Ever feel like your employer doesn’t quite value your contribution to the organization? The other day a colleague told me about a conversation she had with a contact at a national health club chain – you might be surprised which one – that featured exactly that situation. This person is a personal trainer at one of the company’s locations, and was surprised to recently learn that as part of the firm’s cost-cutting efforts in the wake of the recession, she and her fellow trainers at the club have inherited responsibility for the cleaning and upkeep of one of the facility’s restrooms.
Excuse me? The fact that some facilities treat their personal trainers – their fitness and health professionals – as simply a club equivalent of car salesmen is bad enough in my view (perhaps I’ll save my detailed view on that for another post). Now this company decides that having these professionals clean bathrooms is a good bottom-line strategy. Demoralizing? Yeah, I’d say so. Let me line up to work there. Increased staff turnover? Coming right up. Brand equity? Uh, yeah, I think the club’s and each individual trainer’s brand just took a hit on that one; let’s face it, would you view your doctor or the practice the same way if you walked in the bathroom and saw him/her cleaning up and replacing the toilet paper? Poor resource allocation? Yep, got that one here too – these people are supposed to be generating revenue by transforming lives, and now instead of working on their craft or client management during their downtime, they’re pulling out the Charmin.
Monthly dues are typically the dominant source of revenue for facilities, but programs, services, and food & beverages are where a club really makes its money and reinvests into the equipment and facility. And given that the health club industry is essentially a service business, it makes sense that clubs respect their providers since they – in various areas of a facility – are the ones creating the experience for users. Equipment is great, locker rooms are a wow factor, but people are really the difference-makers. Unfortunately, some companies treat their differentiating factors like commodities. Not a problem for patrons as long as they are comfortable lowering their expectations.
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