Member retention often focuses on the member experience, journey, and communications. But a significant contributing factor to the poor member retention in the fitness industry is poor staff retention.
By working on staff pathways, motivation and benefits, we
see more engaged staff, which has a direct positive effect on the member
experience. Put simply, if you improve your staff retention, you will also
improve member retention.
At GGFit, we spend a lot of time defining the member journey
with clubs, looking at key contact points and measures to maximise member
engagement. We’ve recently been working with clients on staff pathways to help
manage the process of recruiting and retaining good fitness instructors and
other key staff.
Your staff pathways need to be clearly defined and available
for new recruits to review before their interview. Including references to staff
pathway in your job advertisements will even help to get more, and better
applicants.
Examples of fitness instructor pathways could include group
exercise, exercise referral, personal training, and management. Each will come
with a timeline, training plan, skills matrix and support network. Staff could
focus on one or more concurrently, depending on aptitude or club requirements.
Discussing the staff pathways should be a key part of the interview, and could
even help with candidate selection or job acceptance. For example, you might
choose not to recruit a candidate if they want to follow the management route
when you already have 5 staff members on that pathway.
In summary, define your staff pathways, and get your new and
existing staff members onto them. This will enable you and your staff to
measure their progress and development, and discuss in performance reviews and
appraisals, leading to a more engaged team.
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