Paul Sadler Swimland uses Prosper to run bi-annual engagement surveys, monthly pulse checks, automated onboarding and exit surveys, career development plans and company-wide recognition across 16 swim schools in Australia and Vietnam — sustaining a culture that has kept the franchise growing since 1972.
The organisation
Paul Sadler Swimland has been teaching Australians to swim since 1972. What began as a single swim school has become a multi-unit franchise network of 16 locations across Australia and Vietnam, delivering learn-to-swim programs to thousands of children and adults each week.
Its longevity is unusual in an industry that turns over staff quickly. Swim teaching attracts a young, largely casual workforce — students, part-timers and people early in their careers — working across water in shifts that rarely align with a desk or an inbox. Consistency of service across sixteen sites, in two countries, depends entirely on the people delivering it.
Franchise networks add a further layer. Each location operates with real autonomy, which is a strength commercially and a challenge culturally: how do you keep sixteen independently run businesses feeling like one organisation, with one set of values?
The challenge
The aquatic sector has a well-documented retention problem. According to the National Aquatic Industry Workforce Report 2023, more than a third of workers in the sector consider leaving their roles within a year.
For a learn-to-swim business, that turnover carries a cost beyond recruitment. Swim teaching is a skilled role requiring qualification, supervision and time on deck before a teacher is genuinely capable. Families build relationships with individual teachers, and continuity is part of the product. Losing an experienced teacher costs more than the cost of replacing them.
Paul Sadler Swimland wanted three things: a reliable way to hear from staff across every location, a visible career path that gave teachers a reason to stay and grow, and a way to make recognition consistent rather than dependent on which manager happened to be on deck.
The solution
Paul Sadler Swimland runs six Prosper modules across the network, each addressing a different part of the employee lifecycle.
Engagement surveys and monthly pulses
Bi-annual engagement surveys run across the whole network, supplemented by monthly pulse surveys tailored to the specific focus areas of each franchise location. Because each site can target its own questions, a location working on rostering communication asks about rostering, while another working on training asks about training.
Responses are anonymous, which matters in small teams where people are easily identifiable. Staff give candid input on operational processes, and that input feeds directly into how the business improves.
Automated onboarding surveys
New starter surveys trigger automatically rather than depending on a manager remembering. This gives the network a consistent read on whether induction is landing the same way at every location — and surfaces problems in the first weeks, when they are still fixable.
Automated exit surveys
Exit surveys also trigger automatically on every departure. Read individually, exit feedback is anecdotal. Read together across sixteen locations, it reveals patterns — which roles leave earliest, which sites retain best, and what is consistently cited as the reason for leaving.
Career development and one-to-ones
Paul Sadler Swimland offers genuine progression: swim teachers can advance to Location Manager and on to Operations Leader. Those career development plans are tracked in Prosper alongside the organisation’s training programs, and reviewed in one-to-one meetings and regular check-ins.
This is the difference between a career path existing on paper and existing in practice. A teacher can see where they are, what the next step requires, and when they last discussed it with their manager.
Recognition linked to company values
Company-wide Kudos lets staff and managers recognise each other, with every piece of recognition linked to one of Paul Sadler Swimland’s values. Leaderboards and reporting show leaders who is being recognised, for what, and how those behaviours map to the culture the business wants.
In a network where great work happens on a pool deck at seven in the morning, recognition that is visible across the whole organisation does something a quiet word cannot.
Reporting across the network
Engagement, recognition and lifecycle data are visible at network level and location level. Leaders can see which sites are thriving and share what those locations are doing, rather than guessing.
The results
Staff feel heard, and the data shows it. Feedback from surveys actively shapes strategy, and Paul Sadler Swimland has recorded year-over-year increases in engagement scores across the network.
Leaders spend less time administering and more time leading. Automating onboarding and exit surveys removed manual process from managers, freeing them for the higher-value work of developing their teams.
A leadership pipeline reduces recruitment cost. Developing Location Managers and Operations Leaders internally has reduced recruitment expense while protecting business continuity — a meaningful advantage in a sector where a third of workers consider leaving each year.
Recognition has lifted morale. Personalised recognition tied to company values motivates performance and reinforces the culture across all sixteen locations.
Customer experience follows. Engaged teachers deliver better lessons, and consistently high customer satisfaction has strengthened the brand and supported continued franchise growth.
What made the difference
Location-level tailoring. Allowing each franchise to target its own pulse survey questions meant the surveys asked about things staff at that location actually cared about — which is why they get answered.
Automation over intention. Onboarding and exit surveys that trigger themselves happen every time. Ones that depend on a manager remembering happen sometimes.
A career path that is visible. Progression from swim teacher to Location Manager to Operations Leader is documented, tracked and discussed — not implied.
Recognition tied to values. Linking every piece of recognition to a company value turns a nice gesture into a cultural signal, and makes the culture measurable.
Frequently asked questions
Through a visible career path from swim teacher to Location Manager to Operations Leader, tracked in Prosper alongside training programs and reviewed in regular one-to-one meetings, combined with company-wide recognition tied to their values.
The National Aquatic Industry Workforce Report 2023 found that more than a third of workers in the sector consider leaving their roles within a year — making retention a defining challenge for swim schools and aquatic centres.
Paul Sadler Swimland runs bi-annual engagement surveys network-wide, plus monthly pulse surveys that each franchise location tailors to its own focus areas. Responses are anonymous, which matters in small teams where individuals are easily identifiable.
Through a mobile app staff access on their own phone. Swim teaching is a largely casual, shift-based workforce that rarely has a company email address or a desk, so anything requiring corporate credentials reaches very few of them.
Surveys that trigger automatically when someone joins or leaves, rather than depending on a manager remembering. This gives consistent data across every location and surfaces patterns in why people leave that individual conversations miss.
Every piece of recognition is linked to one of the organisation's values. Leaderboards and reporting then show leaders who is being recognised and for what, making it possible to see whether stated values match actual behaviour.