CERM Performance Indicators® Project

21 years of partnering between Australasian public aquatic and leisure facilities and CERM PI (UniSA)

2011 marks 21 years of partnering between Australasian public aquatic and leisure facilities and the CERM Performance Indicators (CERM PI Project), at the University of South Australia (UniSA). The CERM PI Project was initiated in 1990 with a vision to facilitate quality management in the leisure industries. Initially, collaboration was mainly with managers of local government indoor sports and leisure centres. Subsequent collaboration included a range of leisure industry segments and university colleagues in Australia, New Zealand, USA, Taiwan and the United Kingdom. Working with industry partners, CERM PI has compiled a range of performance indicators for Operational Management, Customer Service Quality (CSQ) and Appropriateness of Services. The performance indicators and related demographic data allow for improved operational decision making, including internal and external benchmarking against similar operations.

In 1991 CERM PI pilot tested Operational Management performance indicators (PIs) with data from 16 public aquatic and leisure centres across SA, WA, Victoria and NSW. By 2010 almost 200 public sports and leisure facilities from across Australia and New Zealand contributed data . Benchmarks are now available for public aquatic and leisure centres, public golf courses, as well as Tennis Australia facilities.

Academic staff involved in the early development of CERM PI from 1990 included the late Gary Crilley, Ian Milne, and Gary Howat; and Jim Absher joined us for several years before returning to the USA. Heather March was our first Research Assistant in 1994 and is still part of the CERM PI team. A number of key research assistants completed higher degrees (Honours or PhDs) during their time with CERM PI, including Duncan Murray, Sue Mikilewicz, Scott Edgecombe, Richard McGrath, and Jessica Alikaris. Overseeing the project management and administration are Raylene Jones who commenced with CERM PI in 1998 and is our current Project Officer, and more recently in 2008 Cathie Bloxham to assist in the administration of the Project.

CERM PI is committed to sourcing

future directions for the benchmarking project to explore.

Centre for

Tourism and Leisure Management

unisa

Issue No 1, July 2011

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Raylene Jones and Cathie Bloxham from the CERM Performance Indicators Project, University of South Australia presented the award for the

‘Most Outstanding Customer Service Officer ‘

at the Aquatic & Recreation Victoria Industry Awards night, 3 June. Sponsored by the CERM Performance Indicators® Project, part of the Centre for Tourism & Leisure Management, it recognises excellence and commitment to the facility.

The award recipient was Emily Rubiara from the YMCA @ McLeod Recreation and Fitness Centre.

2011 ARV Industry Awards

Battling Earthquakes and Volcanic Ash in New Zealand

Gary Howat recently returned (albeit delayed) from his annual travel to New Zealand to conduct workshops for our New Zealand clients.

Whilst enduring flight delays due to volcanic ash and shaky ground in Christchurch, he successfully conducted a series of four benchmarking workshops with managers and senior city council staff from 27 major sports and leisure centres in Auckland, Manukau and Tauranga.

Unfortunately, a workshop scheduled for Dunedin City Council staff was cancelled due to the volcanic ash preventing flights to Dunedin.

Seniors play their part in preservation of the environment

A recent Media Release in May 2011, reported on a study undertaken by the late Gary Crilley for the National Senior Australia organisation. Results of the study, showed botanic gardens and the older volunteers who make them so popular, providing wide-ranging benefits to visitors, the community and to the preservation of the environment.

The study set out to explore older people’s engagement in volunteering at botanic gardens investigating the benefits for volunteers, for botanic gardens as organisations, and for the wider community.

National Seniors Australia Chief Executive Michael O’Neill said the study found more than 60 % of volunteers gave 80 hours or more to their botanic gardens in a 12 month period , with the most common roles being a garden guide (42 %) and 25 % were involved in hands-on gardening. This suggests that volunteering at places like botanic gardens

is relatively inclusive and accessible for the wider population. Further information can be obtained by contacting CERM PI or National Seniors Australia.

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2011 National Benchmarking Survey for Aquatic & Leisure Centres

Invitation to Aquatic & Leisure Centres

Since this survey’s inception the CERM PI team has provided sport and leisure managers with industry relevant evaluation tools (questionnaires) to collect data that supports their decision making for improved operational performance of their facilities.

Our aim is to continuously improve on the process of collecting and collating the data, and to provide industry relevant performance indicators that assist in improved internal and external benchmarking.

Ongoing recent collaboration with key industry contacts has allowed us to make some minor amendments to the questionnaire, and to also redesign the Guidelines for improved readability and understanding.

Benchmarking for Golf Courses Later this year we will be focussing on increasing our sample sizes for both 18 and 9 hole public golf courses. As with the aquatic and leisure facilities, the 2011 invitation to participate in this survey will be distributed via email in late July/early August.

If you are interested in participating in either survey, or would like further information, please contact CERM PI.

Another busy summer for CERM PI

The CERM PI team have been extremely busy compiling Customer Service Quality Reviews for numerous aquatic and leisure facilities around Australia and New Zealand in the first six months of this year. To date we have provided 61 CERM PI Reviews to industry managers, of these 31 were Australian facilities and 30 New Zealand facilities, with others currently in progress.

Feedback received since the introduction of the ‘online’ survey tool, used in conjunction with the hardcopy onsite questionnaire, has been of a positive nature . We have found that the online tool captures harder to get groups, such as lap swimmers, and gym & fitness users, assisting centres to increase their sample sizes across all user groups. This additional data collection strategy has been particularly successful with those centres that have good ‘online’ relationships with their members.

The Customer Service Quality questionnaire has undergone improved design and layout changes, improving readability for the customers when completing the questionnaire.

The Centre for Tourism & Leisure Management (CT&LM) was formed in 2006 and is the leading centre in South Australia for research in tourism, hospitality, events, sport and leisure.

The centre has three key research themes that encompass the range of research activities of the core members of the Centre:

managing service quality in the events, sports, and leisure industries

understanding tourism, hospitality and leisure experiences

promoting health and wellness, lifestyle

CERM Performance Indicators® Project is a major program within the Centre. CERM PI has been providing performance indicators and national benchmarks for operational performance and customer service quality, for aquatic, sports and leisure centres, tennis facilities and golf courses since the early 1990’s.

The CERM PI services are unique in the leisure industries because they are developed within an ongoing applied research forum. Hence, improved industry-specific knowledge is disseminated and directly put to use by industry partners.

Other CT&LM research studies have been undertaken in the areas of ‘Health and Wellness Tourism in Australia’; ‘Meetings, Conventions & Business Events Industry’; and ‘Self-drive Tourism’.

Further information will be published on these and other research in future issues.

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To contact CERM PI

+61 8 8302 5321 +61 8 8302 5255 raylene.jones@unisa.edu.au unisa.edu.au/cermpi unisa.edu.au/tourismleisure