July 2016 - Parks & Recreation - 57

park and recreation agencies use customer engagement tools that collect insights
shared by their customers and tap market research data resources to better understand the demographic trends of their
populace.
Park and recreation agencies also rely
on data collected by other departments
and agencies within their jurisdiction,
including public works (91 percent),
water utilities (86 percent), police/fire
(80 percent) and transportation (80 percent). At the same time, agencies are a
valuable resource for data that informs
decision-making for their jurisdiction.
Virtually all park and recreation agencies (98 percent) share key metrics with
their jurisdiction's administration (e.g.,
mayor, county executive). The most
widely cited consumers of park and
recreation agency data are police/fire
(91 percent), public works (84 percent),
planning (83 percent) and libraries (83
percent).
NRPA also is a valuable data resource
to park and recreation agencies. This includes the 2016 NRPA Field Report (powered by PRORAGIS), the NRPA Facility
Market Reports, the Economic Impact of Local Parks report and the Americans' BroadBased Support for Local Recreation and Park
Services report. Each of these resources
provide park and recreation professionals with valuable data that help them do
their job more effectively and efficiently
and/or help to make the case for greater
investment in park and recreation.
Dashboards
Regardless of the source, most park and
recreation agencies are analyzing the
data in-house, frequently by agency staff
that is closest to the programing being
studied. Close to nine out of 10 department/program managers perform analysis on their agency's data while more
than half of respondents indicate having
dedicated internal staff perform the anal

Park and Recreation Agencies' Use of Dashboards

Currently Maintains a
Dashboard

19%
40%
41%

Does Not Maintain a
Dashboard

Does Not Maintain a
Dashboard, But Plans to
Launch One Within the
Next Year

ysis. And, the data tool that performs
most of the analysis is the one most
likely on your computer: Excel or some
other spreadsheet, used by 98 percent of
park and recreation agencies.
The benefits of data and data analysis
are amplified when you are able to communicate key takeaways and insights in
a clear, easy-to-understand manner. A
number of park and recreation agencies
are accomplishing this task through the
use of dashboards, which can provide
the viewer with a quick glance of key
performance indicators or other closely
tracked metrics. Forty percent of agencies currently maintain a dashboard
that illustrates and communicates key
metrics to agency leadership, employees
and stakeholders. Another 19 percent of
agencies intend to establish a dashboard
within the next 12 months.
Many major stakeholders have access to these dashboards: internal stakeholders include agency leadership (95
percent), managers (86 percent) and
staff (67 percent); external stakeholders include the jurisdictional leadership
(52 percent) and the general public (29
percent). Regardless of who has access
to them, dashboards provide an opportunity for the agencies to hold themselves
accountable to major goals while also
celebrating significant successes.

Even with the increased use of data,
there are significant hurdles that park
and recreation agencies must overcome
in order to take greater advantage of data
analysis in their decision-making. Half
or more of responding park and recreation professionals indicate a lack of
time, analytical skill among agency staff
and/or resources to access data (e.g.,
software) as major challenges inhibiting
their agencies from taking greater advantage of data analysis. Twenty-seven
percent of them find the amount of data
available to be daunting and are unsure
where to start, while 25 percent say that
there is internal resistance to the use of
data for decision-making.
Today, many park and recreation
agencies are just scratching the surface
on where data can help with critical decision-making. As we look to the future,
NRPA will be developing new resources, including conference sessions and
webinars, to assist park and recreation
professionals in further embracing data.
And, the NRPA Research team will
conduct additional studies to generate
additional data that improves agency
performance and helps tell the park and
recreation story.
Kevin Roth, Ph.D., is NRPA's Vice President of
Research (kroth@nrpa.org).

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Parks & Recreation

July 2016 - Parks & Recreation

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