Personal Fitness Professional - May 2008 - (Page 18)

• Communicating mutual expectations about time-oﬀ entitlements, performance and behavior expectations may reduce liability. If policies aren’t communicated in writing, there is always room for misunderstanding and misinterpretation. Get clear by putting it in ink. • A well-written “at-will employment” disclaimer, outlining the employer’s and the employee’s legal right to terminate the employment relationship at any time, can strengthen a business owner’s right to terminate an employee. This is a paragraph that might be handy to have in legalese. Check with your lawyer; he or she probably has a stock “at-will employment” disclaimer. • Employees want to see the same standard applied to everyone. What may seem to you at ﬁrst as rigid rules is really a way of treating your folks fairly and giving them the opportunity to succeed. If you’re making up your policies, rewards and consequences as you go, there will be inequity and, ultimately, resentment. What Should the Handbook Entail? A good place to start is to consider all of the information that a new hire might want to know. What are the things you tell a new trainer during his or her training period? Do you cover your dress code, what you expect of them during the training session and chores they must do following the session? Cover, in writing, all the procedures the trainers and other employees are responsible for within your business. Then, think about the areas of your business where confusion or conﬂict might arise. If not speciﬁcally laid out, consequences can seem random and biased. By clearly delineating what your consequences are for certain behaviors, or lack of behaviors, you remove yourself from being the inequitable tyrant. Instead, you become the enforcer of a fair plan that applies to everybody. Try to foresee problems that you haven’t had to deal with, and create policies for those situations as well. When I was writing the dress requirements section of my trainer handbook, I speciﬁed that trainers must wear black shorts, long enough to cover their rear end but not so long that the hemline drops below the knee. MAY2008 · WWW.FIT-PRO.COM I’ve never had a female trainer who had her cheeks hanging out the back of her shorts or a male trainer wear shorts so baggy he could pack a semi-automatic weapon, but I have seen trainers in other facilities in just such attire. Knowing that our more mature and upper-income clientele doesn’t appreciate that type of fashion statement — and neither do I — I wanted to eliminate the possibility of that ever coming into my studio. Don’t get so speciﬁc that you back yourself into a corner if a person needs to be let go. A terminated employee may be able to hold you liable or in violation of contract, if procedures aren’t followed to a tee before the ﬁring. You want to clearly communicate procedures and consequences, but you don’t want to have to keep a toxic trainer around for weeks I. O or months longer than necessary just bever view and Ph cause you haven’t given yourself an out. II. N ilosoph ew Tra ies iner Pr Clearly state as many oﬀenses as you can ocedur III. D ress Re es conjure up, like lying, stealing, causing quirem IV. Re ents harm to a client, publicly disparaging your questin g Time V. St Oﬀ, Sic business, etc., that an employee or contracudio P k Days rocedu & Holi tor can be ﬁred immediately for doing. res VI. Th days e Clien t Cons Use your handbook as a way to VII. Th ultatio n (or th e Train communicate your vision, direction and e Sales ing Ses Proces VIII. P sion s) rofes passion. Before getting into any of the Sample Ta for a Tr ble of Content s a Employ ining Studio ee Han dbook 18 tting C IX. Re procedures and rules, write an overview onduc wards t and Co X. Em nseque and philosophies section that gives new nces ployee Ackno employees history on your company, how wledge (signatu ment re and your business is superior to others and the date re quired ) direction and achievements the company will see in the future. Get your people ﬁred up about working on your team, and then the procedures and policies will resonate with integrity and fairness rather than just short-lease authority. Finally, include a page at the end of the manual — to be signed, dated and returned to you — that is an acknowledgement that the employee has received the manual, understands its contents, has had opportunities to ask questions and agrees to follow it. Called an “employee acknowledgment,” this is a critical piece to avoiding statements like “But I didn’t know you wanted that!” or, worse yet, the claim of ignorance and accusation of your negligence after ﬁring. I think it is advantageous to read the entire manual to your staﬀ and go over it one-on-one with new hires. Your employee handbook will be a living document. Don’t think that once it’s written, it’s done. Continually grow it as your business ﬂourishes and as you learn from experience. Your ﬁtness business is only as strong as your team. If your team doesn’t know what you expect and inspect, they will never live up to their potential. And, sadly, neither will you. Shelby Murphy is the owner/director of Shelby Murphy Training & Fitness personal training studio and Granbury Adventure Boot Camp in Granbury, Texas. Shelby Murphy Training & Fitness was awarded the 2007 Rising Star business award from the Chamber of Commerce. With four trainers and an assistant on her team, Shelby regrets not writing an employee handbook when she opened her doors in late 2006. Visit www.shelbymurphyﬁtness.com or www.granburybootcamp.com for more information. ● sional Se http://www.shelbymurphyfitness.com http://www.granburybootcamp.com http://WWW.FIT-PRO.COM

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Personal Fitness Professional - May 2008

Personal Fitness Professional - May 2008 Contents Letter from the Editor, Writers Live Your Supertrainer Legacy Current Controversies Effective Employee Manuals Product Profiles The Coolest Training Zone The Making of a Top-Notch Boot Camp Instructor Mark Your Calendar Caffeine Exercise Spotlight Product Profiles New on the Market [Spotlight] Trish Muse

Personal Fitness Professional - May 2008

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