Do you/your facility pay for staff certifications and/or continuing education?
I’m considering expanding what our company provides to Certified Personal Trainers. Currently, we require staff to pay for their own certifications and continuing education. We do offer continuing education on site, for no cost to them. I was wondering what other policies are out there. If you/your facility pay for certifications, what % is covered? Additionally, what are some of the requirements from staff after having this paid for (ex. must stay for 6 months, work x amount of hours, etc).
Thanks Team!
I have paid a number of fees and costs for staff training. And plan to do so in the future. I do my research and there is a ton supporting the benefits of a company paying for these types of educational requirements. These types of company provided benefits have been shown to increase productivity, client satisfaction (very important in our industry), employee loyalty, employee job satisfaction, client retention (happy employees means happy customrers), and more. A number of these studies showed that when a company provided employees with such paid benefits, the company made higher profits than a similar company that did not provide the benefits.
So, even though you appear to be spending money, in the long run you are likely to actually make more money. And think about it, if you have better trained, happier staff, you will be able to offer better classes and better client experiences. So word will get around that your gym has a great atmosphere and awesome classes. Your gym kicks all the other gyms butts and your staff is totally committed. Even if you don’t make a big bag of extra cash, you will have made your staffs lives a bit easier. And that will also make you a more compasionate boss.