duty manager

swim instructor

swim school manager

center manager

contract manager

Parkwood-Leisure

Leisure in general has struggled to recover after COVID and the company have heavily controlled spending to protect the company's longevity.
The issue with this is that persistent understaffing combined with poor salaries encourage applications from low quality candidates, while being unable to retain excellent staff. On the other hand, the company in general feels steady and there is sufficient job stability.

Personal experience differs greatly depending on local management; upper management is generally well organised and communicative and policies and procedures within the company are particularly strong, protecting both company and employees. This can be negative at times, as it often feels there is a lot of red tape and hoops to jump through to effectively deal with underperforming staff.

The company strongly favours internal recruitment, and progression pathways and opportunities are clear and available within reason. The downside to this is that internal candidates often do not receive sufficient further training to make the most of new roles.

I worked at parkwood leisure centre for three years and during that time i was not offered a contract, I would work on average a minimum of 10 hours a week and maximum of 50. There is no where to progress as a fitness instructor in this job and the moral of the staff was low  due to several people being laid off. Even duty managers and these jobs were not getting filled by other members of parkwood so it put more responsibilities on us at the bottom without any increase in pay or even praise. 

Once I got moved to work at a different site as a recreational assistant i then began to enjoy my job but I was still only on a casual basis but i had set days to work. I got along with all the staff and I now know the majority of the customers who use the facilities by their first name as they know mine. building a good rapport with the customers was crucial as we was a small centre and needed to retain as many memberships as we could.

The most enjoyable part of the job was listening to the praise we would get as a team on our ability to keep the customers happy and watching my clients succeed in their fitness goals in my circuit class.

Standard lifguarding and recreation assistant job role. Most staff are friendly but due to be underpaid they lack enthusiasm. Not really a team there at the moment but everyone gets along just some people don't pull their weight. Not regonised by management therefore leading to lack of enthusiasm to work harder. Lack of money management: the management waste money in the wrong places leading to faulty equipment for ages. Accidents in the workplace due to bad management however staff at the bottom are blamed. Lots of shifting blame to cover individual's backs. Overall pleasure to work there at times. There are people who work there that are genuinely hard working a good fun, down low and in management just most of the time they are taken the p out of and mugged off by management or the good members of management are overalled by the guys in the suits

I had an interview for a Catering Manager role for Parkwood on 30th January. 

To attend the interview involved a 400 mile round trip on motorways on what was probably the worst day of the year weather wise so far. Thick snow, ice, fog, frost made the journey dangerous and I probably should have cancelled. However, I liked the sound of the job so I made the effort. 

At the end of the interview I was informed that I would be contacted the following week. 

By 15th February I still hadn't been contacted. 

While I appreciate I might not have been suitable, it would have been polite for their HR department to inform unsuccessful applicants to save them waiting and waiting. 

I emailed Parkwood on 15th February and was told that someone would get back to me...........six days later and still no response!

So, all in all I risked my life and spent a lot of money on fuel for nothing! 

Very unprofessional.......

Normally work is very busy, sometimes it gets hectic. I monitor and observe children's play and interact with them. Through working with children I have learned is being Creative. Coming up with new activities, keeping kids active, and encouraging them to step outside of their comfort zones to try new things.
Adaptability. When it comes to leading kids, you quickly learn that your best set plans are not always going to cut it. You learn to think on your feet and adapt your plans in order to keep things afloat.
Collaboration. Children think, learn, and interpret things differently than adults. In order to work with them, you have to adapt your perspective and see things from their point of view.

Most enjoyable part of the job is that I get to spent time with children and interact with them.

Worked here for 8 years. full time as a lifeguard. Over them 8 years enjoyed working with the public and most of my work colleagues. But management is very poor. Always Short on staff 9 times out of 10 they will not try to get cover. Which then us lifeguard will be left on poolside for 2hours+ This happened a lot!. Always say they are busy to avoid coming on poolside to give you a rotation. If you go the extra mile helping out will soon be forgotten. Management I worked with always tried to get one over you to have a dig at you. One management would sit in the office just watching the cctv on poolside waiting for a mistake from one of us to have a go at that individual. Always putting you down never building  you up. Pay here is also very poor minimum wage 

Set up the party room, introduce myself to the party child and quests and take them to the soft play area or swimming pool (whichever type of party they are having). Play with the children and provide refreshments and at the end of their play time escort them to the party room for either hot food provided by us or cold food provided by the parent.  Sometimes I am required to cook the food.

I have learnt how to cook for large numbers of people, how to run a party to a schedule.  Management have made me party leader and camp adventure leader because I am excellent with dealing with the customers and getting the jobs done on time.

The most enjoyable part of the job is the interaction with the customers and hoping that they leave with a good memory.

Parkwood are a big company in leisure with over 80 Leisure centres and a couple of Theatres and quite a few golf courses across the country.

A typical day at work is basically making sure the centre is a safe, clean environment for customers to enjoy but also making sure it is a comfortable and safe place for the staff to work in. So that the staff enjoy working, but also for the customers to keep coming back to enjoy the facilities that we provide.

The centre I work in has a good management team which I am involved in and we work hard to make the centre a success. That is all staff in every department. The hardest part of the job is keeping every customer happy, but if you do this right it can be the most rewarding and enjoyable part of the job.

Worked for over 3 years and it is painfully slow to gain any motivation or traction with improving quality of working conditions, environment or experience. The focus is sales, memberships and zero investment or upskilling, unless you are a manager. They make you jump through hoops just to get a new class going and in the vale of glamorgan, they refuse to allow PT qualified employees to do any personal training. 

Only benefit is a contract to sustain paid hours, where you mainly clean and baby sit a gym. They are introducing memberships for children soon. The sick pay is dire, essential you have your income halved for one month then nothing at all. Also, annual leave is a nightmare to organise due to lack of effective, competent management.

The pay is awful, and the specific place that I worked infringed many rights such as being left on poolside 6 hours without a break multiple times, staff room was poorly facilitated, management was poor and lazy and discipline was taken too far.

The use of the free gym was nice, and meeting members of the disabled swimming club was interesting and there were many nice workers however the pay and management was not very good at all and enough to over ride the positives.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Duty manager 2 salaries reported	£27,416 per year
Swim instructor 9 salaries reported	£20.32 per hour
Swim school manager 2 salaries reported	£26,750 per year
Center manager 2 salaries reported	£36,750 per year
Contract manager 5 salaries reported	£37,500 per year

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