Blogs 

Good day to all,

The big news from HealthyPeople is the addition of the comments feature on our blog (formerly newsletter) page. Aspects of this new feature include:

• Rather than a monthly newsletter email, you can now be notified of blogs as they are posted - you can turn this on/off in your 'Update registration' area.
• Where a particular post is of interest to you, you have the option to be notified of any other comments to that post as they are listed.
• You have the ability to post anonymously.
• If you think a particular comment from another user is inappropriate, there is a link to send a notification to myself and, if necessary, the comment will be removed.

I invite you to add a comment to say 'hi' to myself and other employers, familiarise yourself with how it works and provide any feedback.

In addition to the above update we have a number of further improvements to the site being released over the coming weeks. I'll post a blog explaining each as they are added.

With regards to posting job ads, many of you may be aware that in addition to listing positions on HealthyPeople and Seek, we have also been listing positions on Facebook, Twitter and LinikedIn. A greater understanding of Facebook has resulted in the movement away from our Facebook Group to a HealthyPeople Facebook Fan Page. The primary reason for this is functionality. If you are posting an ad though HealthyPeople, feel free to comment on the job summary that is listed on our HealthyPeople Fan Page. My intention is that you, the employer, can build a greater rapport with potential candidates by adding your own comments and answering questions they may ask online. If you are on Facebook, I invite you to become a Fan (http://www.facebook.com/pages/HealthyPeople/124295604311).

Do you have a Fan page on Facebook for your studio/facility? Let me know and we will include it in our favourites on the HealthyPeople Fan page.

Do you have an employment section on your website? Why not let potential candidates know where you source your staff with a link to the HealthyPeople website. By referring interested candidates to HealthyPeople you are making your recruitment process easier:

• You save time in screening candidates, let us do this for you
• You may not have a job for them now but with HealthyPeople you know they will be informed of your available positions when they arise.
• You may not want to say 'no' to a known candidate (a member perhaps). Through HealthyPeople you have a buffer between yourself and the applicant.
• We'll provide you with an attractive button that will add pizzazz to any web page

If you'd like to add a link to HealthyPeople from your employment page, please contact me at dennis@healthypeople.com.au.

Whether via the blog, the fan page or more conventional means, I look forward to communicating with you soon.

Regards, Dennis Hosking.

Tags : New Feature Recruitment

"In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his (or her) level of incompetence."

Referred to as 'The Peter Principle' this is generally applied to large, multi-layered organisations but is just as relevant to smaller businesses in our health and fitness industry.

Promotions are often seen as a way to recognise employees that demonstrate competence in their current position and capitalise on their existing knowledge of the business. Unfortunately, a competent and dedicated employee may find themselves (willingly) promoted to a position in which he or she turns out to be less interested in and/or under skilled.

For example, let's say you have a Personal Trainer that performs the best in your facility on all fronts. They're on time for all appointments, make a lot of clients happy, they stick to the rules, attend meetings and professional development sessions and earn plenty of money for themselves and the facility.

Is this the perfect candidate to train into your next Personal Training Manager role?

Consider this; Are they aware of the recruitment skills required? Do they understand the management and leadership expectations? Are they prepared for the inevitable confrontation that is a part of managing people and the accountability (and targets) that may be expected of them? Are they going to miss the face to face contact with clients? If you promote this person, will you be losing your best Trainer and greatest role model?

If you choose to employ from within, I recommend the following two rules are observed:

Firstly, reconsider promotion of employees who are dedicated to their current jobs. Other methods of reward/recognition should be explored. Possibly parallel career paths, where good technical people can acquire improved pay/status.

Secondly, employees might be promoted only after being sufficiently trained to the new position. This places the burden of discovering individuals with poor managerial capabilities before (as opposed to after) they are promoted.

Even where there are internal candidates there is value in externally advertising all managment roles. It's a great way to ensure internal candidates are screened with the same rigor as external candidates (and you never know what you'll find).

Elevating employees to positions above their abilities can be detrimental to both your business and your valued employee. While sourcing managers from within is always going to be the first choice, the advice is to ensure due process for the benefit of all concerned. Remember, 'Hire hard, manage easy'.

Tags : Recruitment Personal Training Manager management

The Business opportunities link is the latest addition to the HealthyPeople suite of services. This is the place for you to advertise the sale of your club/studio, your Personal Training rental opportunity or your available franchise.

This is the perfect place for lead generation. We have more than 1000 visitors a week that are looking to further their health and fitness career. These are people that may be very interested in an chance to become their own boss. Not only can they learn more about your opportunity, they can view photos and, if interested, send you a query. Unlike our advertised jobs, they do not need to be logged in to so. These profiles are accessible by all visitors to the HealthyPeople web site.

Your franchise/business opportunity is never more than two clicks away.

• Via our home page links on both the professional and employer side.
• Via links within the candidates log in pages
• Via tags on our job ads
• Opportunity specific links are also possible (single click to your opportunity)

Listings are available both on an ongoing basis or for a single month. Prices are available on request.

For more information contact Dennis on 0414 481 525. Alternatively, check out the HealthyPeople Recruitment opportunity under QLD or NSW and send a query via the 'Request more information' link (and get a feel for how easy it is).

In other news:

• I welcome your opinion on our blog regarding the Centrality accreditation process
• Are you aware that there is a link to your employer profile from any jobs you post on HealthyPeople. Have you created yours? It's accessible by candidates on an ongoing basis and a great way to hook into people looking for work in your area. Here's an example of how it comes up when the South Morang tag is selected on a job ad. Click through to the listed profile (note the current available position on the bottom - you do not need to be advertising to have a profile). Contact me for more information.

Tags : Recruitment South Morang

New feature: Finding your job, profile or franchise is even easier
All visitors to the HealthyPeople website can now search our database for opportunities by keyword, a location or a business name. Furthermore, any search on location will activate a 'See also:' feature, pointing them to suburbs within a 5km radius that also contain a job, profile and/or franchise opportunity. This makes it even easier for candidates to find their next step in their fitness career - whether it's working in your facility or breaking out on their own with your franchise opportunity.
Check out the results for Carlton or Genesis.

New feature: 'Preferred supplier' link
Over the coming months (particularly after FILEX) we will be populating this section with information relevant to industry people. There are already a couple of links for you to look over. If you've got something to promote, please email me for more information.

Do you have a copy of the latest fitness industry award rates?
Employers often ask me what going rates of pay are. The latest fitness industry award rates is a good place to start. If you don't have a copy, grab a one here.

FILEX 2010 - A chance to meet regarding recruitment for your facility
I'll be at FILEX from Wednesday 28th (Fitness Australia Club Tour) until Sunday afternoon. I welcome any opportunity to talk in person about how HealthyPeople can assist you in building an optimal team over the next 12 months. All our services are unique and specifically designed to meet the needs of our industry. Even if recruitment is not currently high on your agenda, understanding what is available to you when the need arises could prove a valuable in the future. I can be reached on my mobile (0414 481 525) or by email at dennis@healthypeople.com.au. I'll also be spending some time at the Advance Fitness Marketing stand (P34) so feel free to meet me there.
Special offer: Purchase a Business Membership during FILEX and get a FREE job ad.

Would FREE 72 hour ads would be helpful for emergency fills?
Beginning in May, we'd like to experiment with 'emergency ads' for our Business Members. These 'emergency ads' are free (maximum of three over the next six months) and can be used to advertise whatever positions you like. These ads will be listed on HealthyPeople, sent to our database of registered professionals and listed on our social networking accounts (that is, there will be no Seek listing). If you're a Business Member and would like to take advantage of this, please send the ad details to me directly CLEARLY INDICATING that the ad is to go up for 72 hours only. If you have any suggestions on how this could work, please include it in our blog.

In other news:

• Obesity now more deadly than smoking: http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/wellbeing/obesity-is-now-more-deadly-than-smoking-20100408-rv5l.html
• Know someone registered with Kinect? They can transfer registration to Fitness Australia for FREE until their next renewal date.

Tags : New Feature Recruitment Business Membership Genesis Carlton corporate health Fitness Australia Advance Fitness Marketing Australia

If you're going to make an investment in your recruitment, why spend it on a bunch of band-aids? Traditional recruitment is reactive, stressful, costly and time consuming. Put some of that money towards turning your recruitment process into one that is proactive, cost effective, well-rehearsed and detailed. We believe that whenever a great candidates arise you should be informed of this and have the ability to make contact. By starting your recruitment process before the position is vacant, the better off you'll be when the gap arises.

This is the nature of our HealthyPeople Business Membership.

(As it happens, our ads are pretty well priced and offer great exposure anyway)

Tags : Recruitment Business Membership

We all knew it, but it's interesting to see it quantified all the same.

Apparently the biggies are exaggerated work experience, fake references and fibs about previous salaries.

Based on interviews with 1010 Australians, Galaxy Research cited the most common lies as:

• Stretching the truth on previous work experience, 17 per cent
• Pals acting as referees, 16 per cent of respondents
• Overinflated previous salaries, 10 per cent
• Entirely fake references, six per cent
• Bogus qualifications, three per cent.

So, if it's not already a part of your recruitment process, (double) check all relevant claims made by any candidates. A small time cost in the beginning could mean massive savings down the line.

Follow this link for the original article in The Age

Tags : Recruitment management Australia

It is now possible for employers to make their own notes on all listed candidates.

We are pleased to be able to offer health and fitness employers more than just a tool for sourcing candidates, we're now making it possible to manage the recruitment process through HealthyPeople.

What are the benefits of the new notes feature?

• At a glance you can see what your last thoughts were on a particular candidate
• You can track candidates through your recruitment cycle
• Notes stick to a candidate regardless of whether a new listing or re-listing
• If you lose a manager, you don't lose their thoughts on previous candidates
• Your notes are not visible to the candidate or to other employers

This new feature is available to all HealthyPeople Business Members.

Your feedback would be much appreciated. Please submit your comments online via this blog.

Tags : New Feature Recruitment cycle

HealthyPeople has lead the way with candidate sourcing. Not only have we made the best use of existing mediums to provide the greatest reach for your job ads, we are the first service (in any industry) to provide employers with ongoing access to candidates for one low annual fee.

But we haven't stopped there!

HealthyPeople is the first to provide free and simple applicant management tools for health and fitness employers.

How does this new feature work?

Applications for all your job ads will populate a list that is accessed via your advertising summary page. These candidates can then be sorted with a single click into 'yes', 'no' or 'maybe' categories. So, at a glance, you (and any other manager using your account) can see where you're at with your available applications. Furthermore, this categorisation can begin from first contact, as every job application email now has the 'yes, no or maybe' links included.

On more than one occassion, employers have lost/deleted candidate emails, requiring us to re-send all applications. This is no longer an issue. All job application emails can now be safely deleted as a copy of all candidates are online, complete with cover letter and CV.

The news gets even better for our Business Members. The ability to create notes on listed candidates extends to your job applicants. Furthermore, any previous notes you have made on a candidate will appear as soon as their application comes through. As ever, these notes are private and stick to that candidate for as long as you both remain registered with HealthyPeople.

I am genuinely excited to provide such recruitment innovations for health and fitness employers and welcome any feedback you have (please use the comments link on this blog item).

Tags : New Feature Recruitment management