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Using technology to manage staff across multiple public pool sites Angus Westaway spoke at the Country Pool Managers Conference earlier this year about using technology to help manage staffing across multiple pool sites. Here he explains some of his ideas, including the benefits of apps to streamline management processes.
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ABOVE: L+R team members who attended the Country Pool Managers Conference, held earlier this year in Goulburn: Ashley Clegg, Sam Thompson, Angus Westaway, Fiona Falconer, Monique Tippler-Dawson and Eric Spargo 66
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ngus Westaway’s pool management business, the Leisure and Recreation Group (L+R), had their first contract at West Wyalong, and was headquartered there for ten years before relocating to Cootamundra in 2021. Over that time, the business grew from managing two pools to managing seven facilities. “I registered and had the business setup back around 2007 when I was still in Sydney, as operations manager at San Souci Leisure Centre. But it took me until 2011 to be awarded our first contract.” Bland Shire was the first council to show faith in them and give them a go. “We were in the predicament of being a company with no experience, so we had no history behind us. Bland Shire was our first contract, the first council that gave us go with two pools. Then with we’ve progressed with Cobar and Lachlan Shires, and Coota-Gundagai Council as well.” With the recent addition of Cowra and Condobolin, L+R now manages seven facilities. Westaway says while that is good, the business is not at the size yet to start benefiting from economies of scale. “Not at the current size, because we’re still in a quite a growth stage. And as we scale, there’s more business expense – especially with staffing –
December 2023/January 2024
that we need to incorporate with more admin and middle management to help take the load off me,” he says. “And you just start to find out the difficulties of recruitment and employment as well. Running a couple of pools yourself is a lot different to overseeing and assisting staff to run the facilities,” he says. “It’s been a big learning curve about really developing and keeping our staff. It’s not really about running pools myself anymore, it’s about mentoring and developing my staff so they can run it well, accordingly to our processes and programs and activities.” Westaway says while it adds complexity to his role, he finds it a great experience to bring young staff members on and see them improve and gain confidence. “It’s very, very rewarding,” he says. “And we really like to develop and mentor our good young workers. “We’ve got a lot of professional development and we are putting in a lot of time and effort personally with the guys as well. And it is a hard industry. There’s a lot of moving parts. And as I said in the presentation, you can really get eaten alive in this industry. But I spend a lot of time to support my guys to make sure they get the best chance of success.”
Help from Google systems
Westaway’s presentation at the conference was about taking advantage of apps and software systems, including those that come for free under the Google umbrella. “This was a project over the covid period, because all the facilities were shut down. I like