By Liz Smith – Research Manager at SkillsActive

The sixth annual Working in Fitness Survey has shown that overall, the fitness industry is showing signs of resilience to the current economic climate with a stable workforce and continued investment in training but there remains more to be done in terms of improving standards in the industry for low pay, and poor career progression.

Developed by SkillsActive and the Register of Exercise Professionals (REPs) the Working in Fitness Survey 2009 was conducted between May and July, earlier this year. These findings are in line with the overall message coming out of the 2009 FIA State of the UK Fitness Industry Report released earlier this year that reported continued growth in the industry.

In spite of the economic downturn, four- fifths of fitness workers were positive about remaining in the industry for a minimum of five years with Northern Ireland and Scotland particularly positive. This may reflect, in part, the stability of the industry in the face of the downturn but it also highlights the personal value the fitness workforce gain from their work and the organisations they work for. Three-quarters of UK fitness respondents were prepared to recommend the main organisation they worked for to a friend. Chains of private fitness clubs were less likely to receive a recommendation, with 36 per cent of workers not willing to refer them. Multi-sports clubs / centres and education and training establishments (e.g. universities) fared better (87 per cent and 89 per cent of workers, respectively, recommended them).

An insight into what influences a recommendation is gleaned from examining levels of satisfaction. Figure 1 shows fitness employers are not currently meeting the expectations of their workforce in the two areas of promotion/career development and remuneration package. These two aspects are notably lower in those respondents who would not recommend their employer when compared to those who would.

There is further evidence to support the findings of dissatisfaction with pay

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Working in Fitness Survey 2009

The SkillsActive Research unit takes a closer look at the study widely regarded as the most accurate snapshot of working conditions, pay scales and job satisfaction for fitness professionals .

Figure 1: Level of satisfaction and whether an employer would be recommended

and career prospects when examining the factors that would persuade people to leave the industry. Nearly half of the workforce reported low pay as a reason to leave (48 per cent) and better career prospects elsewhere was noted by 37 per cent. Low pay is particularly noted as a factor by those respondents with the shortest expectations of remaining in the industry; 86 per cent of those expecting to stay up to one year and 69 per cent of those expecting to stay up to three years identified low pay. The occupations most commonly citing a lack of remuneration were club / duty managers (69 per cent), studio or fitness managers / team or group leaders (63 per cent) and gym instructors (60 per cent). Gym instructors are the

lowest paid role earning under £13,000 whilst club / duty managers and studio or fitness managers earn an average £21,200 and £18,100, respectively.

Just

over one third of the workforce reported receiving a pay rise in the last 12 months, lower than the previous year where half had an increase. The majority saw no change in pay. The private sector had a notably low figure reporting a rise (only 22 per cent).

Positively, factors such as leaving the industry due to an end of contract / redundancy was only reported by 14 per cent of the workforce and only seven per cent and five per cent of the self employed / freelance workers cited a lack of work or

The REPs Journal 2009;15(Dec):22-23