Gym staff is an essential part of a gym business and hiring the right people is extremely important. The first interaction your members will have is with your staff and their attitude and professionalism can make or break your business.
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Before hiring staff for your gym, you need to evaluate whether your candidates have the right attitude for your gym or not. You should look for the following basic traits:
Fitness is achieved with passion and dedication. You need to check whether the candidate loves to stay fit and if they are fit or not. If you hire a person who is not fit or does not have passion or dedication for fitness it may hinder your business in the long run.
Your members might complain about the trainer not properly guiding them or lacking in many areas and in turn you might lose your members. The reason for it can be the lack of dedication which can make the members feel less motivated in exercising and staying fit.
As discussed before, the basic skill your staff members should have is to communicate with your members. As your staff will be directly interacting with your members, having great communication skills is necessary, so that your members don’t have to face any sort of issues.
Other than communicating your gym staff should have great listening skills as well. Your gym staff can only solve the problem of your members when they listen to what their problems might be.
Your gym staff should have a pleasant persona as they are the ones your members will be interacting with. If your staff members have a bad attitude it will affect your members' perception of your gym. Having a welcoming personality increases the overall productivity of your members.
A welcoming and pleasant personality also lets your employees connect with your members. This creates a great atmosphere for your members. Hence it is a very important trait your staff members should have.
Having knowledge about different exercises, the equipment and how it will be used, and a nutritional diet and how it affects the body is necessary. You need to check whether the candidate you are hiring is academically certified to be in a position or not. This way you can have the best individual for your gym.
Talking about gym roles you need to consider three major things:
The first depends directly on the departments and size of your gym. Costs are dependent on the seniority and technical expertise of the staff you're hiring. Time is dependent on your hiring process and how many people you have, to assist in all the functions including planning, recruitment, and employee selection.
Following are key areas and positions your gym may have to fill:
Management
If you have a smaller gym and can manage your operations and set your marketing goals yourself. You may not necessarily have to hire an operations manager or a marketing manager. You need to consider your costs and how much you can and want to spend on staffing.
The main role of the marketing manager will be to promote your gym and provide your members with solutions in the form of membership plans and offers. You should hire a marketing manager who is creative, and enthusiastic and knows how to grow your business and increase membership sales.
An operations manager is responsible for managing the overall operations of the gym which includes managing staff, maintaining the equipment, and managing and maintaining the facility. An operations manager handles any issue that may arise at the facility with relative ease and should have should know the basics of customer service.
The sales manager will be in charge of managing and increasing the membership sales as well as motivating your staff so that they can perform as per your members’ expectations. Your sales manager should be compassionate because making an attractive sales offer requires you to see the members as humans with needs rather than just numbers who will increase the revenue.
Gym Floor
The first person anyone will notice when they enter is the receptionist. A person who is welcoming and helpful towards people is preferred. As the first impression is the last, when the receptionist gives off a warm vibe members will be eager to join in. The receptionist needs to have excellent communication skills, can easily multitask, and should have interpersonal skills.
A personal trainer provides training to your members who require one-on-one training. It could be either that those members require extra training or that they prefer getting training separately. You need to hire a certified trainer, especially someone with good knowledge about the fitness industry and who also knows some basic knowledge about food and nutrition.
A nutritionist/dietitian is someone who can provide your members with nutritional diet plans and who can help them achieve their fitness goals. A nutritionist/dietitian shows your members that you are providing extra service for helping them out in achieving their goals. You need to make sure that your nutritionist is certified and has relevant experience in the field.
As you will be conducting group training and sessions you will require at least 1-3 group trainers who will be providing group training to your members. You need to look for group trainers who have a very enthusiastic and energetic personality as they would be handling groups of people and would need the energy to motivate members.
Maintenance
Maintenance and cleaning staff are necessary as maintaining cleanliness and sanitizing a gym is important. Gyms are a place where people work out and sweat a lot and sweating can cause germs and bacteria to affect your members if not cleaned properly. You need to hire people who have the basic know-how about cleaning supplies and how to effectively clean equipment.
A technician becomes necessary for your gym if any issue arises with your gym equipment. They can help in troubleshooting and fixing the issue that you might be having with your equipment. You should hire someone who knows how to handle equipment and has relevant experience in the field.
| Staff Position | Monthly Salary | Annual Salary |
| Operations Manager | $5,416 | $65,000 |
| Marketing Manager | $4,074 | $48,892 |
| Sales Manager | $3,980 | $47,760 |
| Receptionist | $2,738 | $32,859 |
| Personal trainer | $3,500 | $42,000 |
| Nutritionist/dietitian | $3,686 | $44,231 |
| Group trainer | $3,333 | $40,000 |
| Cleaning and maintenance staff | $2,375 | $28,499 |
| Technician | $2,541 | $30,499 |
The salaries may vary depending on how much you can pay your employees, but remember that salary greatly affect employee retention rate. You can read more about how you can retain your employees in our previous article.
Now the last step is whether you need to hire staff before opening your gym or after you have opened it. If you have a large-sized gym, it would be better to hire staff before you open your gym. You need to start your hiring process almost 6-8 weeks before opening your gym so that you can hire them and train them for at least 1-2 weeks before your gym's opening.
Supposedly you opened your gym and are managing the day-to-day activities yourself, the best option for you is to hire staff according to the needs of your gym. This way you can keep low costs of your gym initially. It’s best to hire staff when you feel that you are not finding time for other activities at your gym so that you can divide the activities easily among your staff members.
As your gym grows you will see the need of hiring staff members for different operations of your gym. You need to keep in mind the factors discussed in this blog while hiring staff for your gym.
Your team and their effectiveness will determine whether your business will succeed or not. Thus you should be on the hunt for the best candidates.