Looking Beyond the Certifications
The fitness industry has a way of hiring employees based solely around what certifications they possess or what educational background they have acquired. I agree that these may be good starting points, but that is just what they are, the start. If you make this your first filter, okay. However, what is your second filter? Years of experience? Maybe personality? How about physical appearance? Sometimes when the “crop” of good candidates is small, we fall back on these types of criteria. I will challenge that you need to look much further than this. You need to determine the individual’s strengths and weakness and what development needs they will require to not only do the job they are interviewing for but for the next level up from that. To that end, when I interview anybody, regardless if it someone who will run my business or a part time front desk check-in position, I look for a number of criteria:
- Intelligence – This is the ability to secure relevant information, identify issues, make recommendations, be creative and analytical. For Personal Trainers this is tested with clients with difficult needs and problems. For Fitness Directors, the way they handle staffing problems and for sales positions, dealing with objections.
- Results Orientated – Basically the ability to finish what you started and to work towards an agreed outcome. Do not leave something half done. That is the same as taking on a new client and when you get halfway to their goals, you quit or move on to the next client.
- Interpersonal Skills – This is the ability to relate to the feelings and needs of others and to convey interest and respect. We are surrounded with clients that feel intimated, overwhelmed, afraid, self conscious, etc. Some Personal Trainers have large egos that need to be fully understood and managed carefully. Your front desk staff must be polite, professional and courteous to your clients, all day – every day.
- Planning and Organization – Want to watch something painful? Watch a trainer fumble though an hour with his client with no effort put into planning what he/she was going to do with that client. They go from machine to machine or location to location with no plan. Everybody must be able to prioritize and plan for themselves and their clients.
- Teamwork – When you drop into a facility that has developed a good teamwork mentality, the atmosphere is very different from one where everybody is their own island. I have seen facilities when trainers have tried to steal other trainers’ clients, where the staff communicated only the bare necessity to management or vice-versa. Everybody from owner/senior management down, needs to work collaboratively towards common goals and objectives.
- Maturity – This is the willingness to be open and act responsibly when dealing with people, management and situations. I have seen trainers refuse to train a client because they felt slighted. Be the bigger person, and most importantly, be the mature, professional person.
- Presence – This is the ability to create a positive first impression and stand out tactfully. This includes both verbal and nonverbal communications. Here is a tip; all those mirrors in the gyms are not so you can look at yourself. A person with a strong physical presence does not need to look at themselves.
Any owner/manager should consider these seven criteria’s before selecting any employee for any position. When it comes to fill a management position internally, these should be used again to determine who has the most executive potential.
