Building High Performing Teams across Sports Organizations

The sports industry is undergoing rapid transformation, and with it, the role of Human Resources (HR) has evolved dramatically. Historically, HR within sports organizations focused on administrative duties—enforcing policies, managing compliance, delivering mandatory training, and conducting performance reviews. Today, HR must operate as a strategic partner, contributing to workforce planning, talent development, and organizational leadership.

A modern HR function works with talent—not for labor—and plays a vital role in shaping culture, fostering equality, supporting holistic employee development, and influencing long-term performance outcomes. This paper explores how leading sports organizations are modernizing HR practices to attract, develop, and retain high-performing talent.

Understanding the Unique Context of HR in Sports

HR teams in sports operate within a unique and often high-pressure environment. Several industry-specific challenges shape their approach:

• Volatile Workloads: The intense scheduling of games—often multiple per week—amplifies stress, exposes operational inefficiencies, and contributes to employee burnout and turnover (commonly >8%).

• Seasonality and Time Off: The cyclical nature of the sports calendar means rest periods are concentrated, leaving little flexibility throughout the year.

• Live Product Demands: Unlike traditional sectors, sports HR must support the “live product”—the games—while also managing traditional workplace needs.

• Limited Outcome Control: Team performance on the field can significantly influence organizational morale and perception, regardless of effort or capability.

• Leadership Gaps: Many tenured professionals in the sports industry lack formal leadership development, limiting their effectiveness as coaches or mentors for junior staff (see our paper Navigating the Compensation Landscape for more detail).

Recognizing these structural constraints is essential before embarking on HR transformation. At Alere Group, we’ve worked with HR departments to introduce initiatives designed to build more resilient, agile, and high-performing teams. Below are five key focus areas from that work.

1. Adopt a 360° View of Performance

Elite athletic performance has long benefited from holistic development models. However, this mindset is rarely extended to business or administrative staff. At Alere Group, we define high performance across five pillars: mental, behavioral, technical, tactical, and physical.

HR leaders should leverage their organizations’ performance infrastructure to support back-office staff in becoming holistically high-performing. Employees increasingly seek opportunities to grow both personally and professionally—meaning development programs must go beyond technical skills alone.

2. Invest in Management and Leadership Development

Despite long tenure, many staff members in sports organizations have not been trained to lead. This results in inconsistent management practices, reduced productivity, and poor team dynamics. Organizations must prioritize leadership training as a core investment—not a luxury.

Structured leadership development programs and quarterly seminars should become a standard part of performance plans for all current and aspiring leaders. This not only creates a pipeline of capable leaders but also strengthens culture, cohesion, and employee morale.

3. Clarify Leadership Expectations—Not Everyone Should Be a Manager

The assumption that tenure equals leadership readiness has hindered the sports industry for decades. HR must clearly define what good leadership looks like and set transparent criteria for promotion based on potential, not time served.

Everyone should be given opportunities to learn and grow—but not everyone should manage others. Clear standards, performance-based advancement, and thoughtful offboarding of those who do not align with values or performance expectations will elevate team culture. Accepting mediocrity for the sake of loyalty weakens the broader team.

4. Refresh Career and Capability Pathways Regularly

With rapid changes in technology, fan engagement, and data-driven operations, sports organizations must rethink role definitions and progression pathways more frequently. Many teams still rely on job descriptions created several years ago—often misaligned with today’s business needs.

HR departments should commit to reviewing and refreshing role definitions, skill expectations, and capability frameworks at least every two years. Skills in data, digital, analytics, and cross-functional collaboration are becoming critical, and outdated specs risk attracting or retaining the wrong talent.

5. Develop Leaders Who Are Also Teachers

Great leaders don’t just manage—they coach. A high-performing organization encourages leaders to spend at least 20% of their time developing their teams. HR should support managers in building these coaching capabilities.

One way to foster this mindset: encourage leaders to think of their department as a “school.” What curriculum would they teach? How would they measure learning? What support systems and feedback mechanisms would they implement? Embedding a learning culture creates long-term capability uplift across the organization.

Rethinking Performance Management: Raising the Floor

Building a high-performing team also means being prepared to address underperformance. Values misalignment, cultural toxicity, or consistent underdelivery—even in high-pressure environments—must be addressed with empathy, clarity, and structure. Not everyone will be a fit for the organization long-term, and that’s okay.

An honest, structured offboarding strategy—complemented by learning plans and performance improvement support—can prevent a small number of poor performers from dragging down the broader team. In a value-driven organization, raising the bar only works if you’re also raising the floor.

A Strategic Approach to HR Transformation

The five initiatives outlined here are not stand-alone tactics. Successful implementation requires:

• Comprehensive talent and capability assessments

• Organizational structure reviews

• Performance management recalibration

• Ongoing change management support

A deliberate, strategic approach will position HR as a vital enabler of performance across the entire organization.

One CEO once asked:

“What if we invest in our people and they leave?”

The answer:

“What if you don’t—and they stay?”

Modernizing the HR function is no longer optional—it is fundamental. At Alere Group, we partner with leading sports organizations to design and implement modern HR systems that elevate talent, drive performance, and build winning cultures—on and off the field.