Talent Attraction

Traditionally, health club managers have sought to hire individuals with prior experience in the fitness industry. This process perpetuates the movement of people within the industry who do not possess a track record of significant success in the industry. As the fitness industry matures, locating people with the right talent and training them in the industry will become more critical. Focusing on selection of people educated in the health sciences disciplines and sports can diminish the likelihood for success since these individuals often do not possess the business acumen required to manage on a profit and loss basis.

The current model for personnel selection in fitness clubs was previously the model used by automobile dealerships, insurance and other sales driven industries. These industries were approaching the maturity stage of the business cycle in the 1970's.

In 1972, as a part of introducing the concept of benchmarking top performers, CRI's assessments were used to analyze the top salespeople for Sewell Village Cadillac in Dallas, Texas to determine the aptitudes and behaviors they had in common. The same approach was also undertaken in used automobile sales and service. This process, as documented in the book Customers for Life by Carl Sewell and Paul Brown, changed the way numerous dealerships in America approached the hiring process. They began to benchmark their own salespeople to use as the model for hiring new salespeople. Then, they sought individuals without prior industry experience to have a clean slate to work with when training them in their methods. For example, Jerry Griffin was one of the initial salespeople Sewell hired in 1972 with no prior experience in auto sales. He became the nation's top Cadillac salesperson and received that award from Cadillac three years in a row. Today, Jerry is a General Manager for the Sewell family of dealerships.

Several years ago when CRI's benchmarking technology was presented to Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors, their concerns were focused on owning the technology rather than its ultimate benefits. In the interim, following a two-year evaluation process, Toyota selected CRI's benchmarking and assessment systems for the hiring processes in their U.S. plants. Today, Toyota is at or near the top in the industry in sales, profits, growth and quality. What better example of the value of the CRI approach than Toyota's success.

CRI and Powerful Promotions recommend that club management choose top performers in their organization in five critical job categories to establish benchmarks of successful performers. The five job categories are:

1. General Manager
2. Membership Sales
3. Sales Manager
4. Personal Trainer
5. Fitness Manager

At least 10 individuals in each job category should be selected to participate. Participants will be asked to take an assessment that will provide the data needed for the benchmark. The assessment takes approximately one hour to complete, and can be done online at any time making it easy to accommodate the schedules of top performers. CRI will analyze the assessments of the top performers to determine the aptitudes and behaviors they have in common. The resulting benchmark of aptitudes and behaviors can then be used as the model for selecting people who have the talent to be star performers, whether they have prior industry experience or not

CRI will provide results for a club's employees to management on a confidential, complimentary basis. The only requirement is that management allow the study data from their employees to be merged with the data from the employees of other participants to derive industry benchmarks for each position.

The purpose of the study is to determine the traits the successful performers in each of these categories have in common and to use that information to develop benchmarks for each of the critical job categories. The benchmarks can then be used to help clubs be more successful in hiring employees for these positions. Participating clubs may choose to use the benchmarks derived from their own top performers, or the industry benchmarks derived from this study.

Typically, a study of this nature incurs a fee of $ 12,500.00 per company. However, CRI and Powerful Promotions are funding this effort on behalf of participating clubs.

1. For more information or to participate in the study, call Milt Cotter at 800-328-1940 x 199
2. Or email: scotter@criw.com
3. For more information on CRI, see: www.criw.com

To view a sample pre-employment assessment report with a Fitness Club General Manager benchmark, click here.