Great Minds Met in Manchester to tackle UK health club retention

Great Minds Met in Manchester for Dr. Paul Bedford’s third Retention Convention. The Retention Guru’s day-long event saw five world-class speakers give their take on retaining a happy workforce and the impact this has on member retention.

Counter-terrorism specialist and leadership expert, Steve Jee, who spent 20 years in the British Army as a military intelligence officer, used scenes from the Hollywood blockbuster Gladiator to explain how to motivate a team, ensuring everyone is working to the same values, vision and purpose.

“In the military we drop teams, brigades, divisions and battalions in middle of nowhere and expect them to operate in the centre of chaos,” he said. “This is similar to many companies. So how do we make sure the soldiers understand where they are going, how to get there, their part in the plan and how to deliver a motivated team to do it?

“The power is in the company’s vision – the what and the why – not telling the workforce how it should be done. The vision should inspire and unite the team, be aspirational and be time-bound. Alignment in where the organisation is going is vital. Team members need to know what their part in getting there is and everyone must buy in to this.”

Jee said the biggest resistance to change is the people themselves and advised operators to invest in their junior managers, the people that make a difference on a day to day basis.

Training and education specialist, Keith Smith had the audience in stitches with his session, which talked about the importance of making sure staff training has a positive longterm impact on the business. He explained why context – ensuring the training fits with who your company is and who you wish to target – rather than the content of what staff learn, is the key to success.

“Ask yourself if the training staff are about to do is right for the types of members you want to attract. Will it add to the experience you want to offer?” he said. “As a teacher in the studio I don’t care about retention. My job is to create an experience that drives someone back for the next visit. This is adherence, the rest happens automatically, it’s retention by default.”

Smith told delegates not to get caught up in the latest trends but to really consider if the course is right for their members and to understand what staff will be able to both know and show by the end of the training. Is it specific and will you get a return on your investment?

“Remember, development takes time,” he said. “Getting staff to think differently is not the same as getting them to act differently. Practice, not talent, is key to success and it takes time to embed. Develop a support structure that enables staff to learn from feedback on their behaviours and how these link to your missions and values.”

He reiterated Jee’s advice explaining that staff must understand your story and what the words your company uses mean to you and the community you want to attract, in order to build a sense of belonging and ensure staff truly become part of your organisation.

Australia’s Justin Tamsett, a former health club owner and well known business and leadership authority, compared management to being a team coach. “Once you’re on the pitch, trying to improve retention will be really hard because you’re in the heat of a battle,” he said. “It’s emotional and you can’t think straight – it’s very hard to coach players on the run. If you’re looking to improve retention you need to start in the locker room.”

Tamsett went on to explain the seven Cs:
Culture – the strength of a house is in its foundations. Employ people with the right attitude
Contagious – a leader’s role is to have a positive energy that staff can feed off
Consistency – in our leadership style, behaviour, actions and most importantly, words
Communication – be an amazing listener. Trust what your team has to say. Trust is built in the locker room.
Connection – teams that are connected are teams that win. Design strategies in your business that help to connect staff, such as one word everyone ‘lives’ for a month or encouraging staff to share a hero, hardship or highlight from their lives.
Commitment – leaders need to exhibit commitment and true leadership greatness is achieved when you bring out the greatness in others
Care – one on one time with the manager is more powerful than a pay rise. Have lunch with a different member of staff each week and pick their brains. Show you care.

Taking the graveyard slot, Lexie Griffiths, global presenter, best-selling author and owner of the professional development programme TheSizzleMaker, had the audience on their feet with some retro Hand-jive to stimulate their brain power and ensure everyone was wide awake! Explaining that she’s ‘never worked a day in her life, because she loves what she’s does’, Griffiths said if we can find staff that are really love what they do, members will feel it too and want to feed off their energy.

“We are in the people business, serving fitness, not in the fitness business serving people,” she said.  “Give amazing customer service to your staff and they will automatically do that for your members.”  Agreeing with Tamsett she continued:  “Attitude is everything.  Go for attitude first and you can teach your staff everything else.”

Quoting research from Intel, Griffiths said it takes 15 sizzles to make up for one unresolved sozzle and the number one reason people don’t come back is because they don’t get recognition and staff don’t engage with them. She encouraged operators to change staff’s mindset, putting people first: “As you get older you become invisible, you’re rarely talked to in the gym either. To change your staff’s mindset, share strategies on people skills and communication techniques – build confidence in your team. Show them how to do it, go out there first and make that effort. Be proactive and seek out members that really need your help.”

She also advised operators to choose their target group and stick to it, learn people’s names, smile and ask them how they are doing today.  “It’s all you need to do to fill their bucket,” she said.  “Don’t think about fitness, think about how you can make their day and make their visit enjoyable and worthwhile.”

Former ukactive CEO, Dave Stalker, now the CEO of Oxygen Freejumping, explained why he believes retention is the only word that’s relevant in our industry. “Everything is about retention. As an industry we have acknowledged it but we are absolutely not doing it. It doesn’t matter what strategies or fabulous equipment you have. If you’re not retaining your staff you have real challenges ahead.”

Letting the audience in on Oxygen’s secret to success, Stalker said it’s all based around the staff’s ability to deliver a clean and safe environment. Staff are rewarded on those KPIs, not on upselling, and on average the brand receives 55 staff-related feedback comments every month. “I believe the personal touch from staff who believe in our vision and mission make all the difference. That, together with personal calls from me for every customer giving a low feedback, is what keeps our customers coming back.”

Stalker also pushed the importance of the industry getting behind its chartered institute and said our voices won’t truly be heard until we become a professional industry in the eyes of Government.

In the last session, Dr. Paul Bedford described the different ways that people listen – with the ears, the eyes and touch – and explained how rapport building and communication skills go through the roof when we mirror that behaviour as the person thinks you ‘get them’. “The power of language is enormous if we listen to what they say,” he said. “It’s easy to motivate people if we understand them better, so listen to understand, not to answer.”

Bedford closed the day telling delegates it would be wasted day if they didn’t do something with the information they’d learned. “The person with the most flexible behaviour always wins, so be flexible!” he said.

The day, sponsored by Life Fitness and Motionsoft, was hosted by Dean Hodgkin, himself an operator, as well a consultant to businesses in local authority leisure provision, the premium health clubs market, the low cost gyms sector and the boutique studio niche. He said: “The Retention Convention 2017 delivered over and above on its promise to send delegates away with an enlightened vision and both the motivation and the road map to make immediate and lasting improvements in the service they deliver.”

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For further information or photographs contact:
Abigail Harris at Big Fish Public Relations
Tel: 07738 331019
Email: abigail@bigfishpublicrelations.co.uk