Explore creative and unconventional ways to find and hire personal trainers for your gym. Find the right candidates, navigate through the resumes, and learn some creative interview questions that can help you identify the ideal personal training candidate for your fitness business.
Hiring the right people for your business can be a challenge, regardless of the industry you’re in. And finding the right fitness professionals has become even more challenging over the last couple of years because of the many changes in the fitness industry. But the high demand for talented health and fitness professionals still exists. And the challenges America faces with chronic conditions and obesity are ever-growing. Therefore, hiring the best personal training staff is critical in running a successful and profitable fitness business.
Properly staffing your team is a delicate balance of finding people that are a good fit for your team (e.g., personality, character, core values), have the desire to work, are passionate and reliable, and have the credentials and or abilities to do so.
So, if you’re struggling to find the right employees for your fitness team, Naamly is here to support you in getting the best team possible. We explore some creative ways to help you find more potential candidates and narrow those candidates down to the right hires.
Finding Good Personal Trainer Candidates
The first step in hiring the right fitness professional for your team is locating good potential candidates. When you find the right fit, you can increase your chances of creating fitness staff retention.
If experienced personal trainers aren’t knocking at your door for a job, you may need to be more innovative with how you find those potential personal trainer candidates. Here are a few things you can try. Use these creative ways to find dedicated and trustworthy talent.
Connect With Your All-Star Gym Members
The ideal personal trainer could already be right under your nose. Many personal trainers often have their own fitness journey before they even consider becoming a personal trainer. As they progress, they often develop a desire to make a healthy impact on other people’s lives. The “all-star” gym members are ideal candidates to discuss the potential of a personal training career –they may already be considering it.
To find the “all-stars,” pay attention to gym members that are passionate about fitness, are consistent with their workouts, exude good form, and interact well with others. The next personal trainer you hire might be in their training session at your gym right now.
Ask Your Group Exercise Instructors
Another potential personal training candidate that could be right under your nose is your Group Fitness Instructor(s). This population is an ideal potential candidate—They are already working for you, passionate about fitness, know many of your members, and have fitness knowledge. You can also look for instructors at other gyms. Keep in mind that group fitness instructors are historically paid substantially less than trainers and therefore often looking for ways to reach more people and make more money.
Personal training and group exercise instruction are a common combination for many fitness professionals because some clients love the social components of group exercise but also want the extra attention from one-on-one training.
It’s an easy transition because the client already has a level of familiarity and trust with the fitness professional. And the group instructor already has some basic insight into the client’s fitness level, form, and some of the potential modifications needed.
In addition, you may want to consider if there is any other team member on your staff that might have an interest in a personal training role (aside from your group fitness instructors). This can include front desk staff or other supportive roles that know your systems but haven’t yet established bad habits as a trainer.
Contact Personal Training Education Companies And Schools
Another unconventional place you can look for qualified personal trainers is through companies and schools that are educating them. Some personal training education companies have the approval and platforms to connect newly certified personal trainers with gyms and other facilities. This is a great way to get access to passionate, excited, fitness minds to consider for your fitness facility.
Tips For Navigating Personal Training Resumes
If you’re receiving a decent amount of personal trainer applications, you are likely still challenged with “sorting through all the weeds” to determine who the best candidates really are. You may even have a mix of experienced personal trainers, newbie personal trainers, and career changers that are simply passionate about fitness. They may not fit your exact job description, but the right person could be in any one of those categories, so it’s crucial to know what you should be looking for when you’re sorting through resumes.
Don’t Get Too Caught Up In Education, Credentials, Or Experience
Although a respected personal training certification is important, there are many other skills that are vital to the success of a personal trainer. And those valuable skills (e.g., communication, reliability, emotional intelligence, sales, organization) may just come from a person with little to no experience in the fitness field. Those powerful skills are often easily transferrable. The right candidate can always learn what they need to train clients by pursuing their personal training certification and continuing to educate themselves as they progress. As you likely know from your fitness experience, teaching the soft skills and client communication can be far harder than getting through a fitness certification.
As the economy continues to shift and recover and people transition to new careers and have the courage to pursue their true passions, it’s important to have the willingness to help someone learn, grow, and develop. There are some skills that just can’t be taught. So, if you find someone that embodies the strong skills and characteristics you need but lacks the education and experience, put in the time and effort to help them get there.
Sales Skills Are Valuable
The ability to sell themselves, their personal training services, and your facility is a critical component of a personal trainers’ success. Oftentimes, many certified personal trainers are well educated and passionate about fitness but they struggle with the sales and business elements of personal training.
If you have a candidate with strong sales skills, is passionate about fitness, and is willing to learn, they just might be a powerful addition to your team.
Social Skills Are Essential
The ability to connect with, empathize, and communicate with others is arguably one of the most important elements of a personal trainer’s success. Individuals coming from roles like customer service, account management, or other customer-facing roles might just have the skills you are looking for in your next personal trainer. These types of individuals make great trainers for client retention.
Take The Time To Contact References
Many companies request references, but they don’t always reach out. Getting feedback from past experiences, regarding a potential candidate’s reliability, trustworthiness, work ethic, teamwork, and communication is incredibly valuable. So, request references and take the time to contact them and ask the right questions.
If you think outside the box with your candidates, you’ll likely see several potential personal trainers with the skills and desire to be really successful. They just might need a little extra time and effort invested in them to really thrive.
The Personal Training Interview
Once you find the right candidates to move to the next step (i.e., the interview), it’s essential to ask the right questions and gather the right info to help you determine if the potential candidate is truly a good fit for a personal trainer. Here are 3 key topics to include in your next interview to help you do just that.
- Emotional Intelligence
A vital characteristic for any professional (in any customer-facing industry) is emotional intelligence.
Emotional intelligence is defined as the ability to “recognize, understand, and manage our own emotions” and “recognize, understand, and influence the emotions of others (1).” It’s a critical skill that helps an individual read, understand, communicate, coach, support, and critique other people tactfully as well as manage their own emotions.
Here are a few questions you can ask to provide insight into an individual’s emotional intelligence:
- Have you had to change a behavior or habit for work or personal reasons? If so, why and what steps did you take to change?
- What is something you’ve done in the last 6 months to grow personally or professionally?
- What are three words other people would use to describe you?
- Give me an example of a time you had to deal with an ethical dilemma in the workplace.
- Personal Fitness Story
Another way you can learn a lot about a personal trainer candidate is by asking them to share their own personal fitness journey. Their answer will provide insight into many things. You’ll understand their struggles, how they overcame them, their vulnerability, and even the type of clients that might be the ideal fit to work with them (i.e., those that share similar struggles). All of this info is incredibly valuable in your decision-making process.
- Passion
For candidates that are already certified personal trainers, a solid question that can help you gauge their passion for the industry is, “Why did you want to become a personal trainer?” If the candidate is not already certified, you can modify the question– “Why do you want to become a personal trainer?”
It’s well-known there can be many ebbs and flows during a career as a personal trainer. Passion, however, is the glue that pulls people through the valleys, especially at the start of their careers. So, getting a good sense of the individual’s “why” is crucial.
Creative Ways To Interview
When you’re interviewing potential future trainers, it’s important to remember that not only are you looking for them to sell themselves to you, but you also need to sell to them why they should work for you. One of the ways you can do this is by providing a more innovative and creative interviewing experience.
Live Assessment
No one really likes to sit in an office room for an hour or more getting grilled with questions. Instead, have candidates take a client through a fitness assessment. Individualization, movement mechanics, and health risks are all elements that a fitness trainer should prioritize.
Providing scenarios (e.g., live assessments, mock training sessions) where trainers can showcase their skills and knowledge or simply their courage and confidence and take feedback is a great way to interview potential candidates and gauge their skills.
Group Interview
If you have more than one potential candidate, you could host a group interview where you have more than one candidate interviewing at one time. Group interviews are a unique way to see candidates and how they compare to each other on the spot and how they interact with others.
Involve your Staff
You want your staff to work as a team. How they interact with each other is vital. And their input can be valuable in your decision-making process. You could consider including them in portions of the interview or allowing the candidate to shadow some of your team for a short time. This allows both the team and candidate to get to know each other and provide insight into whether or not they are a good fit.
When you find the right trainer for your staff, growing your business becomes easier. And, when you use Naamly’s staff coaching and accountability features, you’re set up for guaranteed success. Try Naamly for free today to learn more about scaling and succeeding as a fitness business owner.
References
The Meaning of Emotional Intelligence (2019). Institute for Health and Human Potential. https://www.ihhp.com/meaning-of-emotional-intelligence/. Accessed 4.15.2022.
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