CareerPlug teamed up with F45 Training and Mindbody to take a deep dive into recruiting for the fitness industry. In this webinar recorded in August 2020, Scott Kinworthy, Owner and Operator of F45 Training, and Lauren McAlister, Marketing Content Specialist for Mindbody, joined CareerPlug’s fitness industry hiring expert, Brad Pilot.

The topics discussed in this webinar include:

• The current state of hiring in the fitness industry during COVID-19
• How to use your careers page to attract and hire quality candidates – namely your customers
• How to create a high-quality job posting for a fitness role
• Why contacting your applicants quickly matters

Are people ready to return to gyms and fitness centers?

“We’re seeing from the data that clients are excited to return to their studios again. These are the most important factors for those deciding to visit a fitness business again. Not surprisingly, sanitization is the big one,” says Lauren McAlister of Mindbody. 

Brad Pilot adds: “That definitely relates to hiring too, from the standpoint of how a potential employee would view things as well. So what is important to a member is likely going to be identically important to an employee — except they’re going to have to be in the facility for most of the day, so it’s potentially even more important to them.”

What are the best applicant sources for fitness recruitment?

Job boards bring in an abysmally low 12% of hires compared with the 86% of applicants they generate. Custom links have a near equal amount of hiring success to job boards at 11% of hires, while bringing in less than 1% of applicants total.

Company careers pages in the fitness industry account for the overwhelming majority of hires at  74%, despite only bringing in 11% of applicants — making company careers pages the best source of high-quality applicants who convert into hires.

What is the average view-to-applicant conversion rate for fitness job postings?

View-to-applicant conversion refers to the conversion rate from people who view the job post and actually apply to the job. This means that on average only 8% of potential fitness job seekers apply after viewing the job description, low compared to the 12% across all the industries we studied. This tells us there’s a lot of opportunity to better optimize job posting to meet and exceed the average to expand your pipeline. 

The importance of employer branding

One explanation for the high careers page hire rate is that the fitness industry sees a huge overlap between their customers and their potential employees. Your customers:

• Know your gym and services 
• Are already passionate about your brand & mission
• Can connect with your customers since they are your customers
• Are within your sphere of influence, making it easier to get opportunities in front of them

F45’s Scott Kinworthy shares his success with this approach: “The same way that you would reach out to your client base and call them for referrals, you can talk to your client base about who are some great people they’ve interacted with in the fitness industry and ask them for referrals. Make announcements before and after classes. That’s been very successful for us. For example, saying, ‘We’re trying to attract great people. We’re always hiring superstars, so if you know of anyone, please send them our way.’ And that’s been great.”

Focus your efforts on marketing your employment opportunities to your customers. Investing in a strong careers page and making it visible and accessible to your customers is a great way to maximize this source. If it’s hard for them to find your open positions, you might lose great potential candidates to a competitor.

How to create a compelling careers page

Having a careers page is key for any small business hiring strategy because it allows you to show job seekers what makes your business unique. A compelling careers page should include details about:

• Culture: Tell your story by adding pictures, videos, & employee testimonials
• Benefits: Don’t limit yourself to traditional benefits! Share other perks like flexible scheduling or free gym access! 
• Growth: Show job seekers what they will learn and what a potential growth path could look like for them

Take action

CareerPlug works with our health and fitness clients to create attractive careers pages designed to showcase your employer brand and convert more high-quality job seekers into candidates. Try out the software with a free demo from one of our hiring experts today to see how we can help strengthen your team with the right hires.