Horizon Leisure Trust

Background

Horizon run a small number of leisure centres in Southern England, prioritising the health, wellbeing and fitness of their local communities.  In mid-2025, we were proud to support their work further by being selected to develop their management and leadership capability across all their sites.

None of the participants we began working with had undertaken previous management training, so it was vital that our programme introduced a consistent approach to their roles.

The participants were responsible for a wide range of departments – many of which were fast-paced & customer facing – meaning that we needed to deliver something that reflected the environments in which they worked and focused on providing highly practical skills that could be applied immediately.

Format

Given the participants’ demanding schedules, often working across multiple shifts, we agreed to design a programme that minimised disruption whilst still providing a strong learning experience.

We therefore settled upon four half day face to face sessions, complemented by our learning transfer platform – PROMOTE.  This combination provided an ideal mixture of classroom-based practice and discussion, with plenty of opportunities for self-directed learning and reflection.

In addition, we included a selection of catch-up sessions to ensure that anyone who unavoidably missed one would be supported properly.

Results

The participants successfully completed 83% of the tasks and activities on PROMOTE and more importantly they have documented numerous changes to their day to day management activity.

These include:

‘Since module 2, I have been doing 121’s once a month with my team, encouraging them to use this space as a safe space to voice anything that is on their mind. As well as reminding them that they can talk to me at any time’.  

‘When I came back from holiday they had done amazingly, and I made a point to telling them that. One team member who struggles a little with self-empowerment, had really stepped up and was very pleased with themselves when I told them what a great job they had done.’

‘Since I started this new role, I have encouraged my team to talk to me, so I can better support them and be the manager they deserve. This course has given me precisely the tools to help me be that manager for them. Teaching me that giving them a safe space to talk to me once a month in their one 2 ones, as well as encouraging them to talk to me at any time is beneficial for both of us.’ 

‘To maintain the initial spike in motivation, I will provide more challenging opportunities in their everyday work and create space for collaboration, ensuring we can achieve success together’.

Following on from our initial success, we have now delivered a second New Managers’ cohort as well as programme for more experienced managers, all of which will help embed consistency throughout Horizon Leisure.