A well-run internship program can be a wonderful addition to your gym. It can increase value for your clients, help build culture, and it’s always nice to have more great coaches on the floor helping your clients. That being said, a poorly run internship program can be a nightmare resulting in headaches and possible loss of clients.
There are three things you need to consider before starting an internship program.
1.The Pros and Cons of an Internship Program
Internship programs can look like win-win situations. College kids need internship credits, gym owners like free labor. What’s not to like? Before you get too gung ho about getting interns it is good to make a list of the pros and cons before you even think about initiating an internship program.
Cons:
- Internship programs take up time (meetings, educating, disciplining, assignments, etc.)
- Interns can misinform clients leading to confusion.
- Interns can decrease training session energy.
Pros:
- Internship programs can add value and energy to your training sessions.
- Good interns are great during busy times of year when you are understaffed.
- Interns can keep you on your “A” game by asking good questions.
As a business, the most important thing to consider is whether or not having an internship program will affect your business and clients in a positive way.
For example, if you work primarily with younger clients or athletes and your staff is full of 30-somethings, having interns closer to your clients’ age will help create connections that may not happen as easily between the clients and older coaches. These connection will increase your clients’ buy-in to the program which will inevitably lead to better results and loyal clients.
Lastly and most importantly, do you have time to properly develop good interns so you can positively increase your clients’ experience?
2. What You Need to Have in Place
There are a few things you should have in place before starting an internship program that can save you a lot of headaches in the long run.
Put a system in place
Having a system both keeps interns accountable and allows multiple staff members to run the program.
Systems don’t have to be complicated. When I first started our internship program at Spurling Training Systems, all I had was a 12-week syllabus dictating what I was going to do from week to week and a 20 page handbook to help the interns get started. Since then I’ve made tweaks to our program every year as it has grown.
The three must-have systems to have in place before starting your own program are:
Handbook: This should have your company’s core values, what is expected of the interns (dress code, coaching schedule, assignments, etc.) and list of procedures (i.e. how to greet clients, cleaning routines, assessments/reassessment, warm ups, etc.).
Exercise Bank: Giving the interns an exercise bank makes sure they know all the exercises that your gym uses. I personally use an excel spreadsheet with all the exercises hyperlinked to Youtube videos.
Syllabus: This is an agenda of what you want to accomplish during the program. Break it down into weeks so it is easy to see what you want to accomplish each week. We have three categories for each week: Overall Goal of week, Gym Assignments, and Reading Assignments.
Good Coaches
Before you can even think of having interns you need to make sure your house is in order first. If you are having problems with your own team, then adding interns to the mix is not going to do anyone any favors.
If your team is well run and willing to teach and work with interns, then this will ensure a good learning and development environment for interns.
3. Understand the Process of Developing Interns
Now that we know the pros and cons of having an internship program and what should be in place before starting the program, let’s look at how we can develop our interns.
Choosing Good Interns
The key to having a good internship is starting with good interns. To me, this means someone that is eager to learn, asks questions, can hold a conversation, and most importantly has good character.
When first starting out I would take anyone that was interested in interning. I soon found out how horrible of an idea that was. Finding people that fit your culture, get along with your team, and have, at minimum, a willingness to talk to and help people, goes a long way.
I do a two-part interview process. The first part is a sit-down interview where I get to know the person, sort of like a first date. I find out what makes them tick and if they have a personality that will fit with our internship program and current team. Then I tell them how I teach and what I expect from them while they are here.
If I think they will be a good fit, I bring them back for a second interview. For this interview I have them come to the gym during a busy time and I just tell them to introduce themselves to the clients and get to know them. That’s all I say. After I have observed them I send them home. I ask the other coaches and, more importantly, the clients, what they thought of the prospective intern. If the feedback is positive, I have a new intern.
I do a two-part interview because I hire based on how easily someone can interact with our clients and how willing they are to learn.
Developing Interns
Once you’ve got a superstar of an intern, allow them to shine from day one. The biggest hurdle is getting interns comfortable with your training system, exercise terminology, cueing, do’s and don’t’s and just general orientation.
To be truthful, there is no way of getting around the intern’s deer-in-the-headlights look on the first day, but you can speed up that process by doing these three things:
Start educating them 3 plus months out
I send interns our exercise bank three months before their internship begins so they become familiar with our terminology. Each week leading up to their start date I send our interns articles and videos on subjects ranging from how to squat to what is habit based nutritional coaching. I also give them sample programs and warm-ups.
This will help them become familiar with the terminology and the types of programs your gym uses.
Have a first day orientation
On the first day get all the interns together and go through an orientation. This is where they will meet your team. Each team member should say how they can help the interns and what they expect from the them during the program. This makes sure everyone is on the same page.
Assign them primary clients
On their first day I email the interns the names of two or three clients that they are responsible for. They will have to know the client’s warmup and exercises for that day. This allows the intern to become familiar with the exercises and also with the clients. Over time we stop assigning clients and expect the interns to just do their thing and coach.
Remember the most important things to ask yourself when starting an internship program:
Will this benefit my clients?
Do I have the time to develop superstar interns so it will make training a better overall experience?
If you answer yes to both of these questions, it’s time for you to begin setting up an internship program at your gym.
Much love,
Josh W
