PROBLEMS ISSUES RECRUITMENT RETENTION SPORTS OFFICIALS

Recruitment and Retention of Sports Officials • 2004• A contractual type of arrangement to provide officials to thecompetitions and leagues of the “parent” association;• The officials’ association manages the recruitment, training andaccreditation, evaluation and grading, promotion and payment ofofficials.Integrated and stand-alone models were found to exist side by side withinsome SSOs. In some cases this was a distinguishing feature between ruraland metropolitan systems.Where officials were organised in separate organisations, officials wereperceived as a “necessary evil” in sport and not critical to quality sportingexperiences. There was also a general lack of recognition of the role ofofficials, even by the sport itself in these instances.Strategic planning at NSO and SSO levelMost sports include in their strategic plans, aims and objectives coveringofficiating issues such as recruitment, retention strategies and/or targets;training and accreditation of officials; talent identification and development offuture generation of elite level officials, and career pathways.Key Performance Areas (KPAs) within these plans typically document targetsfor the recruitment and retention of sports officials. However, as discussedearlier, the poor quality of data for sports official numbers below elite levelavailable to NSOs and SSOs prevents these targets being utilised in ameaningful and strategic way.The links between NSO and SSO strategic and development plans, and linksto local associations are often inefficient due to bottlenecks andcommunication problems particularly with stand alone associations of officialsnot being integrated into the parent association.Most NSO and SSO efforts in managing officials focus on providing trainingand accreditation resources and systems (e.g. re-accreditation at same leveland training / accreditation at higher levels), disseminating information tolocally based organisers of groups of sports officials (e.g. through sportsofficials’ newsletters), and providing formal recognition systems for high levelofficials (e.g. official of the year awards at state and national levels).Griffith University • Griffith Business School • Cuskelly & Hoye 9