Who is Working in Your Health Club…? How Do You Know without Doing Background Checks?
How sure are you that you that a convicted sex offender is not working in the child care area of your health club? How sure can you be that a membership consultant who committed assault will be properly screened before you make an offer of employment? How sure are you that a personal trainer has completed their degree or certification? How sure was the parish of St. Margaret of Scotland located in St. Clair Shores parish in Michigan, as reported in the Detroit Free Press earlier this year, that when they hired an organ player, a former priest, that this priest would be molesting again. This priest, who one would think normally comes from a place of trust, was no less defrocked by the diocese in Ohio decades earlier? These are real stories and real misses.
Surprisingly, despite the relatively low cost and the readily available background checks electronically, clubs continue to avoid this necessary operating cost. I might suggest that clubs can ill afford to NOT incur the cost of a thorough background screening for prospective new hires and team members up for promotions. Perhaps things are tight and health clubs cannot afford it. I may agree, however, the real questions are can clubs afford the costs associated with fraud, theft, violence, turnover of good employees, litigation & negligent hiring, turnover or job related accidents because of employees who are cons or convicts in our clubs?
Some clubs are extremely diligent and exhaustive in the interview process; they conduct team interviews & ask the ubiquitous open-ended behavioral questions, check references and perhaps even conduct on-line personality profiling. They even conduct background checks. If so, congratulations! You are one of a few who are long on team member selection and due diligence. So, how do you know that your third party company does a national data base search? Have you asked? Typically, if you are paying in the $15 to $25 range for a basic criminal check, searches are only done within the state your club is located. If they do a national search, does a real live person assess the “rap sheet” of a prospective hire? Or as in most cases, does a computer program flag or pass a candidate for you to hire. Assault in Arizona is coded differently than theft in Texas. Without an evaluation of the criminal data by a trained person, normally flagged prospective hires can be passed. I am aware of one club who assumed the management of a club and conducted background checks for the new team members fr0m the old regime. During the transition period and interview process, an existing, manager candidate admitted to the new owners they did “some time”. Not wanting to deal with a rehabilitation case, the new owners figured the background check would produce a flagged result not to hire. Unfortunately, that did not happen and the process of managing this person out must begin. An in depth background check and evaluation by a trained person would have resulted in a termination during the transition.
Padding resumes can also be an issue for clubs as it can be for any industry. When someone represents a body of work done on a resume and in fact it is not true, how do you know? Do we really want a personal trainer who claims they are certified, when in fact they are not, conducting VO2 Sub-max or max testing to determine safe training heart rate ranges? If the former coach of Notre Dame Football, George O’Leary, claimed he falsely earned a letter playing football at New Hampshire, a journalist, Janet Cooke could win a Pulitzer Prize for an untrue story and the former CFO of VERITAS who “misstated” he earned an MBA fr0m Stanford, then clearly lying on a resume is possible. If those individuals have the gumption to stretch the truth, then a supposed graduate with a degree in Exercise Physiology and Certified Personal Trainer could certainly type accomplishments on a resume that are not earned.
I come fr0m a trust but verify school of thought, famously espoused by President Ronald Reagan. And I know for a fact, we have some of the most amazing servant leaders and service providers in the health/fitness business compared to anyone in a service business. Additionally, I believe frauds and cons are not rampant in our business, and yet I believe just as strongly that we sure want to authenticate such a belief so as to preserve the assets and business reputation we have earned.
Frank J. Ancharski, M.S. (Verifiable)
Chief Coaching Officer
Club Coach Services
March 2011
