When it comes to facility planning, there are many factors to consider. You have to think about the schedule of your facility, finding staff members who can help keep it running smoothly, as well as promoting your facility to the community. One thing that isn’t on the mind of most facility planners is the referees who officiate the games at the facility. At Sports Facilities Advisory, we believe that this is an important detail that shouldn’t be overlooked. Today, we’ll look at some ways to keep refs in mind with your facility planning.
Be Organized
When you have a strong team of referees at your facility, you want them to feel appreciated and confident in their jobs, but this is difficult to deliver if your schedules and your facility aren’t well organized. The first step in keeping a strong staff of referees is making sure that your processes and schedules are organized and easy for them to work with. Make it easy for your officials to find out what games they are officiating, and structure operations so that it is easy to stick to the schedule. If every week your scheduled games are starting late and running over time, it will be tough to keep your team of refs happy.
Many facilities use scheduling software for their officials to avoid confusion and keep everyone on the same page. Minimize stress and maximize stability, for your officials and your facility in general, by staying organized and using effective strategies for scheduling.
Don’t Overschedule
It is important that you hire plenty of referees to avoid overworking the ones you have. When it comes to facility planning, this is often an easy thing to overlook. Without the proper hiring effort, you can find yourself leaning too heavily on a few officials. Over time they may lose interest in working at your facility.
Make sure that during the facility planning process, you are actively working to prevent burnout with your officials.
Have Strong Policies In Place
Lastly, no official wants to work in an environment where they are unappreciated and harassed. When it comes to facility planning with your officials, it is crucial that you have strong policies in place for coaches, players, and parents in regards to their behavior towards officials. Referees are going to miss calls, and there is nothing wrong with players and coaches voicing their disagreement, but it should never turn hostile.
The quickest way to see officials walk out the door is to allow parents, players, and coaches to harass officials with no consequences. Having strong policies against this type of behavior is crucial.
Contact SFA For More Facility Planning Tips
Sometimes the last thing that facility planning experts think about during the process is the officials, but it’s important to keep them in mind. For more information or tips, give SFA a call at (727) 474-3845 or contact us online for more information.
