Anytime Fitness Firms Up Hiring Strategy to Compete for Quality Personal Trainers
Posted: April 18, 2018 in Chains
Anytime Fitness
WOODBURY, MN – Recruiting top-notch personal trainers to support the active lifestyles of over 3 million members across 4,000 gyms can feel like a strenuous, never-ending workout. Between managers, trainers and other staff, Anytime Fitness, and its franchisees, keep more than 20,000 positions filled across its constantly growing franchise system.
Anytime Fitness confronts the staffing challenge with the same competitive fervor that’s kept it the world’s fastest growing fitness center for the past 10 consecutive years. Along with a focus on building a strong employee brand, the booming gym franchise invests in a strategic approach to recruitment, including the use of innovative technology, Hireology, an integrated hiring and talent management platform.
Chuck Runyon, CEO and co-founder of Anytime Fitness, said recruiting the right candidates is essential to Anytime Fitness’ success. The brand focuses on four pillars: people (empowering and investing in employees); purpose (enriching people’s lives and improving the planet); profits (placing importance on growth and investments) and play (fostering an enjoyable workplace).
“With a mission to improve the self-esteem of the world, we’ve got to have the right people in place interacting with and inspiring members,” said Chuck Runyon, CEO of Anytime Fitness. “Hireology’s platform and proactive hiring solutions gives us an edge in finding the best candidates. Gyms that use Hireology see not only more applicants, but the best, most suitable candidates that fit our culture.”
Anytime Fitness franchises opting into the Hireology platform can:
- Customize a recruiting strategy for their location. The program offers flexible options for owners who may have multiple locations to meet their hiring objectives.
- Develop effective job descriptions tailored for in-demand talent, while also showcasing employee testimonials, company culture and core values.
- Quickly identify the most qualified applicants. When a potential employee submits an application, the hiring and talent management system automatically sends pre-screen surveys and skills assessments.
- Efficiently schedule, conduct interviews and create customized interview questions to help franchisees objectively assess each candidate.
“To stay competitive in the crowded fitness space, we have to live our brand values in our gyms,” Runyon added. “Our franchisees look for applicants who have a sense of humor, similar values and who are hungry for personal growth. By utilizing Hireology, our gyms can more easily find trainers and other employees who embody these qualities.”
With constant growth, time is of the essence in filling positions. Quarter over quarter, Hireology’s platform lowered each Anytime Fitness gym owner’s time to hire by 23%. The reduction was achieved primarily by allowing owners to spend less time reviewing unqualified and unfit applicants, and instead, focusing only on top talent. In turn, the decreased time spent on hiring has allowed the locations utilizing Hireology to focus more on empowering its employees and serving members.
Megan Leroy, Human Resources Director of 33 Anytime Fitness locations throughout Southern Wisconsin, said, “We’ve been using Hireology and we love it. We’re set up with nine area managers who oversee different locations. Before Hireology, I’d have resumes flow into my email that I’d have to review manually. It was disorganized and time consuming. Hireology fixed this with our new hiring process.”
