Roe Valley Leisure Centre leisure services manager Barry Toorish has been named SkillsActive Northern Ireland Employer of the Year.
Recipients must be a SkillsActive member within the sport, health and fitness, playwork, outdoors or caravan sector who has shown exceptional leadership and employee support.
Barry has worked at the Roe Valley Leisure Centre for eight years and, a
ccording to the organisers, has a proven track record for investing in his staff and providing innovative opportunities for employees to improve their skills.
“I feel very humbled to be named SkillsActive Northern Ireland’s Employer of the Year. It is also, however, nice to be recognised. Quite often when you’re working hard and implementing new initiatives you’re not aware of the good job you are doing,” said Mr. Toorish.
As well as adopting the activepassport for his staff – a web-based tool for recording an employee’s skills and training – Barry sits on Limavady Borough Council’s Investing in People (IIP) working group and, for the past year, has also been working on a staff recognition pilot scheme for leisure services called Excellence in Action.
SkillsActive Northern Ireland manager, Siobhan Weir, says: “Barry is an employer that goes that extra mile to support the development of his staff. He has invested significantly in the activepassport, which should not only help to motivate his staff, but also give them an edge over their competitors when it comes to promotion or new job opportunities.
“Barry is a great ambassador for the sector and SkillsActive looks forward to continuing our working relationship with him.”
With more than 20 years experience in the leisure sector, Barry is an industry stalwart. Since starting his career as a recreation assistant at Omagh Leisure Complex back in 1982, Barry has “worked his way up the ladder”, developing a strong business ethos along the way.
“I constantly seek to improve what we do at the leisure centre, so naturally, we try and up skill as many people as possible,” said Mr. Toorish.
“The activepassport is a key part of our plans to put staff development at the heart of improving what we do and to continuously providing better services.
