Interview with Alicia Goetze, BFC Balance Fitness Club GmbH

fM: In the three balance studios in Flensburg you place great emphasis on individual and holistic care. How important is the Qualification of your employees for your positioning as a professional fitness and health service provider?

Alicia Goetze: We place great value on the qualifications of our employees so that we can offer our members optimal and professional care and quality standards. We position ourselves in the health sector and see it as our responsibility to support our members in achieving their goals through competence and knowledge.

In keeping with our philosophy of ‘Support is our strength’, we consider all training and further education to be important, which brings added value to members – be it in the training area, in consulting management, in the course area or in general in communication.

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Good, individual support does not only apply to the training area. In order to position yourself as a professional fitness and health service provider, sound technical knowledge and a competent demeanor that creates trust are essential in all areas.

It is important not only to acquire new qualifications, but also to consolidate existing ones. Through continuous internal training, we consolidate existing knowledge and ensure the quality standards that we want to offer our members.

In addition to the qualifications of the existing team, a good onboarding process for new employees is crucial. As part of the intensive induction process, which consists of various training courses, new employees receive a welcome folder from us in which all of our processes, concepts and standards are compiled.

This also includes the support book that we have written to convey and implement our philosophy. This gives new employees a direct knowledge base on which the training is based.

For us, further training for internal processes and our philosophy are just as essential qualifications as externally acquired degrees and licenses.

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We define qualified staff not only by their technical know-how, but also by their social and personal skills. In our company, the ability to work in a team, commitment, reliability, loyalty and motivation form the basic building blocks on which our technical qualifications are built.

They contribute significantly to a good working atmosphere and to the good implementation of internal work processes. A stable, well-functioning team is a crucial interface because it passes on its satisfaction to its members.

Member and employee satisfaction are therefore closely linked to positioning as a professional fitness and health provider.

Which qualifications and which soft skills have proven to be interdisciplinary member care from training to therapy has proven to be particularly valuable and how is this noticeable in everyday studio life?

In addition to qualifications in the field of nutrition and training, additional training in the field of orthopedics and rehabilitation has proven to be particularly valuable.

These help to identify symptoms, classify them better and refer customers to the physiotherapy team, who can then recommend the next steps.

Through interdisciplinary work, our members receive even more comprehensive, individual and targeted support and we can thus achieve the greatest possible customer benefit.

It has proven to be a good idea for physiotherapists to continue their training through internal workshops on the training equipment in the fitness area.

This gives therapists the opportunity to extend the treatment to the training area and to give targeted recommendations for further fitness training following therapy.

We can offer patients an all-round, worry-free package, with our physiotherapists working hand in hand with the trained team of trainers and accompanying them on their journey from therapy to training.

A key factor for successful interdisciplinary member care is the ability to communicate and work in a team. A lively exchange between the fitness and therapy teams in regular team meetings has proven to be useful.

You have completed a dual study program yourself and train numerous dual students in the BFC Balance Fitness Club GmbH studios. In your opinion, what is the big advantage of these practice-oriented courses?

The dual study program offers many advantages for both the students and for us as a training company.

By studying in parallel, students can acquire an enormous amount of knowledge during or even at the beginning of their studies, acquire numerous licenses and apply these skills directly to supervision or other areas.

The learning effect is significantly greater for the students, as what they have learned can be applied directly in practice. For us as a training company, this has the advantage that our students – after an intensive training period – can quickly take on independent tasks.

How do you ensure that you and Your team in the field of further education stay up to date?

Specialist magazines and specialist newsletters are very important to us. We are also in constant contact with our consultants, with whom we discuss trends in quarterly meetings and, if necessary, initiate appropriate training courses.

The monthly exchange with our network of studio operators from all over Germany also always brings new impulses.

What strategies do you use to counteract the shortage of skilled workers that many Industry participants face major challenges?

In the therapy area, the shortage of skilled workers is currently more noticeable for us than in the fitness area. We are currently experiencing this with the opening of our second physiotherapy location.

In addition to a comprehensive range of employee benefits, we now offer a welcome bonus and a placement bonus for applicants and referrals.

In addition, a pleasant and attractive workplace design, e.g. through flexible working hours, a modern working environment and a positive team atmosphere, is becoming increasingly important.

One advantage for our therapy area is that we can offer a very varied and interesting working environment through the direct connection and close cooperation with our fitness studios.

Our physiotherapists have the opportunity to extend treatment to the equipment in the fitness area and to expand their area of ​​responsibility to include prevention or rehabilitation courses. This offers added value not only to employees but also to patients.

In the fitness area and also in administration, we are now expanding our job advertisements by describing certain qualifications as ‘desirable’ but not ‘required’.

For example, we also give fitness enthusiasts who want to turn their hobby into a career the chance to enter the industry. Any missing licenses and professional qualifications will of course be retrained.

As a company that has been around for a long time – we are celebrating our 30th anniversary this year – and is constantly developing, we can offer a secure job, good future prospects and a pleasant working environment with a great team. That is not an insignificant factor.

In addition, we are counteracting the shortage of skilled workers by using digitalization to make our work processes more efficient and to create more time resources for our employees to look after members.

To what extent are new training or study programs interesting for your company that specifically support the health-oriented orientation of the studios?

Training or study courses with a health-oriented focus are particularly interesting for us due to our symbiosis of fitness, health and therapy.

Graduates in the field of sports and exercise therapy, for example, bring with them the knowledge that characterizes interdisciplinary cooperation between the fitness and therapy areas.

Which training and further education do you currently consider important?

Strong positioning through individual and competent support plays an increasingly important role.

We believe it is important that the qualifications and skills of employees not only relate to the training area, but also to interpersonal and social skills within the framework of communication and consulting management.

Fitness trainers are also coaches and motivators. All training and further education that adds value in the area of ​​customer loyalty is important.

We recently expanded our portfolio to include one-on-one personal coaching. In addition, health-oriented training courses in the areas of orthopedics, prevention and nutrition have proven successful.

In which areas do you want to train your team in the targeted further training in the coming months?

Internally, we would like to further expand our transition concepts between the fitness and physiotherapy areas, optimize them based on experience and make them even more efficient.

In addition, we are currently expanding our range of occupational health management services, which is why we are planning further training in the area of ​​Section 20 prevention courses. And we see even more potential in the cross-selling area and will train our team in additional sales.