Hiring & Onboarding the Best Employees for Your Fitness Facility

Posted by Meredith DePersia on Apr 27, 2016 10:57:12 AM

No matter how beautiful your facility is or appealing the equipment and offerings inside your fitness center, the success of your facility will almost always boil down to one vital component: the people. So how can you bring the very best employees onboard? Here are three key tips from our VP of Human Resource Operations Meredith DePersia:

Active Wellness, Fitness Center Management

Employees, the Forgotten Asset

When designing a fitness center, you may spend a great deal of time on the building and interior decorating aspects, as well as the type of equipment being installed. What you may not spend as much time on is the hiring process. For any kind of business, including a fitness center, your employees are your most important asset. The value of a courteous, well-trained staff of qualified employees cannot be overestimated, but employees can also pose a high risk to the business. With the help of an experienced fitness center management company such as Active Wellness you can navigate the regulations involved in hiring employees, and ensure that you hire and manage your employees legally and effectively.

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The Hiring Process

Long before you begin interviewing prospective employees, you need to have a very clear profile of what the specific job entails, as well as the general qualifications and requirements for working in the fitness center. Active Wellness fitness management can assist in drafting interview questions, and establishing the absolute requirements for each position. You will also want to be consistent and thorough when reviewing employment applications, and be able to process the necessary background checks by following a standardized procedure.


Being consistent in how you review applicants, interview and hire employees is extremely beneficial. It ensures that you are choosing higher qualified candidates who will be able to meet the needs of the job and to exceed expectations for the fitness facility. Consistency in hiring employees will also help you weed out candidates who have criminal backgrounds that may make them ineligible for hire. Background checks and a thorough interview and application system will help you to identify applicants who could pose a risk to co-workers, residents, and the entire community.

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Employee Training

Once you have selected your employees, and the formalities of hiring have all been worked through, it may be necessary to provide training for your employees. Being a fitness center, this training may consist of learning how to run specific equipment, safety and security compliance expectations, or how to maintain certain aspects of the fitness center to certain specifications. Working with a fitness management company to evaluate the skill levels of new employees, determine their training needs, and implement a satisfactory training program will give you the assurance that your employees are ready to take on whatever circumstances present themselves.


Managing the performance of your facility, from inception to opening and beyond, must include the process for hiring, training and evaluating your employees. In many ways, your fitness center employees are as much an amenity as the fitness center itself, providing valuable guidance and assistance to residents as they use their expertise and training to keep the fitness center running smoothly and efficiently.


Active Wellness fitness management offers a wide variety of services to assist you in planning and developing your community fitness center, as well as assisting with performance management and management of the facility. For more information about what we can do for you and your fitness center, please contact us.

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