Support your fitness studio with Stress-Free Subbing Policies

Let's be honest. As a boutique studio owner, staffing has topped your emergency list a time or two (or more if you have multiple teachers). It's a double-edged sword. You need staff to grow your fitness business, but many studio owners spend most of their time managing their teachers' schedules and sub-requests - resulting in less availability than before. 

So, what do you do? Unfortunately, there isn't an easy plug-and-play perfect solution for all studios. Depending on your staff's personalities and your studio's culture, what works for you will likely look drastically different than what works for the studio down the street. But there are areas you can begin to customize so you spend less time managing your staff and more time working on your business goals.

Incentivize to Prioritize

That's a mouthful, but it's some of the best advice I've ever received in my business. I was a brand new studio owner, and subbing was running me ragged. At my breaking point, I was sitting outside my studio crying and SOS texting my business coach before subbing my sixth class that week. "You need to incentivize what you want to optimize, Niki." Essentially, she was suggesting that I pay my staff more to prioritize the specific tasks I wanted them to focus on. In my case? Sub for each other and leave me out of it so I could actually get some work done. 

I adjusted the phrasing for clarity, but the mission is the same. Pay more for what you don't want to do yourself or don't have time for. Remember that quote and use it whenever you're left doing something in your business that you desperately wish someone else would take over. Use bonuses, commissions, and even surprises to incentivize your staff to take on specific tasks.

I've heard the counterarguments hundreds of times, "but why do I have to pay people more to do their job?" In a perfect business world, maybe you wouldn't, but we're not living there. If it comes down to pulling out your hair, sacrificing growth action items, or paying an incentive to encourage strategic prioritization for my staff, I know which one I chose. 

Pay Your Staff 

Gen Z is leading the job charge, and they're bringing a whole new culture to the workforce. Although they get a bad rap, the movement isn't all negative. They're passionate about work-life balance, which means they're less likely to burn out and grind themselves into the ground (I see you, fellow workaholic millennials). The good news is their enthusiasm for work they care about is unparalleled, and if they feel supported by the culture, they're in for the long haul. Statistically, Millennials want to belong to a cause and make a difference. Your millennial teacher is looking for a purpose that is bigger than what she could support on her own. These are neat assumptions, but research shows they ring true in most cases.

Knowing the stereotype is one thing; building a culture that supports your team and helps them feel connected to your studio is another. Within that framework, you'll want to remember that the "act your wage" movement has changed the workforce, and doing anything that isn't explicitly fairly compensated will not fly. This isn't a bad thing. As an employee and a member of society, I'm all in, but as a manager? It presents challenges that the previous generations didn't have to consider. 

So how do you keep your studio profitable and also pay staff more? I like to use a Staff Responsibility Bonus.

Bonus Pay

Here's how I solve both problems with my studio and my clients. Choose a fair base rate, let's say $30/hour. Then identify the three to five tasks you want to incentivize and prioritize. For my studio, they are:

1. Arrive early and prepared for class.

2. Submit your invoice on time.

3. Attend five classes per month as a student (builds community and teacher skills).

4. Find your own subs and sub for others.
   

The tasks you want to optimize may be completely different. I chose those because they were my studio's four most significant issues. If the teachers had completed the four tasks included in the responsibility bonus at the end of the pay period, they added $5 per class taught. Instead of making $30 an hour, they made $35. They were in charge of tracking their bonuses on an invoice which was also included in their responsibility bonus.

I also included a large class bonus for any class with 75% capacity filled. So now, instead of $30 or $35, teachers made $40 for those classes. The large class bonus encourages staff to advertise their classes, build connections, and foster community in order to increase their class sizes. Sure, some class times are more popular than others, but I could always tell who was connecting with the clientele to get their large staff bonus and who wasn't. 

What If They Don't Earn The Bonus?

It happens. The most significant task on my responsibility bonus was the sub-requests requirement. We operated with a request-a-class, sub-a-class system that worked well. Teachers put their requests on our quarterly google sub sheet and look for classes they could take on in exchange. If I had to sub or cancel a class, the team responsibility bonus was forfeited for the pay period. Of course, emergency situations didn't count.

Studio owners often ask if the sub-system was unpopular with my staff. It may sound harsh, but my team appreciated it (and still do with the new owner). In most studios- possibly yours as well- subbing tends to fall disproportionately on a handful of teachers- and usually not the ones asking for all the coverage. 

The team responsibility bonus ensures that the teachers work together to cover classes and decreases the opportunity for some staff to take advantage of others' generosity by clearly showing who is subbing vs. requesting. On average, bonuses are only forfeited once a year, and the studio owner isn't on the hook for 40 classes a week. 

Is it a Culture Problem?

You likely have a deeper issue if you have systems and training in place and still struggle with sub-requests. 

Consider:

1. Your teachers are checked out or disengaged. Often the case if your teachers are extremely part-time with just one or two classes a week.

2. Your teachers feel disconnected from each other. It's hard to have a team responsibility clause if your staff don't know, trust, or value each other.

3. You've accidentally built a culture where you're constantly stepping into sub, so you're everyone's first line of defense sub-plan. 
   

None of these scenarios has a quick fix, but they're not a permanent problem, either. Once you identify the issue, you can start taking actionable steps toward a long-term solution that builds community within your staff and holds everyone to the same expectation. We'll cover community building within your team in our next article.

Creating sub-solutions and solving them for good won't happen overnight, but don't lose hope. You don't have to be a short-order sub for every class forever. It's one of the most frequent complaints on early coaching calls, but take comfort in the fact that it can be temporary with a long-term strategy. 

Need a sample sub-system sheet? Grab the one I’ve used for years. 

Ready to dive deeper than an article and watch sub systems in practice? We’re going to dive into all things staff strategy at our upcoming “Solve Your Staffing Stress” workshop. Learn more below.