UM Sports Officials Recruitment and Retention Questions

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One of the key insights from the observational research was that fans and many parents take the presence of the official for granted and assume the person is there to make calls against their team or child. Fans tend to expect perfection and for calls to go for their team. Fans do not empathize with officials, meaning they do not see the world from the perspective of someone making sacrifices to be able to work the game, receiving minimal compensation, facing verbal threats and poor behavior from fans and coaches. Fans do not typically consider the sacrifices that sports officials make to be able to referee the game, nor are they aware of the precariously dwindling number of officials that could put the games at risk of not being played. In a survey of 750 central Indiana residents in the Indy Sports Poll, the Indiana University–Purdue University Sports Innovation Institute found that: (a) Only 35% of residents believed there is a shortage of licensed sports officials. (b) Only 51% of residents would stand and cheer for officials if prompted to by public address at the start of a sporting event. (c) Only 53% would be willing to say “thank you” to an official after a sporting event. (d) Only 39% would ask others to tone down their verbal attacks against sports officials. 

Q1 : How might we change people’s perception of the official from the villain to the hero?

Access and Awareness:

Thinking differently and innovatively on the recruitment side of the equation presents many opportunities for creativity. One insight cultivated from the interview phase was the wide variety of ways that sports officials learned about officiating opportunities. While the love of sports is their top motive (NASO, 2017; Officially Human, 2019), the only consistent theme in the story of their initial interest in sports officiating is the recommendation from someone else that they would make a good official. This theme is backed up by the NASO (2017) survey results that indicated the most common way officials are recruited is by someone else (i.e., family, friend, coach, administrator, official). While a word-of-mouth recommendation is a necessary recruitment avenue for officials, it relies on the randomness of people talking to people. A more structured recruiting and onboarding philosophy could eliminate the randomness with which people are introduced to officiating as a job or career. 

Q2. How might we create opportunities for people to become interested in officiating?

Q3. How might we ensure every child has a chance to try officiating?

Another element to consider is how officiating teaches transferable business and life skills to those in its ranks. Officiating teaches conflict resolution, confidence in decision making, taking charge in difficult environments, leadership, and consensus building. It is a great outlet for those who want to challenge themselves, compete, improve their skills, create friendships forged in the heat of competition, and stay connected to the sports they love. There are character traits and mindsets that are cultivated in the process of officiating that are difficult to replicate in other contexts. Students in the class were captivated by the story of a well-known National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball official who cut his teeth officiating as a high school student officiating games just 2 years older than the athletes. He used the money and skill set cultivated by officiating to attend college, which seemed unlikely growing up in his working-class neighborhood. 

Q4: How might we use officiating to give children workforce-ready skills and opportunities to make money?