The private club environment is evolving rapidly. Wellness is no longer a peripheral amenity but a core component of how members define value and connection. As digital platforms, boutique studios, and personalized health services continue to expand outside club gates, the ability to deliver exceptional, in-person wellness experiences has become a defining competitive advantage.
To meet this moment, clubs must move beyond simply offering a fitness facility. They need a strategic, well-led operation built around purpose, culture, and member outcomes. Leadership teams are rethinking how fitness and wellness integrate into the club’s broader identity, with staffing models that emphasize credentialed professionals, personalized engagement, and proactive program management.
Success increasingly depends on hiring and developing leaders who can balance operational expertise with creativity, community building, and data-driven decision making. Recruiting fitness and wellness directors who act as true department heads, capable of designing programs, managing budgets, leading teams, and collaborating across departments, is essential.
Forward-thinking clubs are redefining how wellness leadership fits into the broader management structure. They’re elevating wellness directors into true department head roles. Leaders who participate in strategic planning, manage budgets, and collaborate across departments, ensuring wellness programs are integrated with dining, racquets, aquatics, and social offerings. This alignment allows wellness to support the club’s overall vision while maintaining operational and financial discipline.
At the same time, progressive clubs are investing in the people behind these programs by creating clear career pathways, competitive compensation models, and opportunities for professional growth. Many are pairing full-time leadership with part-time specialists to maintain flexibility and bring in fresh expertise. By combining strong staffing practices with cross-department collaboration, clubs create sustainable, innovative wellness operations that enhance member engagement and long-term value.
The following trends are shaping club wellness:
- Holistic Wellness Models
Members expect more than exercise. Nutrition, recovery, mindfulness, and even sleep tracking are becoming standard. - Personalization & Specialization
Technology-driven assessments and tailored training programs are in demand. Clubs that leverage member data responsibly will differentiate themselves. - Generational Expectations
Younger members want boutique-style energy and digital integration, while older members seek medically integrated, recovery-focused programs. - Performance Integration with Sport
Golfers, tennis players, and pickleball enthusiasts want sport-specific training from staff versed in biomechanics and performance science. - Blended Staffing Structures
The future blends full-time wellness directors with contracted trainers, nutritionists, and therapists. Management’s challenge is alignment, accountability, and cultural integration across these evolving employment models. - Career Pathways for Retention
Turnover is costly. Clubs that invest in professional development, continuing education, and internal progression retain talent longer. - Wellness as Social Glue
Programs like group challenges, wellness retreats, and family fitness events tie directly to what clubs do best: building community.
Private clubs must emphasize their unique value over home gyms and boutique studios by focusing on:
- Community over Convenience: Building accountability and camaraderie that can’t be replicated at home.
- Integration into Lifestyle: Linking fitness with dining (healthy menus), aquatics, golf, tennis, spa, and youth programs.
- High-Quality Staff: Professionals who are coaches, motivators, and relationship-builders, not just instructors.
- Strategic Alignment: Positioning wellness as a board-level priority that drives retention, not an auxiliary cost.
For boards and senior staff, managing wellness as a strategic initiative is essential. Wallace and Simard recommend the following:
- Hire Leaders, Not Just Trainers: A Wellness Director must be able to manage
teams, budgets, and strategy. - Balance Flexibility with Quality: Employ a mix of full-time staff and contractors,
with consistent oversight. - Support Retention: Offer education, certifications, and career development
opportunities to reduce the churn of employees. - Control Costs: Use Club Benchmarking ratios to stay within sustainable labor
expense ranges. - Integrate Wellness into the Strategic Plan: Wellness should stand alongside
golf, dining, and family programming as a core member value pillar.
There is both a challenge and an opportunity for clubs with respect to fitness and wellness. They involve cost structures that demand discipline and member expectations that are rising across generations.
Clubs that invest in the right people, align staffing with financial benchmarks, and deliver integrated, community-driven wellness will not only keep pace but differentiate themselves in an increasingly competitive market. This leads to higher engagement, stronger retention, and long-term relevance, which is the ultimate goal.
Club Trends – Fall 2025
Thomas B. Wallace III, CCM, CCE, ECM, Partner and Len Simard, USTA, PTR, PPR & RSPA Master Professional, Search & Consulting Executive at KOPPLIN KUEBLER & WALLACE can be reached at tom@kkandw.com and len@kkandw.com.