Employment at LA Fitness
LA Fitness is one of the country’s most popular health club chains, and it features locations in the biggest metropolitan areas. Since their establishment in 1984, LA Fitness has become an appealing work environment for health-minded employees of all ages. At each location, the company hires a diverse group of employees to carry out the day-to-day gym operations.
The LA Fitness application is completed online, and there are multiple steps involved in landing an interview with the company. This article will cover the application process at LA Fitness, the company’s employee benefits and other pertinent details for a potential candidate.
LA Fitness Application
LA Fitness’s online career portal is sprawling and complex, but they provide users with a “start here” button near the bottom of the page. Alternatively, users can search directly for specific jobs and departments within the company. With so many LA Fitness locations across the country, users must also narrow their search to positions at nearby clubs. LA Fitness locations offer job opportunities in the following departments:
General Club Staff
In contrast to other major gyms, LA Fitness’s “club staff” is an overarching department that services many vital areas of operation. From the front desk to the customer service office, a club staff member is sure to enjoy a fast-paced and diverse set of responsibilities. Popular club staff positions include:
- Front Desk Associate
- Kids Club Leader / Babysitter
- Locker Room Associate
Membership Counseling
In many ways, membership counseling is the most important part of the LA Fitness culture. These are the professionals who drive membership sales, help members create personal fitness plans and assure that customer satisfaction is maintained throughout the company. In many locations, sales positions include more phone calls than face-to-face interaction. Popular membership counseling opportunities include:
- Sales Representative
- Account Manager
- Member Training Adviser
Operations and Maintenance
Operations and maintenance employees are the handy professionals who keep the gym functioning properly. In busy locations, these employees are always on the move fixing equipment, making repairs around the club, and helping customers in any way necessary. Popular maintenance positions include:
- Club Pride / Janitor
- Equipment Technician
- Building Maintenance
League Sports
LA Fitness is celebrated for its organized league and team events, and the league sports department are the employees who make it all happen. These employees are tasked with planning and executing league events from the ground up. Popular league sports positions include:
- League Sports Director
- Referee
- Event Committee
Personal Training
Personal training employment opportunities are plentiful at LA Fitness for certified professionals. This department also works closely with their neighbors in league sports, and the departments often collaborate on important club events. Personal training opportunities include:
- Pilates Teacher
- Stretch Specialist
- Certified Personal Trainer
These are only the most prominent positions found in LA Fitness clubs across the country. There are several other common job titles within each department, and locations may hire floater employees to help in various departments. Also, cross-departmental advancement is common in the LA Fitness environment. The company often promotes from the inside.
Unfortunately, navigating through the LA Fitness career portal isn’t as straightforward as you might expect from a major national chain. The page prioritizes popular positions, and the list of all positions is relegated to the outskirts of the viewable area. When you begin the LA Fitness application process, you’ll want to complete the following steps:
- Review the different departments to choose your desired job.
- If you’re applying for a popular position, click directly on that position’s icon.
- If you’re applying for any other position, click the yellow button on the bottom of the page labeled “apply for these positions”.
- If you’re applying for a corporate position, switch to the “corporate” tab on the top of the page.
- After clicking on your appropriate job link, you must fill out a form with your information. Completing this advances you through the application process and allows you to choose your desired location and employment type.
- LA Fitness only accepts online applications.
The LA Fitness application form is like what you might expect from other major career portals, but the company asks you to complete the form at an early stage of the application process. This may prompt users into feeling like they’ve missed the opportunity to declare important application specifications, but all those options come later in the process.
Creating your application also registers your candidate account on the LA Fitness website. Creating the account includes these 6 steps:
- Confirming you are over 18 years old.
- Entering your first name, last name and email address. Next, you will answer all the standard questions about contact information and mail address.
- Selecting the radius (in miles) that you’re willing to travel to a target location. After declaring a radius of up to 40 miles, you can include all of your desired clubs from the list of applicable results.
- After selecting your clubs, you will start the company’s short questionnaire. The company asks for your education history, sales experience, general work experience. Also, this phase provides an option for uploading a resume.
- Next, applicants can now select from a pool of jobs made available by their qualifications.
- Finally, applicants will declare their available start date and complete a short equal opportunity employment form. The process is concluded with an eSignature.
As a final note, it’s important to utilize the resume upload feature if you’re applying for positions that require experience or certifications. For example, a personal training position will require proof of your accredited license. Also, you can use the resume upload feature to include a cover letter if you’d like to optimize your application even further.
Minimum Age for Employment at LA Fitness
The minimum for employment at LA Fitness is 18 years of age. The company recently increased their brand-wide age requirement to create a better environment for 24-hour gyms. In many states, 16-year-olds are not allowed to accept overnight positions.
Without much experience, candidates should expect entry-level positions in the club staff department. Though some entry-level employees begin in the maintenance department, those jobs are harder to land out of the gate. Also, even with 18 being the age requirement, few personal trainers and membership counselors are hired under the age of 21.
LA Fitness Hours of Operation
Most LA Fitness locations are currently open from 5 AM to 12 AM, but the company is in a brand-wide shift towards 24-hour service in all locations. With competitors sharing open gym doors at all hours of the day, LA Fitness is beginning to lose part of the late-night crowd.
As far as overnight employment opportunities are concerned, most of these positions will be part of the maintenance department. It’s much easier to work on broken equipment when the club is at its emptiest. However, there must always be an attendant at each club’s front desk.
Entry Level LA Fitness Careers and Respective Income
Regardless of experience, many positions at LA Fitness begin at minimum wage. For example, positions in the club staff and maintenance departments will most likely begin with below-average pay compared to other companies. The good news for LA Fitness, however, is the rate at which entry-level employees can expect raises. With a more frequent review process than similar brands, employees can expect up to $2 per hour of additional pay on a yearly basis.
For those with previous experience, the rate of progression is even quicker. Also, sales jobs come with a hefty amount of commission for enticing you to keep at peak performance.
LA Fitness Careers in Management
LA Fitness has a proud history of promoting managers from within the lower ranks of the company. Still, reaching the management tier is much easier for those with degrees or fitness certifications.
Starting as a manager is possible for those who can prove a history of success in fitness or sales. Many of the positions in membership counseling are thought of as pseudo-management positions because those employees have their own offices, and they generally ask other departments for help completing menial tasks. Starting from the ground floor, it may take an employee five or six years to work into an office position at LA Fitness.
Benefits of Working at LA Fitness
Full-time LA Fitness employees enjoy a 401k matching plan, health insurance, vision and dental insurance and a range of other amenities. However, the company remains under fire for their sub-par offerings across the board.
LA Fitness’s 401k matching is capped out at one percent, and that is significantly lower than the national average. Many employees ignore the company matching plan because of this low cap.
Health, vision and dental insurance are available to employees in a wide range of packages, but none of the options are especially attractive. Some family plans cost up to $400 per month, and that doesn’t include co-pay fees.
Of course, one of the biggest benefits of LA Fitness is the free club membership. In itself, this membership is worth at least $30 per month. Employees can also enjoy complimentary group training sessions.
Basic Tips for Applying at LA Fitness
Former applicants have referred to the LA Fitness application and interview process as relaxed and informal, but it’s still important to consider a few tips before applying to the company.
Plan to use your free membership
The LA Fitness employees who get the most out of their jobs are the ones who love health and fitness. Working at any health club is much more rewarding if you’re a fan of the fitness environment.
Be Persistent with Your Application
After applying online, wait a couple days for a call or email from a hiring manager. If you don’t hear anything by then, call your location’s customer service desk and ask for a manager. This will show initiative, and it may get the ball rolling on an interview.
Apply for More Than One Location
Despite the size of most LA Fitness locations, not every club hires at all times. In fact, many clubs indicate they’re hiring for positions they aren’t actively trying to fill. Because of this, candidates should look to diversify their applications as much as possible; apply for as many positions at as many locations as you can reasonably travel to.
Utilize the Resume Upload Tool
For many entry-level positions, applicants may bypass the resume upload tool. If you have an updated resume, it can only help you to include it in your application. If you don’t yet have an updated resume, this may be a great opportunity to put one together.
LA Fitness Interview Tips
Most former applicants have reported an easy experience interviewing with LA Fitness, but the difficulty scales with the importance of the position at question.
You can prepare for the interview by planning to discuss topics similar to these:
- Why are you interested in fitness?
- What are your personal interests?
- Outside of fitness, what steps do you take towards living a healthy lifestyle?
- What makes LA Fitness a better gym than their competitors?
If you’re applying for a sales or personal training position, you should be prepared for a more rigorous interview that focuses on your work history and education. It’s always a smart idea to have interview stories planned for answering questions with charm. Since personal training and sales positions require a great deal of customer service, use this opportunity to impress your hiring manager with great social awareness.
Working at LA Fitness
With over 10,000 employees across hundreds of clubs, LA Fitness is a giant in the world of health and fitness. Their employees report a positive work environment, but the benefits aren’t strong enough to keep most full-time workers around forever.
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