A 9pm message about a 7am class
Your Wednesday 7am HIIT class has eighteen members booked. At 9pm on Tuesday, the instructor messages to say they are unwell. The manager starts messaging other instructors. One is teaching elsewhere. One does not reply. One could do it but is not qualified in that format. By 10.30pm, someone agrees.
Nobody tells the booked members, because it is late and the manager is exhausted. Next morning, some expected their usual instructor and are disappointed. On another occasion, no cover is found and the class is cancelled at 6.30am. Members who have already set off find a notice on the studio door.
Cover depends on one person's phone
Instructors are often freelance, work across several gyms and teach specific formats. Finding cover means knowing who can teach what, who is likely to be free, and how to reach them fast.
- Qualifications and formats each instructor can teach are not recorded centrally.
- Cover requests go out one by one, so each unanswered message wastes time.
- Instructors do not know a cover request has already been filled.
- Timetable changes are made by hand on the booking system, if at all.
- Booked members are told late, or not at all.
The manager's phone becomes the cover system, and it only works when they are awake and available.
Planned absences are handled no better. An instructor mentions in passing that they are on holiday in three weeks, the manager means to arrange cover, and the week arrives with the class still showing the original name on the timetable. Members book expecting that instructor, and some choose a class specifically for who teaches it.
Cancelled classes and surprised members
Classes cancelled at short notice are one of the most common member frustrations, especially early morning classes that people plan their day around. Members who turn up for a cancelled class are unlikely to forget it.
Even when cover is found, members who were not told feel the gym is disorganised. Managers lose evenings to it, and freelance instructors get tired of being messaged one at a time for classes that were filled half an hour earlier.
A cover process that runs itself
- Each instructor has a profile with the formats they are qualified to teach, the gyms or sites they work at and their usual availability.
- An instructor who cannot teach reports it through a link or the instructor app. The manager is notified.
- The class is offered to all qualified instructors at once, in the order you prefer, by text or app notification.
- The first to accept is booked, the timetable updates and the others are told the class is covered.
- Booked members are told the class is going ahead with a new instructor, at a time you choose, not in the middle of the night.
- If no cover is found by a cut-off you set, the manager decides whether to cancel. Members are told immediately and offered alternative classes.
| Step | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Finding cover | Messages one at a time | Offer to all qualified instructors |
| Confirming | Manager replies to each | First to accept is booked |
| Timetable | Updated by hand later | Updated when accepted |
| Members | Often not told | Told with the change or alternative |
Instructor pay for cover classes follows your normal arrangement. The record of who taught which class feeds your payroll or freelancer invoices.
Late dropouts without the late nights
When an instructor drops out, cover is usually found in minutes, without the manager doing anything beyond noticing the notification. Members know what is happening. The rare cancellation is handled cleanly, with alternatives offered.
Instructors like it too, because they see cover opportunities they are qualified for without being asked personally, and they know immediately if one has been taken.
Over a term, you can also see which formats are hardest to cover, which is a useful signal when recruiting instructors or planning the timetable.
Is cover a problem at your gym?
- Cover is found by messaging instructors one at a time.
- Members are not told when their instructor changes.
- Classes are cancelled at short notice more than you would like.
- You do not have a central list of who can teach which formats.