Fit to Be Tied with Liz Owens

[00:00:00] Hi, it's your kids. Lock the doors! You're listening to HR's most dangerous podcast, Chad Sawash and Joel Cheeseman are here to punch the recruiting industry right where hers.

[00:00:30] Chad and Cheese Podcasts, I'm your co-host Joel Cheeseman. Join us always the Garth to my Wayne Chad Sawash is in the house and we are here with Liz Owens don't call her Elizabeth she is the manager of town acquisition at West Coast Fitness and if someone knows fitness as much as me it might be you but I know so much.

[00:00:51] You're about fitness pizza in your mouth. I I curled about two in and out burgers last night. Wow 10 reps of 20. Wow just to come on cheese give me more. Well a couple fries animal style yeah don't test my endurance on well I bow down to the king of this burger into my mouth. The only way he uses fitness in the sentence is I'm fitness burger in my mouth.

[00:01:20] Yeah so a lot of our listeners maybe all of them don't know who you are give us a Twitter bio about you likely they do not quick bio on me I've been working with West Coast Fitness which is a large ownership group of orange theory fitness for four years orange three for five actually started with orange theory working in management for them out in Australia when I lived out there for several years. Yeah big global brand so I can kind of move all over and landed back in Los Angeles where I was born and raised and got connected with West Coast Fitness moved my way.

[00:01:50] Around from sales and ops in management in studio to pre sales. Then I got hooked into the HR team and now I'm the manager of talent positions. Hello there it is so you got stuck with the manager of TA position. Yeah yeah yeah so you have drama drama degree from NYU and you ended up in TA yes how does that make you feel well back in the NYU TA mean meant a little different thing for us.

[00:02:18] So I mean I'm glad to have moved you exactly I got to have moved away from that area of expertise because I felt like I was selling that a little bit too much. Wow it's a thing it is a thing yeah but actually if you think about it acting psychology sales moved into restaurant work performing selling stuff.

[00:02:38] You were destined to be here is what you're saying I was now I am so we're recording this at the end of January yes and even I know that January is a huge month for the fitness industry talk a little bit about the complexities of staffing up for the holiday rush. Oh God yeah what works best for recruiting are their professions that you pull from to be in the industry talk about the challenges of January in the fitness industry.

[00:03:05] Well I will say not to you know brush it brush myself off a little bit here but bringing people on for fitness who are energetic who are personalities and you know that I whether that's in the studio coaching the class or it's the front desk staff or even management moving into that people with my kind of background who our performers particularly in LA where we're based like we're going to find a lot of energy and personality with them so it's easier.

[00:03:32] It is a little easier in LA a lot of competition to a lot of competition I mean I definitely made a lot of money in restaurants versus you know an hourly kind of like front desk job not a lie but a lot of people get hooked on the product and then they want to be coaches and then they become personalities and famous in their own right in their own little communities.

[00:03:51] And then they end up being lifelong coaches as their career so it's a thing competitive pay benefits like what can I expect as a as a fitness professional absolutely so as a fitness professional with us you would be looking at a nice competitive hourly wage.

[00:04:07] You're talking in and out for all of your classes as well as a very well tiered pay system according to how many people are in your class so if you are great at marketing yourself to the community to outside communities bringing new people in you're going

[00:04:20] to see that pay out tenfold by having your classes sell out and then you're going to be making about a hundred dollars of class so it's a nice little how's that different in q1 versus q2 because you've got that big surge in q1 right and then they start and then they start to kind of dwindle do it all out well I will say January 2024 has been our best month for the last few years as we've been getting ourselves back out of the covid era especially in California it's been very tough so nearly every one of our studios is hitting their goals this month.

[00:04:49] And it'll be amazing to carry out into you know throughout q1 and to q2 we are seeing a bit of a drop off in terms of our seasonal employees of course because there come you know a lot of our people are in college so they're still working and in school so what they are doing is you know they're leaving us after the winter months are getting back into their university programs will probably see them come back in the summer.

[00:05:12] So it's all about just maintaining efficiencies throughout the studio and keeping on top of backfilling those roles knowing when they're coming up making sure that we are communicating with our teams and our hiring managers so that we don't call behind.

[00:05:24] So do you have boom ranks people who have been coaches and they kind of went out and they might still be a part of the orange theory or what have you right but do you have boom ranks.

[00:05:34] So it's a compil it didn't get picked up so now back at the fitness industry.

[00:05:39] Yeah yeah pretty much yes that does happen a lot actually so we have a ton of people who leave for a little while whether they're going to you know pursue their own private PT types of things or they have other interests or they're in school again you know they're coming there go off and complete a degree then they end up coming back either you know part time because they miss it but when people are coaches they become passionate about it you don't just you know get it.

[00:06:03] Get a special certification and go through the process to get hired with us yeah we have a pretty rigorous training program to get in and become a coach with us because our standards are very high and you know you don't go through all those things to just have it be a side job most of the time people are really passionate about it they want to be doing it they want to be helping people and it's a really great industry to work in because you get to watch people reach their goals every day.

[00:06:30] So let's get into the fun stuff what's your tech stack look like.

[00:06:35] Let me loosen up a little bit acquisition you got it you got to go get them so you need that the acquisition part right so the postings and all of this she's got a lot of problems with you people all the way through.

[00:06:46] I don't know if we've got time for all of my this is this is the place right guys so I need to pay for therapy as well because this is what it's going to turn into.

[00:06:54] We'll get to the end of this select.

[00:06:56] So we've got to be a bill.

[00:06:57] Great well I take I've got anthem so hopefully they'll cover me for that we usually work for bourbon.

[00:07:04] Oh excellent alright I can I can I think I can score a little bit okay all right so we have been working with a company for H.R.S.

[00:07:13] for several years now we're not set up for success I will say just to play devil's advocate we've been working with pa Com and we are moving systems in the next very short amount of time.

[00:07:24] Pay Com does not know this so hopefully this does not go live before we make that move.

[00:07:28] We're huge with the pay Com phone you know if you are then I would I would probably read just your chat Richardson listen listen to us all the time.

[00:07:37] Oh I love it well if Barbara Corcoran's listening look bitch I got I got a few complaints so you might want to step out on that investment.

[00:07:45] Not the shark tank lady oh yeah that Q tip I'm upset I'm upset with her she's all on the ads isn't 100% every time our commercial comes on I change my mind.

[00:07:53] I can't do it I mean to play devil's advocate the system probably works well for smaller companies and when we started with them back in like 2017 or 18.

[00:08:03] We were probably under 200 employees and we grew exponentially in the years prior to COVID and in COVID so we went from 200 to you know 750.

[00:08:13] The matter of probably a year and a half and the system just wasn't set up for that and know we didn't have the team and agility to be able to make those adaptations when it happens.

[00:08:23] So COVID shut down we had just doubled in size and when we came back online no one took that into consideration for the H. R. I. S. so really really was at it you know we read a detriment for that for a while.

[00:08:35] To the point now where we can't really function in that system and we had to just move on.

[00:08:39] Oh it sounds like a cautionary growth tail yes if you grow too fast and you don't have the infrastructure to be able to take care of that growth.

[00:08:47] Absolutely.

[00:08:48] Okay.

[00:08:49] Paycom then I mean so did you have conversations with them around trying to build infrastructure that would support you guys or you say screw it.

[00:08:58] It's not even worth it we're getting hell out of here.

[00:09:00] I mean look I as ever since I took the role in T. A. I have been looking for other systems that can help us their back end their communication with their teams and their reps hasn't been fantastic and they don't play nicely with others so anytime we found a system that could help

[00:09:18] you know I found this a T. S. that gives us these you know these features can we integrate they go no you'd have to get approval and I'm like okay well what about this required a T. S. that we have to use working with orange theory we are required to use career plug to get hooked into their corporate careers page.

[00:09:38] And then one integrate so I have to use two different systems to get all of my candidates through and then they're having to reapply to get into paycom where we can onboard them it is a nightmare.

[00:09:48] So you're scraping jobs off of your system to push into another system yep and then the candidate hopefully seamlessly goes into the other system hopefully that's a big hopefully yeah absolutely bitch what's the fix how did you uh huddle up and like tackle this well I did a lot of research

[00:10:07] I found several companies that we could kind of look at and demo and talk through we also have a very complicated payroll system so that was obviously our priority when we're moving systems we can't just take the A. T. S. into consideration we have to make sure that the whole thing is going to run people need paid they really do anything I mean look I know we lost our payroll manager several months ago and I actually stepped up with the rest of my like four people in our HR team and we are running payroll now wow we're killing it we are killing it but we just got a payroll manager and she's being trained but we're moving to pay core.

[00:10:36] We're moving to pay core which will integrate a lot of other systems it will help automate a lot of our inefficiencies right now and get us back on track how easy was the move was it sort of a click and move all the data over or was it a manual.

[00:10:49] TVD we go live tomorrow so we're okay yeah you're good then we're not good it's no stress I'm here with you guys clearly I'm fine yeah stress free with Chen cheese yeah any other vendors that you you want to vent about here at the

[00:11:04] yeah Chen cheese therapy session oh man that's tough pain calm has really been our big our big one.

[00:11:10] Yeah pain calm I'm getting that feel the pain it's been the major one or something you really enjoy I mean what are what are some vendors and

[00:11:17] solutions that you're using to recruit that you want to highlight okay okay well the team at career plug career plug has been really

[00:11:24] helpful career plug career plug okay the plug I've got a plug career plug like a plug you're thinking about no TNA

[00:11:31] you guys are on it I love it wrong show you're my kind of guys so don't tell my husband so I would say I mean pay course team

[00:11:41] has been amazing in our transition I really enjoyed looking at I want to say ripple ripple match just ripple okay I'm forgetting but they

[00:11:53] did at time you know what you're catching me off guard here with your questions but career plug their team has been

[00:11:58] really wonderful even though it doesn't always do the things I need it to they're always responsive they're

[00:12:03] always helpful they jump on phone on to you know phone calls with me and honestly meeting the vendors here they've

[00:12:08] they've all been really incredible what are your biggest challenges in recruiting biggest challenge right now we

[00:12:15] do 19 studios in the bay and recruiting coaches up there has been the biggest challenge I would say it is a very very hard

[00:12:24] industry there because the cost of living is so high so coaches are coming in at this part time where we talked

[00:12:31] about hey you know like you know people do this as a side gig that's where they do it they have to have full-time

[00:12:37] jobs they work in tech they work in you know other industries yeah where they can actually make make the cheese bring home

[00:12:43] better and then they do this as a passion project and they say look I can't make this work full-time and then we've got

[00:12:49] holes to fill we've got gaps in our schedules we've got people moving coming and going because they just can't

[00:12:55] pay the bills and that's it so you had a line of thinking that I think he rudely interrupted

[00:13:00] we're here at TA week and there are plenty of vendors that are here how many how many shows do you go to generally a

[00:13:07] lot of the time you're here and do you get a chance to really dig into the tech nowadays to really

[00:13:14] understand what the hell of stack looks like well this is my first rodeo okay for a conference like this hello

[00:13:21] and I'm I'm really stoked this was I didn't really think that the vendors would be as helpful for me

[00:13:27] because our budget is so limited like I have to use the manpower where I can and we're just moving

[00:13:32] our new budget is going and figuring that out but understanding how all of these especially new AI

[00:13:38] techs can help automate and fully integrate now into a system that allows that can really help to loosen up some

[00:13:45] of the reins that we have on our people to go and perform other tasks rather than focusing on these my new details

[00:13:51] of a phone screen process and the sourcing and all of those things so it's pretty cool

[00:13:56] that coaches you don't have what you don't have revenue so therefore yeah so our product yeah the CEO has to understand

[00:14:03] hey unless I get this great stack in place that helps alleviate a lot of this bullshit that we're dealing with right now

[00:14:10] I can't get you the people that you need to be able to make the money that we need to get we're having a great month

[00:14:15] let's go ahead and spend some money absolutely I love that if it and when they're having a good month my CFO is much

[00:14:20] much easier to talk to all about oh I bet so walk me through you get an opening a wreck

[00:14:25] what action items are there do you post the job do you go source how do you find those people so our studio

[00:14:31] managers act as their own hiring managers through the entire process unless they get so slam that they need to call

[00:14:37] up on myself or my specialist to come and help with phone screens but we get those wrecks open for them

[00:14:42] we post to all of the free job boards that are associated with career plug and pay calm to get those moving if they are

[00:14:48] in a particularly slow area like a region that doesn't have a lot of pull from just a free post

[00:14:54] leadership on there just to kind of pull in some leads but for the most part we're looking for entry level positions

[00:14:59] we're looking for customer service and front desk people the coaches of course we do have very high standards

[00:15:04] as I said so we're looking for particular certifications we're looking for experience and good fitness

[00:15:09] and so our hiring managers are taking a look at the candidates that come through they're doing some phone

[00:15:14] screens are bringing them in for a class because if you don't get orange there if you don't

[00:15:19] understand if you don't care about it if you don't feel like you want to be there and do the work out then

[00:15:23] you're not going to want to sell it you're not going to want to be there.

[00:15:26] I would assume that that would actually I mean you can grow your own at that point right because you have all

[00:15:30] these people who are doing orange theory they're into it I mean they're almost cultish in some kind of ways

[00:15:36] 100% right yeah so I mean that's a great like talent pipeline for you guys to actually start pulling

[00:15:42] the ones that you see absolutely who've been there so how much of your hiring actually happens through

[00:15:48] that talent pipeline versus having to go out to the market I would say about half we have a great

[00:15:53] referral program so sourcing is our current staff can go out and bring their friends but also

[00:15:59] our members are our biggest advocates they are so loyal they love the brand yeah they want to be there

[00:16:04] plus you get a free membership so I mean that helps them out right if they're coming over a lot of

[00:16:08] our members because they're their older with families they're sending their kids over so

[00:16:13] they're 17 and 18 year old who are like I'm going to school or I've got after school whatever

[00:16:17] they're like get a job go work at orange theory so that's great and then what we have is our

[00:16:21] front desk they end up loving the product they're young they don't really know what they want to do

[00:16:25] so they're like hey how many get my certification to become a coach and they end up being

[00:16:28] the best possible people to be running our classes because they love it they want to be there every day

[00:16:34] and the members know them already so it's a win-win yeah you have a pretty impressive resume

[00:16:39] in the food service industry thank you including a stint at the Beverly Hills hotel

[00:16:45] yeah and no boo yeah so first off who's the most famous person that you waited on and

[00:16:50] actually fully of course secondarily California particular we're seeing minimum wage rise

[00:16:58] in the service industry I'm assuming you have at least some opinion on what's going on in California

[00:17:04] whether right or wrong so give me the best the best person you've waited on and then what are your

[00:17:08] opinions on the rising minimum wage in the food service industry in California

[00:17:12] sure thank okay the best person I've waited on probably was shack to care of him and his family

[00:17:19] on Christmas wow how much food does he put down it was a lot of

[00:17:23] yeah and his kids are not shy either it was like 10 people it was just constant chicken fingers

[00:17:29] and fries oh yeah how many the table but he's so kind and so gentle

[00:17:33] no top salad for shack that's what you're saying I don't think he was having a macartheia at the

[00:17:39] time I've yeah he's but he's he's lovely Bob Sagitt was also amazing really yes

[00:17:46] and it was super cool to help him out he he liked to smoke a secret cigar on the patio that was not

[00:17:52] necessarily legal but you know we hook it up for Bob Sagitt you know God bless him but yeah

[00:18:00] exactly not a problem anymore so sadly any who so to move on to your your minimum wage question

[00:18:08] I know that as in the food service industry in California they're making a lot of money

[00:18:14] and that is super nice like to the point where I'm like damn TA is not even it was like I

[00:18:19] should be going back to the Beverly Hills hotel like that's crazy because they are you

[00:18:23] are required to pay minimum wage and it's very high especially in LA while you're also

[00:18:28] making tips at these high-end restaurants so it is a very nice industry where you're

[00:18:32] you're making a nice six figures and and you're able to maintain your life imagine that I know

[00:18:38] I'm a recall so what's that what's the percentage that you would say that are Beverly Hills versus

[00:18:45] the rest of the state because it did yeah it feels feels kind of like shining star you know it's like oh

[00:18:50] they can make $100,000 plus dollars not a problem what about the guys not in Beverly I mean look I

[00:18:56] lived in Australia where the minimum wage is much higher and very livable so as a front desk

[00:19:01] associate at Orange Theory you were making and this this was 2019 you were making $23.24

[00:19:07] you get paid more on the weekends you get paid more on holidays like a Saturday is a lower rate than

[00:19:12] Sunday even so you're able to make a wage here you know it's significantly less the cost of living

[00:19:18] is really high I wish that people could get paid more everywhere if I could make that change

[00:19:24] I would and the fact that it's so high in California and so low in other states I mean obviously it's all

[00:19:30] relative but it's not fair for anyone no one no one has one job anymore you can't do it yeah except

[00:19:35] you know if you're working at Beverly Hills hotel I think the paycom CEO he's worth like $1.7

[00:19:42] billion he should pay his people more and then maybe you might get the service that you would

[00:19:46] need then they could have retained a client well you know I got the skinny because one of our

[00:19:51] reps from pay core actually used to work for paycom and apparently this guy is a little looney

[00:19:55] tunes because he hires people to be his reps he refuses to hire anyone who has experience

[00:20:00] working with another hrs for exclusivity reasons but then you talk to these reps and they know

[00:20:05] nothing they know nothing about hr they know nothing about the systems are talking about

[00:20:09] and they barely know paycom because they're probably receiving horrible training that has nothing

[00:20:13] to do with anything yeah so it's amazing because a lot of these technologies we're seeing

[00:20:17] are getting new CEOs who have no experience in this space delightful that is Liz Owens

[00:20:25] everybody lives for anyone out there listening that wants to connect with you or learn more about

[00:20:30] west coast fitness where do you send them go to linked in under Liz Owens manager of talent

[00:20:35] positions for west coast fitness follow west coast fitness as well I am also on Instagram

[00:20:40] as at Liz in underscore life play on words there so thanks for having me guys

[00:20:47] appreciate it lunch is coming up hopefully they'll have shakaroni pizza is from Papa

[00:20:52] and I'm gonna talk to you in the next one and I'll talk to you in the next one

[00:20:57] evening to what's it called a podcast the chat the cheese brand they talk about recruiting

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