Roe Valley Leisure Centre’s Barry Toorish named SkillsActive Northern Ireland Employer of the Year

Lee Rowberry, SkillsActive - 26/06/09

Barry was presented the award by the SkillsActive executive committee at SkillsActive’s annual health and fitness seminar, held in partnership with the Chief Cultural & Leisure Officers Association and the University of Ulster on 25 June. The Employer of the Year award is awarded to a SkillsActive member within the sport, health and fitness, playwork, outdoors or caravan sector who has shown exceptional leadership and employee support.

Barry – who has worked at Roe Valley Leisure Centre for eight years – has a proven track record for investing in his staff and providing innovative opportunities for employees to improve their skills.

As well as adopting the activepassport for his staff – a unique web-based tool for recording an employee’s skills and training – Barry sits on Limavady Borough Council’s Investing in People (IIP) working group and, for the past year, has also been working on a staff recognition pilot scheme for leisure services called Excellence in Action. The leisure centre has recently implemented the scheme, and in January 2010 will hold a celebration evening where staff will be presented with awards by the chief executive for best performing team; best contribution to customer care; best contribution to staff training and overall employee of the year.

Staff training and development is a key area of focus for Roe Valley Leisure Centre.  Staff training occurs on a weekly basis – mainly for new recruits – and all training needs are identified via an employee’s annual performance development and review meeting. Staff are encouraged to broaden their skills base and are able to access training opportunities with the support of the organisation – on full pay and payment of course fees. Staff are also encouraged to contribute to the work of other teams, ensuring skills and knowledge within the organisation are well utilised.

SkillsActive Northern Ireland manager, Siobhan Weir, says: “Barry is an employer that goes that extra mile to support the development of his staff. He has invested significantly in the activepassport, which should not only help to motivate his staff, but also give them an edge over their competitors when it comes to promotion or new job opportunities.

“Barry is a great ambassador for the sector and SkillsActive looks forward to continuing our working relationship with him.”

With more than 20 years experience in the leisure sector, Barry is an industry stalwart. Since starting his career as a recreation assistant at Omagh Leisure Complex back in 1982, Barry has “worked his way up the ladder” – developing a strong business ethos along the way.

He explains: “I constantly seek to improve what we do at the leisure centre, so naturally, we try and up skill as many people as possible. I believe ongoing training and staff development is fundamental to achieving our business objectives and delivering a high quality service to our customers. This requires commitment, leadership and drive from everyone within the organisation.

“The activepassport is a key part of our plans to put staff development at the heart of improving what we do and to continuously providing better services.

“I feel very humbled to have been named SkillsActive Northern Ireland’s Employer of the Year. It is also, however, nice to be recognised. Quite often when you’re working hard and implementing new initiatives you’re not aware of the good job you are doing,” Barry says.

Quest registered since 2007 (the UK quality scheme for sport and leisure), Roe Valley Leisure Centre was the first centre in Northern Ireland to undertake the Leisurewatch training scheme and the first and only centre to participate in the National Benchmarking Survey last year, which provides critical data on the performance of leisure facilities. The results of the survey were very positive, with the leisure centre scoring an overall satisfaction rating of 4.71 out of 5 in 19 customer satisfaction attributes such as quality of service, cleanliness, staff helpfulness and standard of coaching and instruction.