Survey: Staff recruitment/retention and new solutions in sport and physical activity employment

Research by the European Observatoire of Sport and Employment (EOSE) over many years shows that sport organisations struggle to attract and engage people with the right skills and attitudes, and often the recruited staff do not stay for long. It becomes essential to find better ways to attract, recruit and retain the people which the sport sector desperately needs to deliver its full potential. This is the main aim of IN-FORMS, an Erasmus+ sport project led by EOSE with 11 partners.

Take the survey now. Click on a flag (above) for a link to the survey in that language.

On Monday 25th November 2024, IN-FORMS launched an online survey of sport and physical activity organisations focusing on the recruitment and retention problems they face and possible new approaches to sport employment. This initiative will be vitally important to get a better understanding of the real issues, their causes and possible solutions.

You are kindly invited to take part and to help distribute the survey widely through your networks.

Ideally, we need to reach out to the broadest range of sport employers such as sport federations, governing bodies, sport clubs, gyms and fitness centres, outdoor activity providers, municipalities, local authorities, sport for all/sport for development organisations, leisure facility operators, training providers etc.

The survey is available in 19 languages and will take around 10-20 minutes to complete. Most of the questions are ‘tick-box’ only and organisations are only asked questions which are relevant to them.

Thank you in advance for taking the time to complete and promote the survey!

Read on for more background information on this research activity as well as for access to additional resources for promotion.

The Sport and Physical Activity Sector has a problem

We all know how sport and physical activity can improve the lives of every citizen, and the message is getting across. Increasingly, national and regional governments have greater and greater expectations of what sport can achieve in areas such as public health and social and economic development. The question is: does the sector have the stable and professional workforce needed to turn potential into reality?

Sadly, the answer is almost certainly ‘no’. Recruitment and retention of paid staff is an ongoing challenge for sport organisations. EOSE research from the ESSA-sport project (2018) showed that only around 30% of sport employers found it easy to recruit staff with the right skills and attitudes. Over 40% told us they had problems retaining the personnel they need.

Things have not improved. Whilst the Covid pandemic may be a fading memory, its heavy impact on sport employment can still be felt. EOSE’s latest analysis of the paid workforce (2023) shows that 10 of the 28 nations we examine have still not recovered to 2019 employment levels and these include two of the largest countries employing sport workers – Germany and the UK.

Sport employment tends to be unstable. Research tells us that, compared to other employment sectors, our sector has very high numbers of part-time and temporary contracts and a larger proportion of young workers under 25 who leave their employment in sport and physical activity in their late 20s and early 30s, taking their skills and experience elsewhere. Sport also has a smaller percentage of mature and experienced staff, and there is a widening gender gap with a declining proportion of female employees.

On the whole, sport is failing to attract and keep the talent we need. Does this need to continue for ever?

Something must be done, and you can contribute to finding solutions!

EOSE’s latest IN-FORMS project gives us all the ideal opportunity to explore these challenges further and find potential solutions. The results of the survey on sport employment will really help us examine in much greater detail the issues that lie behind the statistics which EOSE compiles and analyses on an annual basis.

Our polite request to you

We know you are very busy, but this is really important for our sector. We strongly encourage you to distribute and promote the survey to all sport employers in your networks. Wherever possible, please ask them to distribute the links through their own communication channels.

The survey has been thoroughly tested, and we estimate it takes about 10-20 minutes to complete. It will be followed up by a series of interviews with a sample of respondents who express interest in exploring the issues further.

Promotional resources