Don't Stop Training

This self-paced deck offered a quick training update for personal trainers at a national gym franchise, designed for trainers to complete in small groups in under 15 minutes at the beginning of a shift. I created this training for the client in response to a legal concern about inconsistent handling of gym member injuries by staff, supporting a unified approach across franchise branches. Trainers discussed their responses to the prompts at the end of the training over their following shifts with support from gym managers.

Audience: Personal trainers leading bootcamp style workout classes and 1:1 fitness guidance sessions

Responsibilities: Updating existing training, flexible but clear documentation references, deck creation

Tools: Canva, Sharepoint, Camtasia, Canon EOS, 

AI Integrations: Interview transcription, adjusting content reading level, animation homogenization

Goal: Update existing guidance for personal training staff at all locations, both chain and franchise, on topics related to approximately 30 newly identified potential legal concerns following the introduction of new legislation in several states.

Launch Point: The operations manager of the gym consulted with me to update all training content related to these newly identified legal concerns, with special focus on those topics not presently addressed in the same way across franchised branches. The training needed to be WCAG compliant, equally accessible on trainers' phones and in print format, and completeable in under 20 minutes. Eight pieces of training needed to be provided to employees and documented under their legacy system (no LMS) within the week.

Journey: Based on the tight guidelines around formatting and quick publication timeline, we elected to create a series of decks in Canva that could be accessed on the secure employee area of the gym's website. I created a template to use for all of the trainings to streamline WCAG compliance checks for faster rollout, and delivered these 48 hours after contract for the operations manager's approval.

Once templates were approved, I created custom graphics based on the gym's atmosphere, branding and trainer uniforms. I also created alternative graphics for the branding variation of the franchise locations. I built and delivered the initial eight pieces of training by the end of that week and delivered them for the operations director to review, as well as conferencing with the legal specialist to ensure the language used met need. We were able to launch those high priority decks on their site for trainers to complete within one week of project launch.

The next two weeks were used to create the remaining training decks. As an additional value offering, I visited some of the gym locations local to me and (with signed permission from those involved) photographed trainers carrying out the tasks covered in the training to increase learner relatability. I also updated the first eight trainings with these custom photos and provided them to the operations director as new versions for rollout after the intital compliance sweep finished.

In the month after that, I finished the work for this client by creating SOPs and quick-reference guides for employees for each topic covered in the training for later easy reference and added links to the original trainings, as well as providing them to the operations manager to add to their sharepoint directory.

Results: While the resulting decks are visually simple, they meet the clients most important goals: accessible, clear, and timely, with branding and imaging that communicates the importance of unity across both chain and franchise branches. The trainings could be quickly rolled out with minimal interference with other employee communication priorities and open-ended, positive learning checks that encouraged trainers to approach each situation critically through the lens of their new training.