Best Practices in Club Operations
F
inding and hiring great employees, training the staff and
transitioning from presale to opening are the foundation
of best practices in any club’s operations.
During the 2016 PFIFA Franchisee Convention May 10-13,
the topic was the focus of an informative business-building
session, featuring panelists Mike Hamilton, COO of Planet
Fitness Midwest (PFMW); Mark Nelson, vice president of operations with the Kueber Group; Cecelia Newman, COO of Planet
Fitness West; and Adam Willaeys, COO for Klebba Group/
PFINMI.
The key areas of focus were: recruiting and staffing; staff
growth and retention; training, evaluation and appearance; and
transitioning from presale to opening.
an employee offered great customer
service, give them your card,” Hamilton
recommends.
Other suggestions include:
• Constantly conduct interviews. Use
CareerPlug to generate potential
candidates.
by Jessica Loeding
• Plan for turnover and be ready to hire.
• Conduct a pre-interview background
check through the 99-cent app, Been Verified.
• Evaluate the interview process.
• Staff should reflect membership demographics.
• Hire plenty of employees.
Bringing Employees On Board
Think About the Future
Although the end goal of locating and hiring stellar staff is
the same, each club approaches the hiring process differently.
After hiring a great employee, consider how to keep the
employee engaged and allow them to grow within the company.
Panelists, from left, Cecelia
Newman, COO of Planet
Fitness West; Adam Willaeys,
COO for Klebba Group/
PFINMI; Mike Hamilton, COO
of Planet Fitness Midwest;
and Mark Nelson, vice president of operations with the
Kueber Group, presented an
informative session on Best
Practices in Club Operations
during the 2016 PFIFA Fran-
2016 Issue 2 | GearedUp
chisee Convention.
38
“After review of employment application and resume, we
always do at least three interviews for each employee. The first is
always a phone interview by the manager followed by an in-club
interview with the assistant manager and a senior staff member,”
Newman said. “If they have gotten through the first two interviews with positive feedback, they will then have their final
interview with the manager.”
She stressed the importance of looking for staff members
who are friendly, positive, talkative, on-time and well-groomed.
“We expect a lot out of our employees and for them to be on top
of their game,” Newman said. “Good people are getting harder
and harder to find.”
One tip for locating a quality employee is to always be
recruiting. “When you are shopping or in an environment where
Manager training and continued education opportunities
help produce leadership from within, and quality personnel in
management positions will be reflected across the staff. This
allows you to promote from within when possible. “Over-staffing
at the management level will continuously push for better at all
positions, not to mention depth for turnovers,” Willaeys said.
Incentives and job perks, such as an employee of the month
reward or creating higher-level positions with extra benefits,
promote employee engagement.
Training Tips and Tricks
When it comes to training, the panel praised the importance
of Planet Fitness University (PFU) and implementing a training
checklist.