The success of any strategic plan is dependent upon the human resource capacity of any organisation.
According to Taylor, Doherty and McGraw (2008) “attracting, developing and retaining talented people can provide a sport organisation with the resources it needs to prosper, grow and ultimately gain competitive advantage”.
Attracting the right people into an organisation allows for establishing competitive advantage. This requires the ability to create a pool of personnel who offer a mix of technical, team and leadership skills which will allow the organisation to establish and achieve its strategic objectives and goals.
Having the right personnel within an organisation provides a foundation for higher levels of efficiency, productivity and organisational morale.
“Such people are likely to be motivated to give their best and will deliver the flexibility and commitment that most sport organisations seek," (Taylor, Doherty and McGraw, 2008).
Organisations that may not be in a position to hire personnel on a full-time basis can be creative by forming a working collaborative relationship with UWI (University of the West Indies) and or UTT (University of T&T). These institutions are currently building their sporting programme capacity and can engage their sport management and science students into doing internships at sporting organisations to gain first-hand experience to complement their theoretical learning and knowledge.
On the other hand, sporting organisations will benefit from the interns cutting edge knowledge and technical skills. In the end, the collaboration will provide a platform for reciprocal benefits to all stakeholders.
Retaining personnel- athletes, administrators, coaches, other technical staff and volunteers- in any organisation is critical to its survival and continuity. Creating a positive environment with high levels of motivation and appropriate rewards and recognition systems is crucial toward maintaining high levels of retention.
Therefore, it is important that administrators have an understanding of what creates a motivated, committed and satisfied membership. This is vital in a period of no sport due to COVID-19. Administrators must to tap into their leadership resources to find ways to keep their membership- especially athletes and support staff- interested. This period provides an opportunity for thinking out of the box with the use of technology.
Training and development is an extremely essential means of having the right human resource capacity in any sporting organisation. Training and development allows for personnel to develop and hone key technical skills that will contribute to their own development and self-esteem which can also be beneficial to the organisation in terms of succession planning.
Succession planning is a decisive feature to the survival and continuance of any organisation. Organisations especially those that are built around one or two persons may experience severe challenges when they are no longer involved.
These challenges may result in an exodus of not only athletes but also technical members which impact on other areas such funding. Therefore, developing an organisational culture through succession planning is imperative for continued existence and success.
Therefore, “how well sport organisations cope with future challenges [post COVID-19; talent development; funding, increasing membership etc.] facing them will depend to a large degree on how well they can manage people to succeed in new ways of working and how successful they are at negotiating associated changes” (Taylor, Doherty and McGraw, 2008).