Prove Your Campus Rec’s Impact with these 4 KPIs

Wednesday, May 12, 2021

For a campus and its community members, a rec facility and its programs support academic success, enable personal development, provide inclusion and belonging, and so much more. And to be sure that your rec facility can continue to drive that impact on campus and beyond, you need to closely track important success metrics.  

But, with so many metrics to track, which do you choose from? Every facility differs slightly, but tracking these four key performance indicators can better equip you to prove your center’s worth. Let’s dive in.  

Check-in Volume

Number of Member Check-ins

This figure can be calculated for students, faculty, alumni, and community members within a given time period. Monthly is a good place to start, because it will provide insight to help adapt your strategies as the year progresses. And over time, tracking monthly will provide deeper insight into seasonal fluctuations at your facility, and the impact of that seasonality on the rest of the year.

Student Body Penetration Rate

(Total Daily Visits ÷ On-Campus Student Population) ÷ 30 Days

One of the most helpful stats for your staff is to know what portion of the student body takes advantage of your facility, programs, and services.  

Of course, anyone sitting at the front desk for even a single day can get a sense of this number, but you need deeper insight than that. You need to calculate penetration rate.  

Since it’s common for universities to include a rec center membership for all full-time students, you won’t be able to calculate this number by dividing the number of student members by the student body size. You need to know who of those members is actually coming into the facility. To calculate this figure, take the total daily visits, divide it by the on-campus student population, and average it over 30 days.

Average Class and Program Registrations Per Member

Registrations ÷ Number of Members

Members who attend more classes tend to be more plugged into the facility. The more engaged your community is, the easier it is to prove your rec center's impact.

A study by NIRSA on the benefits of campus recreation found that 67% of students report that campus recreation programs influenced their decisions to continue attending their chosen college or university. Campus rec greatly contributes to the quality of life at a college or university, enough to give students a reason to reach graduation.  

If you run your class and program registrations through a campus rec management software, you can easily view reports on the number of participants for a given time period. That insight allows you to track trends and adjust your program offerings, schedule, and more to meet your community’s needs even more fully.  

Retention Rate

((End Count Members – New Members) ÷ Start Count) x 100

Retention is an important metric for your facility, especially retention of alumni, faculty and community memberships, because recurring revenue helps power your facility’s growth. Retention is typically calculated annually by dividing the number of members on the last day of the year by the number of the same group of members on the first day of the year, multiplying by 100 to convert to a percentage value. You can also easily calculate this rate quarterly for a more granular view. This metric is critical to your long-term success for one key reason.

High churn rate can shed light on any discrepancy between the experience an alumni, faculty or community member believed they signed on for, and the experience they’ve received since joining. Are you delivering on your promises? Is your pricing aligned with your offerings? Does your experience meet expectations? Poor retention rates are typically an indication that you need to answer these questions.  

Track Your KPIs and Power Your Campus Rec’s Impact with Rec Management Software

Looking at your data through new KPIs and different lenses provides a kaleidoscope of perspectives that can help illustrate a fuller picture of your facility’s success. Interested in seeing how a campus rec management software can help track these KPIs and power your campus rec’s impact? Get in touch to get started.  

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