Jean-Ann Marnoch: "Fitness instructors are undervalued"

The fitness industry must do more for instructors by increasing salaries and investing in training, according to Jean-Ann Marnoch, instructor experience director at Les Mills UK.

In an interview in the latest issue of Health Club Management, Marnoch called for gym owners to recognise the value of instructors.

“Instructors have been paid the same wage for the last 15 years. If we truly valued the role they play in increasing participation, this would have changed by now,” she said.

“I’m at a loss as to why the industry doesn’t place more value on the person who makes or breaks the customer experience."

Marnoch joined Les Mills UK in 2013, tasked with improving its training programme, and has grown the training team from 35 to today’s workforce of 100. The trainers are elite coaches who educate instructors across the UK, ensuring they develop in line with national standards.

“If you look at the most successful clubs in the world, they have large studios, some as big as sports halls, and these are rammed at six o’clock in the morning and again throughout the evening," she said.

"That’s because they invest in and retain great instructors and end up with a waiting list of people wanting to get into their clubs and classes.”

Read the full interview in October’s Health Club Management.