How to Hire for a Fitness Studio: Stop Hiring on Gut Feel

The article · 3 min read

The Industry Is Reshuffling. Are You?

Look around. GLL just named Philip Donnay as its new CEO as Peter Bundey steps back, per Health Club Management. Fitness International’s Club Studio is expanding across LA, according to Athletech News. ACISO Consulting brought on four new staff across consulting and marketing, reports fitness MANAGEMENT. This isn’t coincidence: it’s a signal. The operators positioning for growth are doing it through people, not just programming.

Meanwhile, AI coaching platforms are multiplying fast. The Adecco Group launched EZRA Loop, an AI-plus-human coaching service, and Careerz Group dropped Careerz Coach AI, which connects workforce assessment data to on-demand guidance, according to markets.businessinsider.com. The message from the corporate world is loud: the future of coaching (fitness or otherwise) is a hybrid of smart technology and the right humans running it.

If you’re a boutique studio owner still hiring on gut feel and availability, you’re already behind.

The Real Problem: Leadership Gaps Are Killing Growth

Athletch News put it plainly: hiring the right General Manager can be a genuine growth lever for boutique fitness businesses. Not a nice-to-have. A lever.

Here’s what that actually means. A weak GM doesn’t just slow you down: they cap you. Member retention stalls. Staff culture drifts. You stay stuck handling shift problems when you should be planning your second location. The studios expanding right now, like Club Studio in LA, aren’t doing it because they found a magic marketing channel. They’re doing it because someone capable is holding the operational centre together while the owner thinks bigger.

The AI coaching launches from Adecco and Careerz reinforce this from a different angle. Both platforms explicitly pair AI tools with human guidance, because data without a person who knows how to act on it is useless. Same logic applies to your front desk, your floor coaches, and especially your GM. Tech can assist. It cannot lead.

Do This Now: Hire Like Your Growth Depends On It (It Does)

Stop treating your next leadership hire as a logistics problem and start treating it as a strategy decision. Here’s a concrete process:

1. Write the role around outcomes, not tasks. Don’t list duties. List what success looks like in 90 days: member retention stable, team scheduled without your input, one new revenue initiative tested. Candidates who respond to outcomes are the ones who’ll deliver them.

2. Assess before you interview. The Careerz Coach AI launch highlights something worth stealing: connecting assessment data to people decisions. Use a simple values or working-style assessment before you spend an hour on a call. Filter for fit early, not after you’re already emotionally invested.

3. Give them real authority on day one. The boutique studios that hire great GMs and then micromanage them don’t grow: they churn good people. Define the lane, then get out of it.

4. Build a talent pipeline now, not when you’re desperate. GLL didn’t scramble when Bundey announced his retirement: they had a successor. You should always have one or two people in your network you could call. Attend industry events. Stay connected.

The fitness industry is consolidating around operators who take people strategy seriously. The gap between studios that scale and studios that stall is almost never the workout concept. It’s the team behind it.