At Gainesville Health and Fitness we use checklists in each department to help keep work organized and hold our teams accountable. As a result, I found myself buried in a pile of paper checklists at the end of each month, trying to gather accurate information on who was doing what.
It’s when I was introduced to Google Docs, specifically Google Forms, that I was able to optimize my information gathering and the everyday coaching of my team.
Through Google Forms, we created an online system for each of our departments to fulfill checklists on things such as housekeeping items, proper opening and closing procedures, and even challenges for the team to become more engaged with our members.
In the past, we would collect these checklists in paper form and they would easily get misplaced or overlooked as scrap. Thus, all accountability was lost amongst the people who filled them out.
Now, the forms are automatically organized into detailed spreadsheets online for the managers to use each day. With all of the information accurately organized at the end of each month, we are able to use that to evaluate each employee’s level of work based on what they completed.
We also found that we are able to use these forms to encourage employees to engage with the members more each day. We created challenges for the team to find out more information about each member. For example, we had them find out what member had a great joke, who had traveled the furthest, or other random facts — encouraging engagement. An award was given to the person who unveiled the best or most interesting answer.
Checklists are a great way to keep track of your team’s work and challenge them to try new things. Before Google Docs, I was researching different companies’ programs and systems and never found anything that worked. And if I did, the costs were through the roof.
I would implore you to see if Google Docs would work for you and your team and how it can help improve production as a whole. If you would be interested in seeing what we have created please feel free to contact me any time at Adrian@ghfc.com.
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.
