A question that often comes up when people ask about Gainesville Health and Fitness is how we are able to find so many good, hardworking employees. Too often I hear people say that there aren’t any people out in the community worth hiring, however I have to strongly disagree with that statement. The amount of people looking for work these days is astronomical and finding the right person for your business starts with first establishing and understanding who you are as a company. It took a long process several years ago for us to identify and define the different aspects that make up our company’s culture.
Here at Gainesville Health and Fitness culture is defined as the way we do things. It’s the fever everybody catches when they join our organization. We broke down the different aspects of our culture into eight different items that are described as follows:
1. A learning and challenging environment that DEVELOPS LEADERS who are:
• Responsible: Always accepting responsibility for their behavior, taking ownership of problems (to solve them) and following through with all tasks.
• Professional: Appropriate communication, manners, physical appearance/attire.
• Dedicated: Always going the extra mile.
• Energetic: Boundless energy, full of life, enthusiastic, positive attitude: always demonstrating these characteristics, even when they are having a bad day.
• Passionate: Strong, unwavering belief in our cause.
• Fearless: Willing to try something new; making aggressive mistakes – taking risks through well planned and executed decisions.
• Knowledgeable: Educational opportunities that are always available include:
– “War College” to include training in sales, finance, leadership, personal development, time management, operations, marketing, maintenance, rehab, public speaking, exercise/nutrition and personal training.
– Initial training
– Pre/post shifts
– In-house workshops
– Follow-up training
– Certification sessions (host)
– Community outreach programs
– Cross training
2. An ENVIRONMENT of TEAMWORK:
• Individuals make sacrifices for the good of the team.
• Mutual trust/respect for co-workers; staff fill in for each other, sales staff help each other to reach individual goals (to achieve greater group goal).
• One team, better and faster than anybody in the world (Dick Stonesifer of GE Appliances). Providing people with the support they need to contribute, rewarding people for helping each other, assigning work to ensure interdependency, making you an integral member of the team.
• All staff work toward a common goal/shared understanding.
• Anecdote: My supervisor told me that teamwork depends on the performance of every single person on the team. I ignored that idea until my supervisor showed me how the office typewriter performs when just xne single key is xut xf xrder. All the xther keys xn xur typewriter wxrk just fine except xne, but that xne destrxys the effectiveness xf the typewriter. Nxw I knxw that even thxugh I am xnly xne persxn, I am needed if the team is tx wxrk as a successful team should.
3. APPRECIATION and REWARD for EXCEPTIONAL PERFORMANCE
• The Eagle Program
• Master Instructor Program
• Conferences/Seminars/Certifications
• Structured Evaluations/Raises
• Monthly continuing education sessions
• Advancement opportunities/more responsibility
• Employee Fun calendar
• Employee Suggestion Program
• Rock All-Star Banquet
• Mentor Program
4. EXCEPTIONAL Customer Service
• Gainesville Health & Fitness’s Customer Service Philosophy – Priority #1
• Smile
• Learn and use everyone’s first names
• Introduce all guests and members to other employees
• Be friendly and warm to everyone
• Say hello and goodbye to everyone
• Escort all members to their destination
• Voice of the Customer (VOTC) focus; we continually look for better ways to serve the customer, such as new training methods, new programs, better facilities, more cleanliness.
• Suggestion box, timely response, solve the problem and/or resolve the issue.
• Medallia member surveys.
• Staff training to effectively/efficiently handle “moments of truths.”
• Survey members using formal and informal tools to determine needs/wants.
5. OPTIMISTIC View of the Future
• We believe we control our own destiny.
• We see the glass half full.
• We believe we can be the best there is.
6. CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
• Kaizen improvements (small steps or evolutionary changes toward improvement): development of zones, scripting for sales team, mandatory group training for all staff, new rehabilitation treatments.
• Breakthrough improvements (major or revolutionary developments): Gainesville Health and Fitness for Women, Nautilus/Medx Circuit, low-back machine in rehab, ReQuest Physical Therapy for Women, ReQuest merger with North Florida Regional Medical Center, EFT payment option, sales manual/system, x-force.
• Knowing we can always be better.
7. SHARING KNOWLEDGE
• We share our knowledge with staff, local community and the fitness industry.
• We provide educational seminars, exercise classes, health fairs, internships, practicum and volunteer experiences.
• We also share our knowledge by teaching health clubs, physical therapists, physicians and educators from all over the world to run a successful business.
8. Uncommon level of COMMITMENT to our Physical Environment
• We have systems to maintain facilities that are clean, orderly and well maintained.
• We have a full-time maintenance staff and a team of over 40 housekeepers.
• We believe cleanliness is everyone’s job.
• We have a 24 hour repair deadline on all equipment.
• We are ranked as one of the four cleanest clubs in America.
Adrian Antigua is the operations manager for Gainesville Health and Fitness in Tioga, Fla. Formerly a desk manager, Antigua is heavily involved in customer service and staff training. For questions on operations, e-mail Antigua at AdrianA@ghfc.com.
