Virtuagym recently conducted a survey amongst our clients worldwide, and one of the main things our clients have been struggling with this past year was attracting the right talent. In fact, some 10% of gym owners worldwide listed finding qualified personnel for their gyms and health clubs as one of their biggest struggles.
In the Netherlands, this number jumps to almost 20% of all gyms. This comes as no surprise, as job openings across virtually all sectors are now at an all-time high.
The job market is currently in favor of the jobseeker. Moreover, the health and fitness industry is still reeling from almost two years of shutdowns and other uncertainties. This means finding the right personnel to help you run your business smoothly is more important than ever before.
How to Hire a Great Gym Staff
If you’re wondering how to recruit personal trainers, read on. There is a science behind finding the right talent for your business, and it goes far beyond simply reading a resume and bringing a candidate in for an interview.
When it comes to gym staff hiring, we’ve identified three major steps to take in order to recruit the best personnel for your business. You need to be looking for the right fit.
- Outline the perfect candidate;
- Position your gym as the perfect place for your ideal candidate to work with employer branding;
- Meet them where they are.
Below we’ll outline each of these processes so that you can find the best talent for your health club. And these steps aren’t just for big gyms, either. Even if you are a personal trainer looking to expand your brand and hire a second trainer, this applies to you as well!
Building your brand with the right talent makes all the difference in the long run.
1. Identify Your Perfect Candidate
Knowing your ideal employee before you even begin collecting resumes will help you immensely in your search as it makes the entire process more effective and streamlined. Create a candidate persona by identifying the main skills, characteristics, and traits that your perfect candidate should possess.
Don’t be afraid to go into minute detail here! The better crafted this persona is, the better fit a candidate is likely to be within your business. Take into account the objective of culture fit- that a potential hire should fit in suitably well with the values, ethics, beliefs, and company culture of your business.
For gym staff hiring, you expect personnel to be valuable players on your team. But also fosters a positive work environment, as the aspect of culture fit highly influences your overall employee retention rate.
Building this persona and mapping out who you are as an organization also helps you to write a hyper-focused job description in order to increase applications and figure out the best channels with which to recruit your target hire.
2. Attract the Ideal Candidate with Employer Branding
Knowing who you are and who you are looking for is not in itself enough to recruit the best personal trainers for your gym. Now make sure the talent you are after is also attracted to you with employer branding.
Employer branding is essentially telling a story about who you are as an organization and a potential employer. It’s an illustration of what you stand for as a business and what it’s like to work for your gym. Strong, authentic employer branding is essential to attract the right talent.
When you develop this brand but also embody it on a day-to-day basis, the more likely that top talent will be attracted to you. Even if they aren’t currently looking for a new job.
Show your ideal hire that you are a desirable place to work. Tell a compelling story that authentically captures your unique company culture. Identify how you will present yourself as an organization and create content that reflects these ideals.
You can do this through web content, videos, or images shared on your social media channels, your own website, your branded app, etc.
3. Finding Talent
Now you know exactly who you are as well as who your ideal hire is. So you have to meet them where they are. This highly technological era has changed the way we search for new hires. Moreover, it has exponentially expanded the possibilities when it comes to recruiting gym staff and personal trainers.
There are a variety of channels you can use to start seeking out the right talent. Think about online options like social media (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc), job boards or your company website. But also utilize offline options such as local print or simply word of mouth.
Your community feature on the Virtuagym app can also be an effective space to post about your vacancies, as your customers might just be the best fit for your company that you’ve never considered!
All of these channels have their own strengths and weaknesses, and which ones you use will depend on your specific job listing and ideal candidate.
These 3 steps combined give you a great place to start your gym staff hiring. Take some time to go through these processes before beginning your search.
Map out your ideal client, craft your employer branding and plan your potential recruitment channels with exceptional attention to detail. You’ll be left with not only more potential candidates at the end of the day but more importantly, better candidates who are a true fit for your organization.
