Gym Software & Staff Motivation
What do you consider when choosing new software for your gym? The top of your comparison metrics should contain things like features, price, and integrations. Plugins and aesthetics might also be considerations. Perhaps you’re even thinking about support availability and uptime guarantees. Just as important as these things, though often overlooked, is ease of use. Have you considered the importance of efficiency of operation? Have you priced in the effect of bad software on your team’s morale?
Often overlooked, your choice of software can be the determining factor in whether your star trainers and floor staff stay for years or only months. Look at it from their perspective - given the high demand for their skills, why should they suffer through painful workflows and glitchy scheduling? Constant friction from a poor software suite wears down motivation and drags on performance just as much as low pay and lack of purpose. Given the importance of creating an efficient and seamless workplace in our increasingly digital world, the next question is: How do you do it?
There’s a simple three step process to evaluate a new software tool.
Identify your common workflows and how difficult they are to do.
Figure out how well it talks to your existing tools - does it have you repeating work?
Determine how it performs. Does it have your employees waiting for several seconds between every screen or does it crash multiple times a week? The hours add up!
1. Determine Common Workflows
The hours can quickly add up throughout the year even on infrequent workflows. For example, a four hour task performed monthly adds up to over a week of work by the end of the year. Or, consider a more common example: A one minute task that needs to be done ten times a day, such as signing up a new member. This takes up almost the same amount of time! A full week gone, just for that one task. And a more common workflow, let’s say modifying a user’s payment information? Three minutes twice daily adds up to a full day spent only on this.
With your team’s morale in jeopardy, carefully consider how much time your common workflows take. Compile a list of all the actions you and your team need to do that take more than ten minutes if done monthly, more than a minute if done daily, or more than a second if done more than once a day. If you’re not sure, just use your best judgment - the goal is to put together the list of all activities that will add up to a more significant chunk of time than you’re willing to have your team waste. Once you have this list, work through each activity on the software you’re trialing. For each one, ask yourself how the performance is. Ask yourself how your team would feel repeating it however many times a day, a week. Ask if the workflow has unnecessary steps, unnecessary screens between where you start and where you’re trying to reach.
Consider the price in motivation you pay for your team’s wasted time.
2. Integrations and Repeated Work
Have you ever been on a website that has you enter in information multiple times? For example, if your billing address and delivery address are the same, what’s the level of frustration you feel when you have to enter both separately? Imagine encountering that daily, or even multiple times throughout the day, over weeks or months. This is what living without integrations is like.
For your potential new software, line up a list of all the key information it needs from your other systems. Now consider how that information will be transferred between systems. Are your staff members going to need to enter information twice? Similar to common workflows that take longer than they should, this repetition of work is every bit as draining on morale. Your team deserves efficiency. Don’t waste their time with softwares that can’t speak to one another and they’ll reward you with increased productivity.
3. System Performance
The last thing to consider is how this new software performs. Think of your software as a road and your staff as drivers. The workflows you need to follow are your routes, but the speed at which the workflows function are the traffic along the route. The more effective your software, the less often your staff will be stuck in traffic. Every stutter, lag, and crash that your team suffers is a drain on motivation.
Though the performance of software can vary over time, you can do a couple things to gauge this ahead of time. The first and easiest is to test out the workflows yourself, which we’ve already discussed. The most effective way to judge a system’s performance, however, is to talk to the people who use it. As simple as it may seem, getting references from the vendor and interviewing them about their usage can save you more time and money than any amount of research could. Though this extra step may feel awkward and inconvenient, it truly is worth the time and effort it takes.
Conclusion
Your team’s motivation is one of the top factors in your gym’s retention and, in turn, revenue. Your choice of software will often be a make-or-break decision for your team’s motivation. Though indirect, the link between revenue and software is indisputable. Your choice of what tools with which to equip your staff with is a vital choice that can either empower your team or set them unsteady ground and drive them away.
Following this simple, three step process will ensure that your team has the suite of software they need to thrive. Determine your common workflows and try them out in the tools you’re considering. Explore what data needs to exist across multiple programs and figure out how it can move between them. Talk to other users of the software; ask them how their experience has been.
No matter what type of software you’re evaluating, keep in mind one thing above all else. How will the users of the software, your team, feel about using it every day? Will it be a daily pain point in their life, or will it make their shift easier? Ensure that your software works towards, and not against, your team’s motivation. Choose the right tools and let your team thrive.