How many housekeeping and maintenance employees are needed for a 5,000 sq. foot facility?
Hello, I am a CFO for a private club in Michigan. Our members would like the club to build a fitness facility. The proposed facility will be 5,000 sq. feet with machines, free weights, locker facilities, and a smoothie bar. How many housekeeping and maintenance employees are necessary? Should we hire a manager for the fitness center?
This is a very complicated question. Do you want the facility to be cleaned completely everyday? or just some parts (restrooms, locker rooms, showers, etc.)? Will you be budgeting for an outside maintenance person for you equipment or having someone in house? And so on.
This is where hiring a facility manager comes into play. This person can provide you with everything you need. It is possible to find a fitness manager with the ability to do both, manage the facility and the fitness programming. But don’t try to skimp on paying someone to both or you will very likely get what you pay for in performance. Bringing the management team on before the facility is built is also very wise. Experienced faciltiy/program managers can save you time, money and frustration in the short and long term with such a project. There is a lot more to creating a smooth operating facility than just having equipment and space.
I do consulting work, but I am not available to come to Michigan anytime soon. But I am sure you can find a very qualified person there. Check with other facilities to see who they used to help with such projects. You have some fine universities and colleges that may be able to provide students studying in the field to work with you and fulfill course requirements for design, etc.
And remember. OH-IO, Go Buckeyes! Sorry couldn’t help myself.
Hello Tim Lotito,
You will want a food service certified provider for the smoothie bar, as you already realize. A business manager would be a good idea to make sure you stay on track. A well rounded personal trainer could run the place from top to bottom. You might be able to do better by hiring out for maintenance and housekeeping as needed. I hope your members are many and promise to use the facility to make this all work out successfully.
Take care,
Natalie aka NAPS 2 B Fit.
Is your club as part a golf course? For a 5000 sq.ft usually a crew of 1-2 cleaning personnel might be enough especially if you have them work on a split shift. Probably 2-3 hours during the day and then a couple more hours in the evening could be a good option. As for maintenance having someone on call should be adequate for your facility. Your biggest expense would be staffing the place with a trainer or a fitness attendant because they usually cost more than your typical cleaning and maintenance crew. Nancy gave you some good points here. I hope this helps.
Perhaps you’d want a fitness person rather than a manager? What I mean is, if this is a higher-end club, you might consider staffing the club during daytime hours with a fitness consultant. What you want that consultant to be able to do can vary widely. You might want just a greeter who has CPR, first aide, and knows how to use an AED machine. You might want a personal trainer who can do on-site assistance with machines and developing workout programs.
Housekeeping will depend greatly on whether you offer towel service. Also, whether you have a janitorial staff who cleans your entire club at night – perhaps they can quote you on their rates to add the gym to their existing cleaning load.
One of the places I work has one employee who works 20 hours per week on keeping the club clean during the day, no towel service so no towels to collect, wash, dry, fold, distribute. The other club where I work is much larger, but has two full time people just for towel service, including he washing, folding, and distribution to pool and workout areas.