Recruiting great fitness staff is an important retention tool in the health and fitness sector. Tom Walker reports

One of the oft-repeated mantras for achieving successful recruitment is to have the “right person, in the right place, at the right time”. Useful advice, especially if it’s accompanied with further considerations. How cost-effective are your ways of finding staff, for example? What about the time spent on finding the right people? And have you got the best possible partners to work with, when searching for new staff?

Taking the time and effort to develop a recruiting process which continually looks for people with the right skills and motivation will not only find you the people – but could save a lot of time and money.

PLANNING FOR SUCCESS
Recruitment and the way it’s planned is essential to every industry. Getting recruitment right in a service industry such as the health and fitness sector is particularly important. Having the right staff is crucial to build a positive experience for your members. Engaging, motivational people can create a positive atmosphere in a club or studio, which is tangible from the very first moment a prospective new member steps inside your facility.

Having great fitness staff is also an important retention tool. According to retention expert Dr Melvyn Hillsdon, if fitness staff actively interact with members, they retain their membership longer than members who receive little interaction.

BUILDING A RESERVE
Finding good, loyal talent can be hard, so ask yourself: Have you made every effort to attract and encourage candidates to apply for your vacancies? Are you clear about your present and future requirements?
Also, at a time when digital record-keeping is getting increasingly important, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t create a talent pool of prospective candidates – acquired, for example, through previous applications – which enables the selection of the best candidates to suit your specific needs.

There’s no harm in doing some market research. Find out how much competitors pay for the same jobs you’re looking to fill – and the types of benefits they offer – to make sure you’re competitive.

HELP IS AT HAND
The Leisure Opportunities recruitment service is the UK’s leading career and recruitment service for the fitness industry. Using the latest technology, it distributes your jobs through printed magazines, websites, digital publications, social media and ezines – so they’re seen by great candidates. Importantly, as each platform is used by industry people to keep up with the latest news, your jobs will be seen by those who aren’t actively jobseeking.