Many fitness and health studios are currently facing major challenges in their search for qualified junior staff, because the demand for skilled workers is high and competition on the labor market is fierce. In this article, you will learn how companies can find, motivate, promote and retain new junior staff in the long term.
The fitness and health industry is on the upswing again. With membership numbers on the rise (DSSV, 2023) and customer demands growing (Kreis, 2021), demand for qualified professionals is currently very high.
Many studios are facing increasing challenges and a large number of competitors in the highly competitive labor market. In order to attract suitable junior staff, it is important to clearly stand out from one's competitors in the market and to successfully position the company as an attractive and competent employer.
In this context, a company's own employer brand plays an indispensable role and represents an important competitive advantage. Professional employer branding encompasses employee recruitment, retention and development (Tometschek, 2017).
Showing job prospects and arousing interest
Our industry has evolved from an employer market to an employee market (Rolli, 2022). This means that the number of vacancies is currently greater than the number of applicants. This poses numerous challenges for companies in terms of recruiting and employee training and development.
If you want to attract the attention of interested parties to your company and successfully fill vacancies, you have to actively search for applicants and convince them with attractive job offers, practical training opportunities and long-term career prospects.
First and foremost, you should put your own recruiting strategies to the test and analyze whether you are exploiting the full potential of existing opportunities.
Do you have your own career landing page?
A professional career site is one of the most important components in recruiting (Workwise, 2023). It is the flagship of your company and the central communication medium of your HR strategy.
The career page should be visible, up-to-date and easily accessible (one to two clicks). There you should provide targeted information, arouse interest and offer the opportunity to contact you directly and easily. The most important contents of a meaningful career page are:
- Company description
- Insights into the daily work routine and different fields of activity
- Presentation of the team
- current job offers
- direct application option/personal contact
Are online job exchanges used adequately?
Since the beginning of e-recruiting (Ramseier, 2022),online job exchanges have been a very popular and effective way to find suitable applicants for one's own company.
Online job exchanges have a wide reach and advertisements can be placed there for specific target groups. In addition to paid national job boards such as Indeed or Stepstone, specialized or free career platforms offer numerous ways to bring companies and job seekers from the fitness and healthcare market together in a targeted manner.
You should keep the following key points in mind when dealing with job boards:
- Short runtime of the ad, so as not to slip to the back pages
- use of appropriate keywords
- attractive and appealing title of the job offer
- short introduction of the company and the field of activity
- concrete and meaningful task and requirement profile of the position
- listing of individual benefits and added values
- relevant application information/personal contacts
- direct link to the company's own career site
How good is your social media recruiting?
Young people today spend a large part of their free time on social media. This is precisely why it makes sense to use TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. for recruiting in addition to established recruiting measures (Dannhäuser, 2023).
Social media recruiting aims to enter into dialog with potential applicants in an easy way and to network in a targeted manner. By providing insights into everyday working life, interviews of employees and/or impressions of the working environment, you arouse interest and create trust in the company, which is also of enormous importance for the development and consolidation of your own employer brand. Goals/advantages of social media recruiting:
- Comparatively inexpensive
- very high reach due to large network
- Target group-specific approach through the choice of appropriate channels
- Direct dialog and exchange with interested parties
In addition to these digital options, visiting career, job and future fairs in particular also promises very high chances of success. Depending on the orientation and focus of the trade fairs, you can reach both specialists and future junior staff (people interested in studying/training) on site.
Visitors to these events are either actively looking for a job or want to find out about occupational and career paths. You should take advantage of these favorable opportunities and present yourself there as an attractive employer in the best possible way!
Qualification and further training as a key success factor
In addition to the recruiting measures mentioned above, the qualification and further training of your own specialist and management staff plays a key role in actively countering the shortage of skilled workers.
According to the "Key Data on the German Fitness Industry 2023" (DSSV, 2023), a large proportion of companies train junior staff themselves and are increasingly relying on dual studies. In 2022, 83.1 percent of companies employed at least one dual student.
Thanks to the interdisciplinary nature of their studies, young professionals can take on a variety of tasks in the studio and play an active role in shaping the company.
Students gain numerous important qualifications/licenses during their studies, from which the company and its members can benefit in the long term. This requires that you actively involve junior staff from the outset, deploy them in a strengths-oriented manner and provide them with targeted support.
It is important that you support your junior staff from day one and ensure that they are able to apply the practical study content and skills in a targeted manner in the company. Gradually give your students more responsibility and give them their own projects, events or similar challenging tasks that allow them to grow and prove themselves (Schumann, 2020).
Provide opportunities for advancement and development
When it comes to employee retention, regular feedback sessions are essential. In personal conversations at eye level, external and self-perceptions can be compared, cooperation reflected upon, and further goals and measures agreed upon (Goerz & Reinhardt, 2016).
Talk openly and transparently about possible further training and concrete development opportunities in the company.
Motivated employees are eager to continuously develop their tasks and knowledge - honor this commitment and show that you care about the further development and advancement of your team by taking on further training.
Also talk at an early stage about potential takeover opportunities and career prospects after graduation. A new position, more management responsibility, a subsequent master's degree or similar create space and opportunities for professional development and increase your chances of motivating qualified junior staff in the long term and keeping them in the company.
After graduation, individual mentoring and trainee programs (Mächler, 2020) can help to optimally prepare junior staff for their new management tasks.
Conclusion
In order to remain competitive in the long term, innovative recruiting processes and future-oriented personnel development (Peterke, 2021) are essential today. In this way, employee fluctuation and the associated costs for recruiting can be reduced and, at the same time, valuable employee know-how/expertise can be bundled in the company in the long term.
Qualified and motivated specialists form the central backbone of our industry and are of great importance for the long-term success of the company. It is therefore all the more important that studios invest specifically in training and further education at this time and offer attractive study and workplaces with future and development prospects.
Source: FitnessManagement
Image source: #55037557 Peter Atkins / stock.adobe.com ; #69822654 Kzenon / stock.adobe.com
Published on: 25 July 2023