Develop Policies & Procedures for Your Gym Staff

As a gym manager, your staff is your most precious asset. As such, they need to be your number one investment in terms of time and energy. 

To ensure that your staff is happy, safe, and confident in their position it is vital that you have clear policies and procedures in place. 

In this article, we’ll provide an overview of how to create staff policies and procedures that will promote a positive workplace culture while keeping everyone on the same page. 

The Employee Handbook

The key to good employee relations is clear, open communication. You cannot expect your staff to follow your policies if they aren’t sure what they are. That’s why an employee handbook makes sense. 

An employee handbook is a document that is created for your staff that contains all of your employee policies and procedures. It clearly spells out the do and don’ts of the business and provides an easily accessible go-to resource for staff when going about their duties.

As well as laying out your policies and procedures, your employee handbook should also present your mission, values, and culture. This helps to create a sense of belonging, something which research tells us that staff craves. 

By clearly communicating your gym’s policies and procedures in black and white, you will remove confusion. Your employees will also have no excuse not to know what their expectations and responsibilities are. 

All policies should reflect your unique business needs, while also taking into account Federal, State, and local laws. It should also address the day-to-day operations of the gym including dealing with customers. 

Before distributing your employee handbook to your staff, you should have it reviewed by a legal professional to ensure that it does not contravene any laws. 

What are Policies and Procedures?

A policy is a statement of operating intent. It guides employee behavior and spells out the official business stance on an issue. 

An example of a policy is “We offer a money-back guarantee if members are not completely satisfied.”

A procedure spells out how the policy will be implemented. These are done in as much detail as possible to ensure that the employee knows exactly what to do. 

Getting Started

Creating a document to cover all of your policies and procedures may seem like a daunting task. To make sure that you’re not chasing your tail, you need to do it in an organized manner. 

Start by creating a master folder to contain all of the relevant documents. 

From my experience, it’s easier to use something like a 3-ring binder to create a hard copy master folder than to have one online. This will allow you to make revisions and additions without reprinting the entire document. A hardcopy employee handbook is also easier to distribute to staff.

You should date every page of the employee handbook so that your staff can see that it is timely. The manual should be divided into various sections. Then begin collecting any existing policies or procedures specific to each section. If there are areas where you don’t have an existing policy, insert a blank sheet of paper. 

Write a draft outline of what you think your policies and procedures should be in each area. Here is a suggested overview of the sections within your employee handbook:

• Introduction
• Employment Issues
• Operational Issues

Let’s now drill down one each of these areas …

Introduction

This is where you welcome employees to the organization and share the company’s values, mission statement, and culture. 

Employment Issues

There is a myriad of human relations issues that may arise and it is impossible to cover all of them. However, you can include policies and procedures to provide for most situations that may occur. The following areas may be included:

• Equal Employment Opportunity Statement 

• Recruitment and hiring procedures (including rejection of applicants policy) 

• Employment status and probation policy 

• Employment of relatives 

• Employee medical information 

• Immigration law compliance 

• Conflict of interest issues 

• Outside employment 

• Uniform or dress code policy 

• Gifts and gratuities 

• Non-compete and non-disclosure statement 

• Discipline policy 

• Access to personnel files 

• Drug, alcohol, and tobacco policy 

• Vacation, holiday, and leave policies • Benefits policy 

• Use of gym property 

• Technology and social media policy 

• Injury and Illness Prevention Plan (IIPP) 

• Personnel (personal status changes) data changes 

• Anti-violence and harassment policy 

• Introductory / probationary / training period 

• Work schedules and timekeeping requirements 

• Rest and/or meal periods

 • Employee and management responsibilities

This is quite a comprehensive list and you may decide that you do not need a policy and procedure for every single one of them. However, the inclusion or absence of a policy and procedure should be the result of a deliberate decision rather than because you neglected it or didn’t get round to it. 

To give you an idea of how you can write your policies and principles in such a way that it doesn’t come across as a cold, sterile or negative document, here is an example relating to personal grooming, courtesy of usagym.org …

Beauty is only skin deep and it is true that you can’t judge a book by its cover, but appearance and first impressions mean a lot. Therefore, clean uniforms are required to be worn by every employee!

Staff will be required to purchase a new shirt or will have to forfeit his/her shift if they do not have a staff shirt on when they arrive at work. We recommend black shorts (no shorter than the tips of the fingers) or black pants but uniform shirts are a must. 

Open toed shoes or sandals are not recommended. A professional appearance conveys the image we are trying to present. You will be treated as a professional if you look like a professional. 

Cleanliness is next to godliness but neatness counts – clean clothes, well manicured, and showered.

When you are writing your policies and procedures in each of these areas, it is important to have multiple pairs of eyes to check over them to ensure that you are clearly stating what you intend to say. This is a case where every word counts so you need to be sure that there is no possibility that an employee could misinterpret a statement.

Do not make any promises or guarantees in the wording of your policies and procedures. You should also stay away from any words that connate a contractual guarantee when talking about your obligations to your employees. These include ‘will’, ‘shall’, and ‘must’. 

You should not make any promises of job security as the employee may be able to seize upon it as grounds for legal action if things go sour. 

Operational Issues

There are all manner of things that could arise in the day-to-day running of the business. Again, it would be impossible to write policies and procedures to cover each of them. The following list, however, will cover most situations that your business will encounter:

• Business (finance and accounting) expenses and purchasing

• Safety and Safe Work Practices 

• Equipment use / inspections / maintenance 

• Use of phone and mail systems 

• Emergency action plans 

• Program information 

• Use of company equipment and vehicles 

• Facility operations – Open and closing procedures – Utilities shut-off locations 

• Customer service – Registrations – Refunds – Transfers – Orientations

Your employee handbook should be updated annually to keep it current. Among other things, this will allow you to keep up with Federal and State laws, which are constantly changing.

The scope of this article does not allow us to provide examples for each of the listed areas. So, let’s just focus on one of them; civil disturbance.

Here is an example of a civil disturbance policy and procedure from usagym.org:

In the event of a shelter in place or lock-down situation, visitors and staff are to congregate in the interior of the facility and are to remain there until police determine that it is safe to leave. No one is to venture outside. 

• If a riot occurs in the vicinity, all perimeter doors are to be locked. 

• Contact the police (911) to report the disturbance; include any observations you’ve made. 

• In the case of a civil disturbance such as an angry employee, customer, group of people, etc., remain calm. 

• Listen to the person(s) carefully and speak to them in a calm straightforward manner. 

• Under no circumstances speak to the individuals in a condescending or hostile tone of voice. 

• Do not offer unsolicited information. 

• If necessary, call 911 and have the police department handle the situation. 

Even if the situation appears to resolve itself without involving the police, document the incident with as much pertinent information as possible. Make other employees aware of the situation as appropriate. 

Do and Don’ts

Creating an employee handbook that includes your policies and procedures is a major task. It can be tempting to pay an outside agency to create it for you or to simply copy and paste the policies and procedures of other businesses. 

I advise against doing either of these things. Unless your policies and procedures are crafted from the ground up, you are setting yourself up for problems down the line.

Here are seven policies and procedures dos and don’ts learned from bitter experience.

Don’t Create Policies & Procedures on the Fly

When I opened my first gym at the age of 22, the last thing I wanted to do was spend hours writing a policies and procedures document; I was all about getting on the gym floor and training people. As a result, I didn’t create a policy until a problem arose. But that was like closing the stable door after the horse had bolted!

Learn from my bad example by biting the bullet and investing the time and energy to create a comprehensive policies and procedures document from the get-go.

Do Regularly Update the Document

In addition to creating your policies and procedures document before you open your doors, you need to treat it as a living document, updating regularly. If, after you’ve been operating for some time, you see the need to change a policy, don’t be afraid to do so. But make sure that you are totally transparent about the process. Consult with your staff, seeking their input. 

Don’t Copy Another Gym’s Document

This is more common than you might have thought – and it frequently leads to problems. You need to give thought to every word that you put down in your policies and procedures statements document in order to think through its ramifications. To do that, they need to be your words.

You might decide to use another gym’s policies and procedures document as a template. But you need to be very careful not to get lazy and start copying and pasting. It should serve merely as a framework or skeleton for your unique document. 

Don’t Portray Mistrust

Some policies and procedures documents read like a list of hall room monitor pronouncements against naughty kids. You don’t want your document to alienate your staff and make them feel as if they are the lesser party. 

Do not write out your policies as if you expect the worst from your employees or, for that matter, your gym members. If you do either of these things, neither party will hang around for very long!

Do Portray Your Commitment to a Positive Environment

Your policies and procedures document should impart to every employee the message that you are committed to helping them receive their highest level of professional development. By the same token, you should express your expectation that they will commit themselves to supporting your business goals. 

Do Document Policies and Procedures

Many businesses, especially busy gyms, make the effort to create a policies and procedures document but then file it away, never to be heard from until a serious problem arises. That is not good business practices.

You should have procedures displayed for staff to follow. Some procedures should require the employee to sign off after ticking off each step. For instance, if an employee oversees a dispute between two members, he should follow a procedure document, ticking off each step and then signing it off when the process has run through. 

When employees violate your policies and procedures, these should be addressed and recorded. This will help to protect your business in the event of a dismissal legal case.

Do Have Employees Formally Acknowledge Receipt

Once you have created your employee handbook, passed it by your board of directors, and then had it analyzed by an attorney, you should have copies made for your employees. Have each person sign an acknowledgment form. This will provide you with a written trail to show that they have no excuse for ignorance if things end up in the courts.

The acknowledgment form should state that the employee has received, read, and become familiar with the policies and procedures and was given the opportunity to ask for any clarification.

Key Point Summary

• A procedure is a statement of operating intent. A policy spells out the steps to be taken to implement the procedure. 
• You should develop a procedures and policies document as part of an employee handbook.
• The document should cover how every employee should conduct him/herself.
• Have the document checked by an attorney before distribution
• The employee handbook should be distributed to every staff member, who should sign a receipt acknowledgment.
• The employee handbook should be considered a living document that is regularly updated.