The fitness industry is quite crew-heavy. In fact, your fitness staffs determine how good your fitness club or gym is. With this article let’s understand about fitness staffing.
However, Fitness Staffing is a relatively easy prospect in the US market. There are 340000 certified trainers in the fitness industry.
Moreover, The ACSM produces personal trainers every year. An ACSM pass-out can work scientifically across any niche in US fitness staffing.
At the same time, other bodies train and certify fitness staff.
But our context is the volatility in the market.
There are 113326 gyms already. Hence, entrepreneurship is at its peak in this sector.
As a result, we find small health clubs and gyms all around. However, consolidated brand building is rare.
The root cause is the need for more talented and quality staff.
Above all, the well-certified trainers disrupt the market by opening smaller gyms, altering the average service charges, and providing equally efficient training.
So, this article focuses on clauses to retain Fitness Staffing in your gym.
Searching For the Ideal Staff
Fitness Staffing is incomplete without quality staff. If we can’t find dedicated candidates, you cannot prosper your brand in this sector.
However, the one-on-one interaction between staff and clients resonates with the credibility of your gym. So hire staff who understand the essence and purpose of your gym.
Here are some parameters to help your Fitness Staffing process:
| Passion for the Game | Have an instructor, guide, or mentor who has a good physique and feels the urge to make fitness a norm across the US society |
| Communication Surges Memberships | Gym instruments are only part of your fitness club. The PR skills of your trainer also matter. Have staff who motivate and inspire clients to achieve their daily fitness goals. Staff with good communication skills are ideal for the process. |
| Knowledge and Experience | You need staff who are NCCA or ACSM certified. Don’t nurture trainers who are all buzz with no output. |
If you follow these parameters, you will have a matching workforce. However, I can’t guarantee they will ever be loyal to your gym.
But they will work passionately, no doubt. And that would benefit your brand.
With a credible brand, employees would gain interest in your company. Read the Fitness Studio Business 101 Guide: A Complete Market Study on Fitness Studio Business for brand building.
A Hiring Scheme for Better Fitness Staffing
Now, we need a loyal workforce. We need employees who understand your gym’s purpose and want to grow with you.
The best way to do that is to build a famous brand. But that takes time. Read the tips on Fitness Studio Insurance Policies Your Business Needs for better brand building. In the meantime, the strategies that you may try are:
Create Ideal Profiles for Fitness Staffing
Check employees who were searching for the job you are offering. For example, recruit fresh ACSM graduates for a better personalized training for clients.
But don’t leave them in brackish waters.
Have a proper hierarchy of trainers. Create a stream of accountability within your organization.
Let’s check out what an ideal staffing profile would look like:
| The Head Coach for the gym |
| Department Heads (Lead instructors for machine gym, aerobics, Zumba, yoga, and other services you offer) |
| Session in charge of regular gym sessions |
| One-to-one trainers for each client |
Pro Tip: Have each staff line accountable to a senior head. And have a top-down yet highly flexible line of command. Also, set targets and achievement goals for your staff.
We need this structure and motive to keep the staff intrigued about their workplace. The bottom line is making employees feel they are growing professionally with their organization.
List the Job Deliverables Under JDs.
Be specific about what skills and competencies you are looking for.
A sample can be like this:
| Criteria of eligibility for the position of assistant trainer: • Certificate in physical exercise and human physiology (from NCCA or ACSM) • Proven ability to motivate and inspire clients • Personal achievements at par with the job description (any) • Detailed knowledge of gym instruments, fitness techniques, and modern machines |
Also, have targets and job responsibilities relevant to your staff’s skills.
Recruit Staff from Multiple Sources
I suggest online job boards for small gyms that don’t have a havoc marketing and promotions fund.
You can register with online job boards for free or with a minimum subscription fee.
I recently checked a listing on Pich N Hire. It says applicant tracking systems of most online job boards make it easier to search for candidates.
Secondly, improve your career page and your website. Meanwhile, inspire candidates with your philosophy and ideals on fitness. Match their vibe and get them onboard.
Let’s take an example:
Suppose you are recruiting a head of the machine gym domain. You may start searching for candidates by scrolling through the profiles of fitness bloggers and checking local fitness forums.
You may spread the word through social media posts, too. That’s free and targets a wide range of audience, too. You may use the employee referrals technique, too.
Discuss the Compensation and Incentives
Discuss factors like base salary, additional components, and pay-per-work elements. You can’t retain staff if you don’t offer high perks and growth opportunities.
Pro Tip: For better fitness staffing, you may offer paid training, certification, and other growth opportunities to employees. You can also send your capable staff to represent your organization in shows and events. Show them that the job is a win-win for both sides.
Strategies to Retain Your Staff
As we saw, the main issue in the US fitness industry is staff retention. So, try these retaining strategies if you are also going through the same problem in your gym.
Understand Why Employees in this Sector Leave:
There are several reasons why employees may leave your gym. If you know the reasons, you may prevent workforce attrition.
Here are the top reasons why fitness staff leave their job in the US:
- Get a better salary elsewhere
- Get clients quickly and a chance to entrepreneurship
- Get bored of the job role/no chance of future growth
- The job role is highly demanding
- Poor or no work-life balance, leading to stress
Now, I will discuss some steps to overcome these problems.
Always Have Open Communication
I recommend regular or weekly 1-2-1 meetings with employees to discuss, share, and explore new ideas. You may also urge the reporting heads to distribute workloads and avoid burdening employees evenly.
Create a Scope of Career Development for Employees
Arrange training courses, affiliations, and other such ventures for employees.
These ventures will help your employees to serve the clients better.
It will also motivate employees to be more loyal.
Give Competitive Salaries to Employees
Update your salary structure to match industry standards if you can. You must keep your staff’s interests upfront to create a loyal workforce.
It is one of the imperatives of Fitness Staffing.
Greys Gym in Clinton Hill is a living example of this model. The Fitness Studio Franchise model can also be suitable for recruiting skilled employees.
It saves your effort in searching for credible candidates. To learn more, you may read about Fitness Studio Franchise: How To Set Up Yours.
You can focus more on employee skill gaps and upgrades through this model.
Median Salaries You Can Offer
One of the main factors impacting staff loyalty is the median salaries spent for Fitness Staffing in the US.
An ideal salary structure would look like this:
| Positions | Median Salary Per Month |
|---|---|
| Gym operations manager | $6300 (approx) |
| Group fitness | $3260 |
| Certified personal trainer | $3789 |
| Front desk representative | $2570 (approx) |
Pro Tip: The salary paid should be proportional to the workload. To be transparent, you may offer itemized pay statements to employees.
Helping employees with other benefits like allowances, medical insurance, etc, also increases employee loyalty.
Key Takeaways
Opening a new gym is no big deal. However, you can only grow it as a brand with proper Fitness Staffing strategies.
Our research showed that the fitness industry’s staffing is quite volatile. A high level of turnover and attrition marked the sector. So, the curated strategies for better Fitness Staffing may help.
Above all, pay adequate salaries to employees. It will keep them involved and motivated.
At the same time, you should take care of the team’s composition. I created a hierarchical sequence to keep employees motivated and accountable. You may follow the same procedure to reduce turnover.
The Bottom Line
Good HR policies should be followed up with intelligent recruitment techniques for fitness staffing. To begin with, attract those who are best fit for your company. After that, be transparent about compensation and deliverables to employees.
Therefore, try building a good brand.
If you need more tips on Fitness Staffing, comment your specific queries below.
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