Do you know Fitness Industry has the highest Employee Turnover? Strategies to minimize the loss of top-talent.
Yves Preissler
Global Fitness, Wellness & Recovery Consultant | Turn Key & Modular Business Solutions
How many of us suffer from the syndrome: I can do everything, no one can do it better than myself! If I do it myself, I know it’s done right.
Delegating tasks, functions and projects is an everyday struggle for many, however, at any fitness facility regardless the size, it’s not the latest equipment, the fancy juice bar, or the "instamagrable"changing rooms which guarantee your success, but your most important asset: YOUR TEAM.
Your Team are the first ones to welcome and serve your members by inspiring, motivating and making them accountable for their fitness & life style goals (we assume you have systems in place to determine the same for your members? – a subject for another article). Fitness is not enough incentive itself, why? It is painful, it needs consistency, hard work, you will get sweaty, dirty, you name it… that's why only 30% of the average population in each country practices any sort of physical activity, including going to a gym. Your gym?
"Coaches and a hospitality costumer service approach are your main tools to guarantee retention and the success of your business"
While it is true that fitness is a fun field to work in and most of the professionals involved are passionate to help others, they also need a purpose, recognition and a career path to growth within your organization.
These are our strategies to identify and keep the best of your team members:
- Hire them on time: there's no worst situation than be hired to fight fired, do not overload your team to take the work load of two people, or let them guess what is their role in the organization (job description?). Do not wait until relationships break or the remaining team is too overwhelmed to react.
- On Boarding Process: give your team the tools for success, the resources, your vision and values of the company, and everything that is in your hands to let them be autonomous. Your team will feel highly appreciated by having the space to perform their job by knowing exactly what are the expectations and goals to achieve. Hire smart people and let them do the job.
- Inspire and Motivate: let them come to you with new ideas and strategies to increase retention, or boost the client experience. Remember also to reward them for those recommendations; monetary rewards are not the only incentive, extra time off, goodies from vendors, education, public recognitions are some examples.
- Do/Deliver what you promise: honesty is one of the main pillars of any functioning relationship. Your team will be always accountable, if they received what is agreed from the beginning and you stick to your word.
Most of the gym owners get "busy" doing, managing, emailing etc. that they neglect their teams. Take time to nurture and grow them – they are an integral part of your business.
Lastly do not expect your team to work as hard as you – the owner of the business. Or are you willing to transfer 50% of the shares to them?
To hire top talent contact us via: [email protected]
After decades of "doing-it-wrong" with our primary asset, our members, we still, as a community, do it wrong with our other asset, our employees. But I have faith>>>>we will get it right because we do have many Operators who do a great job with both business assets. Thank You Yves for keeping this critical issue up front.
What got you here, won’t get you there…
5 年People join organisations and leave leaders... And what culture has the leadership created? Just like members don’t leave where they have their needs met, you have to ask how you are meeting the needs of your team members. Needs as in Maslows Heirarchy or Human Needs by Tony Robbins. The highest needs being growth and contribution as referred to in the article above.
Fitness & Wellness Expert | Digital Transformation | Business Strategy
5 年Great article! You are very much on point. And yes, the employee churn rate in the fitness industry is very alarming. In my opinion and from my experience, I believe a well managed on-boarding process is probably the most critical to stemming the tide of employee turnover in the fitness industry. You see, you never get a second chance at a bad first impression. Most fitness companies don't even have an onbarding plan in place. I work in the middle east and I've seen how wrong things can go when companies miss this critical step. Employee morale goes down, trust is lost, job satisfaction becomes elusive, intention to quit is triggered/new job search commences. The second most critical factor will be career progression. Employees like to know they're headed somewhere in their career but what we find in the fitness industry is that you can be on the gym floor as a PT for 10 years and get no promotion whatsoever while being responsible for your continuing education. This leads to a loss of job satisfaction and in worse cases, a loss of purpose in the affected employees. Companies should have a solid CPD program in place, design clear and attainable KPIs and chart a clear organizational progression path for high performers.
FITNESS AND BUSINESS NETWORKING. #Trainer #Coach #Netwoking #Event.
5 年Hire smart people and let them do the job I love this ??. A great team is constantly reliable day in and day out, not just some of the time. You can count on them to get the job done, meet deadlines, keep their word and provide consistent quality work.