Monday 8 October 2012

Staff retention - one of the keys to member retention


With 50% of instructors thinking about leaving the industry, a lot of clubs would do well to take a look in the mirror in order to improve their member retention – it starts with staff retention.

We know that motivation by money (or pizza) doesn't work in the long term. Good instructors are driven by helping members to get fitter or healthier. Staff that have less purpose or direction are harder to motivate, but there’s the challenge.

Decent Key Performance Indicators, linked to instructors core values and goals help to motivate staff, and improve member retention. Delivering quality inductions, completing exercise goal or programme reviews, and contacting high risk members all help to make an interesting or rewarding day for an instructor. Cleaning, classes, and opening and closing the club all need to be done as well, but they are secondary to the key tasks.

Recognition of these roles, and internal communication between all staff and management to feedback success is crucial to retain good staff, and therefore members.

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