Our People

We attract & recruit the best

We always strive to recruit the highest calibre of employee whether they come from within or outside the fitness industry, it is important to bring in talent from other business fields in order to bring a fresh approach and new ideas.

We constantly develop and update our Human Resources department, the goal being to ensure we put the people in our business increasingly at the centre. We continuously improve selection procedures to ensure they are professional, fair and diligent.

As a company it is important we are well-perceived externally, this is something the marketing, public relations and operation teams work hard together to achieve. We strive not only to achieve our mission to be famous for making the world a fitter place but also to be famous for having staff that operate with excellence, are passionate and Fitness First certified.

We commit to quality training & development

The opportunity to learn and grow within an organization is a key motivator. The majority of Fitness First top talent is developed internally via our learning and development programmes and vocational training.

We provide training to help at each stage of a Fitness Firster’s career: the Junior Management Programme teaches the necessary skills to move from task/self management to the management of small teams and the Senior Management Programme assists our General Managers to build high performing teams, honing their leadership skills.

The more senior Business Management Programme provides further business insight and commercial decision making skills.

The Scholarship Programme aims to attract top talent from outside the industry. General Management Trainees attend a residential fast-track course providing the ‘keys to their club’ within 6 months.

Our approved in-house trainers, which comprise key national/regional Executives, host all programmes.

The outsourced Executive Learning and Development Programme has recently

We empower our people to deliver results.

We believe the quality of the member experience is dependant not only on the standard of the facilities, but also on the quality of their interactions with our club staff.

To create that quality experience, we encourage our staff to take their responsibilities personally - we do that by empowering them to deliver results. This means our club managers are the club custodians, and their teams are the front line who are given freedom within a structured and disciplined environment to create the member experience that will engage our members to achieve their health and fitness goals.

Our leadership development programme and Employee Engagement Survey embeds and develops the leadership and coaching skills in our senior managers. This ensures our club staff have that sense of ownership that will fully engage them in delivering business results. Our club training programmes are designed to give our staff ownership of their own development as well as the performance of their club and demonstrate our commitment to empowering our people to deliver results.

We reward the behaviours that drive the right results

In 2008-2009 we based our bonus and incentive schemes on the achievement of financial results. As we shifted our focus toward rewarding RECIPE behaviours that drive the right results we are putting a new recognition program in place.

This program will celebrate (team) success, will recognise individuals and will give attention to those who are a RECIPE role model or have done an exceptional achievement. Since February we launched the first initiative of this program.

Each month nominations take place by Management Team & Regional Business Managers and the selected individuals receive a personal letter from the Managing Director.

We strive to retain our top talent.

Retaining top talent is vital to our continued success. We approach this in 5 key ways:- We recognize and reward and motivate performance through a balanced scorecard approach which is fully aligned to our Strategy Map.

We provide training and development across all functions from the junior ranks to senior executives, with both job specific courses and leadership programmes. We communicate and promote our internal career path with a fast track option for top performers.

We engage our top people in the training and development of others through train the trainer programmes. We also provide opportunities to participate in project committees to enhance job satisfaction and contribution outside of daily job scope.

We empower our staff to make customer facing decisions and provide a platform for feedback towards innovation and development within the business. Our career path also provides for staff to train across different functions to explore untapped strengths or talents, which provides career enhancing experience.

A direct line of communication through the MD blog provides insight in to company developments and an opportunity for any Fitness Firster to reply directly.