What the Holidays Mean for Fitness Clubs

With the holiday season just around the corner, it’s not too long before people begin to make their New Year’s resolutions. After enjoying all the holiday food and sweets, most people are likely to make a resolution to get into physical shape in the new year. According to the International Health, Racquet, and Sportsclub Association (IHRSA), more than 12 percent of gym members join in January, compared to an average of 8.3 percent per month during the rest of the year. It’s the perfect time for fitness clubs to begin gearing up for influx of people likely to enroll in their gyms in the new year.

Employees and Your Fitness Club’s Brand

While many people are likely to sign up for new gym memberships the first month of the year, it is the fitness clubs’ job to keep them coming back. This is why hiring the right fitness employees is so important for gyms. If new club members are not actively engaged by your staff, then they will likely unenroll as suddenly as they signed up. Fitness club employees represent your brand, so it’s important that the right processes are in place to begin to attract the right people.

Preparing For the New Year Membership Influx

To begin the recruiting process for the holiday season, fitness hiring managers should start by identifying the type of people they are looking for along with the qualifications required.  The ideal person may differ across positions you need to fill. For example, you may want someone who has previous experience at a gym and has specific certifications to fill a personal trainer position, but for a member services representative, you may be searching for someone who has previous customer service experience and who has flexible availability.

Your current fitness club patrons are a great group to start your recruiting search. It’s likely that your active gym members are already familiar with your fitness brand and knowledgeable about how to use the gym equipment in. They could be great brand ambassadors for your fitness club.  

Once you’ve identified who the ideal candidate should be for different positions, you should create clear-cut job descriptions that can be posted onto job boards. To ensure managers only spend time on candidates who are qualified, pre-screen questions can be used to filter out any applicants who don’t meet the position’s requirements. Pre-screen questions can also be used to gain plenty of insights before conducting an in-person interview with a candidate. For example, if you are trying to fill a personal trainer position, you may want to know more details about the candidate’s experience and level of education. How many years of experience do they have as a personal trainer? Are they CPR/AED certified? Are they a certified ASE personal trainer? By only evaluating candidates who are qualified for the job, using pre-screen questions can save fitness hiring managers valuable time.

Identifying candidates with the right mentality to work at a fitness club is also crucial to member engagement and retention. Sending candidates assessments can facilitate hiring decisions based on soft skills. A personality assessment is designed to measure certain competencies that can be important predictors of successful job performance. Fitness hiring managers can test for competencies such as service orientation, achievement striving, and optimism, or any other traits that would be most beneficial to have given the nature of the work. Personality assessments allow managers to see beyond a candidate’s resume and basic qualifications and gain more insight into whether a person would be the right fit for the fitness club.

CareerPlug is Here to Help With Your Holiday Hiring Needs

CareerPlug works with over 4,000 fitness clubs to hire top quality fitness candidates. CareerPlug Makes Hiring Easier by helping fitness clubs hire top talent and ultimately grow their business. To learn more about how CareerPlug can help you turn your fitness center into a talent magnet, try a free demo today!

To learn more about the approach we take to hiring, download our free ebook, How to Build a Talent Magnet.