Looking back at London 2012: recruitment, selection and training of Games Makers

The history of volunteer services for the Olympic and Paralympic Games is not new; it dates back to 1896 when 900 volunteers provided support for the Athens Games (Wei Na, 2009). The growing demands of the Games pressure Organising Committees to recruit and mobilise volunteers in increasingly large numbers, reaching 70,000 volunteers at the Olympic and Paralympic Games in London 2012. The London 2012 Games were referred to as the largest single mobilisation of a workforce in Britain since World War II. Volunteers were an indispensable part of this workforce. Their skills, enthusiasm and commitment helped afford an unforgettable experience for athletes, officials and spectators (Volunteering Strategy Group, 2006). However, large numbers of people involved in the Games also means an unprecedented scale of human resource operations and considerable managerial challenges.