Resilience is the key to Bouncing Back

Images courtesy WynActive

Brad Kingsbury explains Melbourne’s WynActive resilience in light of the COVID-19 pandemic

WynActive, a leisure management organisation in the west of Melbourne, has become an industry leader in resilience, as the aquatic and recreation sector battles to recover ground in the post pandemic-shutdown environment.

In 2014, Wyndham City Council established a whollyowned, local government business enterprise, Western Leisure Services (WLS), to manage its three major aquatic and recreation facilities, AquaPulse, Eagle Stadium and the Werribee Outdoor Pool. WLS operates as WynActive, and that name is set to become well known as an example of how to maintain the loyalty and commitment of staff and community while navigating through multiple forced shutdowns.

Greater Melbourne has the ignominious label as having had the world-record longest pandemic lockdown (263 days*), resulting in a massive hit to the leisure and recreation industry. Indoor gyms were forced to close for a total of 368* days since the start of the pandemic in February 2020.

Aquatics and Recreation Victoria (ARV) Chief Executive, Kathy Parton, sees that the many impacts of the pandemic have been devastating for a lot of organisations, presenting unique challenges for organisations, community and the industry as a whole, with all combining to create significant barriers to recovery.

Noting that there had also been a major effect on staff numbers and skill levels, Parton stated “many qualified and skilled staff have exited the industry since the commencement of the pandemic. ARV has been advised that this is due to perceived concerns regarding the instability of the industry as an employer, salary rates and length of time and commitment to enter the industry as a qualified employee.

“I believe there are many current industry issues that will require long term response strategies.”

So why has WynActive had success when so many, often bigger organisations, have not?

Resilience and ability to adapt well in the face of adversity is the key. WynActive’s swift implementation of measures to mitigate the impact of sudden facility closures on staff and the community was critical to creating positive momentum.

WynActive facilities service a population of 283,294 with an annual growth rate of 4.7% (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2020), and most of its staff team live in the community they serve.

At its peak, WynActive employed 370 staff across its three facilities and was forced to stand down 95% of employees during the initial lockdown.

WLS Chief Executive, Alison Dixon said the reality of that was devastating, commenting “after holding out for the first seven weeks, we were forced to make the call to stand down and there were a lot of tears on all sides.

“Initially there was a sense of confusion and disbelief that we were, essentially, out of business, but the senior leadership team immediately acted to keep our staff involved as much as we could.

“As a local government body, we were not entitled to JobKeeper so we were behind other organisations that were, but we couldn’t dwell on that because it wasn’t going to change.

“We made it clear to each staff member that they were important, and we wanted them to stay connected so we could move quickly to re-employ and re-engage with our community at the earliest possible time.”

The effort to create team unity was hugely successful, with WynActive staff teams continuing to engage with each other online through scheduled exercise groups, coffee and drinks chats, trivia nights and even cooking sessions.

Dixon added “not everyone involved themselves in this of course, but we encouraged all our leaders to regularly call their staff members just to check in. It was a simple idea but hugely important to each person as well as our organisation.”

When WynActive centres were able to reopen, the benefits of these efforts were evident, with the majority of staff quickly on board and committed to welcoming community members back.

With its staff engaged, the next challenge for the organisation

Image courtesy WynActive

was to maintain a meaningful connection with the community. WynActive’s vision is ‘to build healthy lives through recreation and aquatics’ but the question was, how to do that when people could no longer come to the centres?

A plan to support the Wyndham community through innovation and social engagement was developed and actioned, almost as soon as the first shutdown was imposed. This involved input and commitment from staff, who were encouraged to contribute ideas aimed at helping keep people positive and connected.

Initiatives activated by WynActive to address the effects of restrictions included: •WynActive Connect Program - phone calls to members and those more isolated in the community to help people stay socially connected; •Find Your 30 - Do It Your Way - integrated program with Wyndham City Council to inspire the prioritisation of everyone to undertake 30 minutes of exercise each day; •On-line group exercise - live and recorded group fitness classes for members and the wider Wyndham Community to access free of charge; •New website with webcasts - fast-tracked development of new web platform to assist community access via video and social media content; •Quote of the Day - daily quote across WynActive social media channels to support and inspire the community;

Dixon noted “as a leadership team we were committed to doing everything we could, but the drive and enthusiasm, together with some of the ideas, came from the staff themselves. They continually asked, ‘how can we do this?’ and ‘how can we do this better?’

“Connect calls came from staff and Group Fitness classes were solely staff driven. And it was so quickly organised. One day we were in lockdown, the next it was up and running. They drove that. “The model we had - the ability to move quickly with decisive action - was, and still is, our advantage.” As the pandemic took turns for the worse (and then better) with further lockdowns and reopenings over the following 18 months, WynActive’s formula for resilience continued to be tested and, despite some hits, continued to prove successful. Approximately 70% of the staff stood down returned initially, with a range of casual, part-time and full-time employees set to join them in the coming weeks and months. Dixon explained “the pressure grew with each closure and we certainly lost some staff every time. That was cumulative over time and we, along with every like business, continue to face the challenge of skill-loss through the exit of trained staff, particularly in aquatics. “However, the staff that have returned, together with those new to the organisation, have provided the drive and motivation to inspire and re-engage with the community. One of the main aspects of our structure is that many staff members work across multiple centres, so they consider themselves part of the bigger recreation community, not just as a centre employee.

“The key to our plan was to maintain a positive outlook - to look after the physical and the mental health of both staff and the community. That’s a huge part of creating a resilient environment and I think we achieved that.”

Underlining WynActive’s ability to rise above the pack in a time of unforeseen challenges, is its recent success in the 2021 Aquatics and Recreation Victoria (ARV) awards, winning in four categories.

Three staff members were judged the best in their area while AquaPulse took out its fifth consecutive Watch Around Water award.

Noting this success, Parton added “the achievement (is) an outstanding result. With three of their awards being individual, it has demonstrated the high quality of employees at WynActive to the Victorian Aquatics and Recreation Industry.”

WynActive centres reopened in early November, after the easing of restrictions, with immediate and significant community re-engagement. An ambitious membership target of 399 in November and December was smashed at AquaPulse, with 728 people joining the centre in that period. It was 45% ahead of expectations, occurred without any marketing incentive and took management by surprise. Although cancellations were also up, the result indicated that community motivation to return was high.

While acknowledging that as a good start, Dixon is all too aware that a return to pre-pandemic service delivery still presents significant challenges for, not only WynActive, but the entire industry.

She concluded “let’s not pretend that the world hasn’t changed, probably forever.

“I am extraordinarily proud of the WynActive community for refusing to be broken by the continual hits we took during almost two years of interruptions - all out of our control. And I’m also very grateful for the ongoing support of the WynActive Board and our shareholder, Wyndham City Council.

“We’ve made strong, positive steps forward since reopening and the local and regional communities are clearly on board. The challenge ahead is to continue to adapt, innovate, pivot - call it what you like - as we recognise new recreational needs. Change is our expectation and resilience is now part of our nature.” *www.lockdownstats.melbourrne Former Sports Editor and journalist, Brad Kingsbury is a media and communications specialist for the BK&T Communications as well as the YMCA.