within three months of completion of the surveys the report is presented, with results and gap analysis undertaken showing where levels of service are being met, exceeded or under achieved.
The report is presented in an easy to read coloured format that is suitable for senior manager or elected official review.
The introduction of key performance indicators to the project in 2008 will further assist the drive for best practice and reporting tools on facility performance on an ongoing basis.
How do you measure your performance
in swimming pool and leisure centre
operation and management?
A few facts from 2007:
- average organisation expenditure (net) on pools per resident was
$NZ22.30 and, from a small sample in Australia, $AU25.70 per resident - majority of pools (58%) were constructed prior to 1985, just
28% constructed since 1995 - average admittance across all facilities was 151,052 visits
- entrance fees per adult swim varied from an adult high of
$6.50 (NZ) or $6.00 (Aust) to a low of $2.00 (NZ) or $2.50 (Aust) with an averageof $3.30 (NZ) or $2.90 (Aust) Child, senior swim - cost per m3 of water across all pool facility types $787m3 from a high of $2,560 to a low of $54.00
- average operating cost per admittance $10.96, ranging from a high of $15.05 to a low of $5.49, also broken down to different facility types
- average income from secondary spend, which includes shop, vending, lockers and so forth was $61,188 per annum per facility
- in NZ, 79% of facilities are currently compliant with NZ Pool
Safe (an industry certification program) - most pools (88%) have a customer care program of some type,
with 89% using some form of user survey - serious accidents/health incidents requiring secondary intervention
averaged 7.8 incidents per facility per annum - a third of organisations have an overall pool strategy, a slight
increase from 2006 - 74% of facilities have a customer care program operable
- average FTE of 1.9 staff per 10,000 admissions
- lifeguards’ hourly pay varied from a low in NZ of $11.52 per hour
to $14.86 per hour, with an average of $13.19; while in Australia the range was $17.59 to $20.65, with an average of $19.12 from
a relatively small sample in 2007 (reception costs, swim instructor
and team leader costs available) - managers’ salary bands indicate that just 22% of managers earn
between $60,000 and $69,000 per annum, with 33% being paid in
the $50,000 to $59,000 band - lifeguards’ average length of employment is just 2.2 years (NZ)
and 2.5 years (Aust) - 44% of members have asset registers to a component level, with a
further 34% under development - 49% of facilities have an adopted asset management plan
- building maintenance plans are in place for 51% of facilities.
To join Yardstick
Membership costs (10% discount for both project membership)
Yardstick Pools and Leisure Centres $2,500 + GST
Yardstick LeisureCheck $2,200 + GST
Visit the project web page at www.yardstickglobal.org
For further information contact IPWEA www.ipwea.org.au or email Chris Rutherford chris@yardstickglobal.org
