Operations
The New Approach to Fitness Recruitment
There was a time when you could advertise a role in fitness and get a stack of applications. Now, there’s less certainty around the performance of job ads. And it’s not a blip. There are reduced graduate numbers, an exodus of professionals and in the absence of a clearly unique role offering, we’re competing with every other industry on employment conditions alone.
The market has moved, candidate expectations have changed, and competition for good people is stronger than ever. If you’ve not been thinking about how you recruit, maybe it’s time to start.
What’s changed?
People are less enthusiastic about the opportunities.
Working in fitness once had more allure; trainers trained movie stars in exotic locations. ‘Aerobics’ instructors developed cult-like followings in person and on TV. In recent years, the systemisation of training and group fitness has made the fitness professional an interchangeable commodity. Which is great because anyone can do it. But the downside is… anyone can do it. Over recent years, people have learned that hours are often limited and over split shifts. Remuneration is rarely a draw card; the work takes energy and emotional presence, and many roles are contractor rather than employed.
You’re competing with everything.
Competition for fitness professionals is not just with the studio down the road (and there are absolutely more of these). We’re competing with other industries, where roles might offer consistent hours, or higher pay, or full-time employment security, or the ability to work from home. Or any combination thereof.
We no longer have the same influx of professionals.
Fewer new graduates are entering our Cert III/IV pathways. Even less are finishing. And those who do complete their course often have their post-study pathway mapped out.
What hasn’t changed?
Facilities and programming matter to members, but it’s your team that makes the real difference. They’re a huge part of your members’ journey. They influence member experience, retention, referrals, and the energy people feel when they walk in. Recruitment deserves more that to sit at the edges of business.
The shift:
Treat recruitment like a system
Rather than recruiting when you’re desperate. Make it something you do all year.
To be clear, this isn’t more work. It’s replacing rushed rehiring cycles with 20 to 30 minutes a month of relationship maintenance. Build a habit of staying visible to candidates and keeping relationships warm, so when you do need to hire, you’re not starting from zero.
Practical Steps
Begin building a pipeline
Keep a shortlist of up to 20 potential candidates, people you’d genuinely like to speak to again. This can include:
- trainers you meet at courses or events
- great casual staff who might want more hours later
- people who applied previously but timing wasn’t right
- referrals from your current team.
Then, stay in touch in small ways: every month or two, send a check-in message, an invite to drop in, a heads-up that you may be hiring later in the year. This is normal in tight markets. It’s not pushy if you do it respectfully.
Communicate growth, not just culture or opportunity
Culture matters, but it’s vague. Candidates want to know what and who they’ll become by working with you. Similarly, being a job is not enough in a competitive market.
If you want stronger applicants, be clear about things like:
- training and mentoring
- development pathways (and what they look like in practice)
- opportunities to build skills beyond delivery (sales, leadership, coaching systems)
- examples of staff who progressed while working with you.
Invest as heavily as you can in developing your team. As Richard Branson says, “Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t want to”.
Look for attributes, then train
With a smaller candidate pool, many employers will do better by recruiting for:
- attitude
- reliability
- coachability
- communication
- values fit.
Then, back that person with a real onboarding and training plan. This approach builds long-term staff, rather than short-term stopgaps.
A simple way to start this week
Note the roles you expect to hire for in the future and when you’re likely to need them.
Begin building your shortlist of candidates, even if only a few to begin with.
Send a personalised check-in message to one or more of the candidates.
Do this for the next few months, and hiring will feel different. Not perfect, but calmer, faster, and more predictable.
When a role opens, you’re calling warm leads, not starting from zero.
In addition, the increased contact will help fine-tune interview processes.
It’ll help clarify the best questions to ask, and when you find a great candidate, you’ll have the luxury of a longer and more thorough onboarding process.
Recruitment membership - Built for the Fitness Industry
The structure of HealthyPeople’s Recruitment Membership is based on more than 20 years of industry recruitment experience. It is a service unmatched in this industry or any other.
- Connect with featured candidates for free and search recently active candidates
- Build a list of favourites from search results, applications and featured professionals
- Included recruitment credits accumulate, so value is maintained when not used
Memberships have no minimum term and can be cancelled at any time.
Dennis Hosking
Dennis is the Founder and Managing Director of HealthyPeople and FITREC.