This is how employee retention succeeds even in times of crisis

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Working in a gym has always been under special conditions. Initially dismissed as a hobby, then a job for enthusiasts, at least the quality segment of the industry has continued to evolve into a professional service provider, with all its advantages and disadvantages for the employee.


The key points in a nutshell:

  • There are four forms of employee retention: perspective, normative, emotional and rational.
  • Communicating goals and values, transparency and appreciation are an important part of employee retention.
  • Gyms should make better use of their potential as an attractive employer and show new, young employees how meaningful the job can be.
  • With qualified and motivated employees, it is possible to justify high-priced memberships in particular and to bind customers to the studio.




Due to the fundamental shortage of labor in almost all industries, the corona crisis and constantly rising inflation, it is becoming increasingly difficult in the service industry and thus also in the fitness industry to find good employees and to keep them. That's why recently many companies in the quality segment are also relying on a high degree of automation, either to save costs and/or to be able to cover the required working hours in the first place.


This may work in the low-budget sector, but whether it is the right approach for premium facilities is questionable. After all, McDonalds has long relied on large displays to take orders and process payments, and it does away with any kind of personalization or customization. But when visiting a high-end restaurant, the customer expects to be greeted and shown to their seat, to have a nice and competent waiter explain the daily specials, and to recommend the right wine to go with the chosen dish.


In the fitness club, the situation is aggravated by the fact that customers usually do not reach their set goal, so the result is missing. As a substitute, customer loyalty can often only be achieved through experiences. But for both, you need experienced, qualified and highly motivated employees. Consequently, at least the quality segment will have to think about how to justify higher prices.


Forms of employee retention can be perspective, normative, emotional and rational retention.


Perspective retention

Perspective retention, i.e. the possibility of career advancement, further training and the assumption of responsibility, may initially appear difficult due to the usually flat hierarchies within a fitness center.


However, it already starts here with the trainee or student. Young people notice very quickly through their networking and, at the latest, through exchanges with other colleagues at school or university, whether they were merely hired as cheap labor in the training company and are expected to keep the counter and equipment area clean for the first few months or even years, or whether they are quickly prepared for other work areas and fields of application in their club right from the start through a well-structured induction and additional training measures beyond the vocational school.


This advance training quickly makes it clear to the young fresh employee that it is important to the company to retain and take on trainees beyond the mere apprenticeship period.




The degree of automation in a club now emerges another time. Because although, for example, fully electronic training solutions, virtual and digital offers have their absolute sense and justification, one must think about what is offered beyond that to the customer as individualized solutions by well-qualified employees.


In the long run, no specialist will want to fill 50% or more of his or her working time with the same, dull tasks over and over again. Because only if high-quality and individualized services complement the offering does further and more in-depth training make sense.


Normative commitment

Normative commitment means that the company and the entire team, and thus each individual employee, work with common goals and values. The mutual added value must be recognizable and the company needs a clear vision for the future.


Quite apart from the fact that the points mentioned are elementarily important for the economic success of a company, many entrepreneurs work constantly with their employees in the company, but not on the company. A corporate vision with the goals and values derived from it must first exist and be worked out in the first place.


But so that it does not then disappear on a piece of paper in the filing cabinet, it must be supported by as many employees as possible. This is achieved by involving many, or preferably all, employees in the design process. This involvement increases identification and loyalty to the company.


Now the goals and values must become a regular part of communication. Starting in the hiring process, because this way everyone knows from the beginning what they are getting into with this job and whether they want to become a long-term part of the system. In ongoing meetings, vision, goals and values need to be talked about again and again, on the one hand to get everyone who was not directly involved in the design on board. On the other hand, to keep reminding all team members of what they have worked out together.


The company now has a clearly communicated compass that guides all actions and also all decisions. The management of the company can thus be influenced to a certain extent by everyone and, in any case, is always clearly comprehensible.


Emotional bond

In the world of work, as in many other areas of life, the emotional bond is much more pronounced and important than the rational bond. Do I feel my work is meaningful, do I receive appreciation for it, and is there a good relationship with colleagues, with managers, with the boss?


This is where the fitness club could easily score as an employer, and yet opportunities and chances are often not taken advantage of. After all, many young people start training in a fitness club out of enthusiasm and passion, only to find out in frustration after a short time that they have to instruct new customers day after day on standardized equipment systems and often never meet the customers a second time.




Once again, it must be emphasized that standardized solutions can be quite a useful addition or an easy training introduction for customers. But there are of course numerous members who want to try out and use highly individualized variants on top of that.


Members usually fail not because of the wrong training or training system, but because of a lack of stimulus and regularity in training. The latter two factors for successful training can only be provided by an employee. This opportunity must be given to the customer and the employee. Members become successful through supervised group training, group fitness, workshops, personal training, rehabilitation sports and prevention courses.


For motivated and experienced trainers, meaningfulness now sets in because they can finally accompany members on the path to training success. Due appreciation is now a logical and unavoidable consequence. Successful customers talk about it, recommend their club and their trainer.


In addition to customer appreciation, however, small tokens of appreciation from the employer are just as crucial for employees. Praise talks, cordial gifts, regular team events or Christmas parties that go beyond a boring dinner and have a real incentive character. Above all, big successes need to be celebrated, but so do small ones.


Rational commitment

Many of the issues already touched on automatically lead to the rational retention of an employee. After all, if the employer makes use of all retention options, it is no longer a problem to offer flexible working time models, transparent bonus systems and company pension plans.


The 40-hour week does not have to be the standard. Generation Z in particular wants to take time out and see something of the world. Through sabbatical models, the company opens up these possibilities and perhaps makes them economically feasible in the first place.


If trainers not only have to work their hours according to company needs, but also generate high additional revenues with each hour worked, for example, through personal training, then the company may not care when these hours are worked. Well-booked personal trainers who generate high returns in 50% or more of their working hours can thus also determine and shape a large part of their working time.


Hourly wages of 25-50 euros gross can be realized via bonus systems such as commissions for membership sales, personal training or additional remuneration for high-quality work content such as course hours. It must be clear to every fitness club and also to every employee that you do not want to pay bad employees the lowest possible wages, but rather pay top salaries to the best employees.


In full employment, monthly salaries of 3,500-4,500 euros gross are easily presentable for normal employees without management responsibility, but the employer must create the conditions for this. If, in addition, targets, figures and results are communicated transparently on a regular basis, you create pull instead of pressure and win a team of high performers and high achievers.


Are you still looking for suitable employees? Post a free job ad on the specialized job board for the fitness and health industry: fitnessjobs.de!


Post a free job ad




Source and image: BODYMEDIA

Published on: 7 February 2023

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