Is High Turnover Among New Employees the Fault of Gen Z or the System? STREAM Personal Gym Boasts 3% Turnover, Promotes 3 New Grads to Manager in Six Months

RIPPLE Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Machida City, Tokyo; Representative Director: Sora Yoshikawa), operator of the personal gym 'STREAM', announced that three employees who joined as new graduates in the 2025 fiscal year have been appointed as store managers just six months after joining the company.

Behind this lies the company's promotion system based on clear numerical criteria: '80% contract rate, 90,000 yen average customer spend, and achieving store targets for 6 consecutive months.' This was introduced in response to the severe turnover issue in the personal trainer industry. This evaluation system, which ignores length of service, has produced managers overseeing two stores and launch managers for new locations from the 2025 new graduate cohort, powerfully supporting the early growth and career development of Generation Z.

Background: Structural Issues in the Personal Trainer Industry ### [STREAM's Promotion System (1)] Evaluating Based on 'Numerical Criteria', Not Intuition The personal gym market continues to expand, with the 2024 market size estimated at 27.5 billion yen (+10.8% year-on-year). (*1) (*1: Hot Pepper Beauty Academy 'Latest Trends in the Fitness Market by Gender', February 2025).

On the other hand, talent retention remains a critical issue for the industry. The average annual salary of a personal trainer is about 3.85 million yen, below the cross-industry average (*2). Particularly among young professionals, the lack of clarity regarding career paths—'what needs to be done to be evaluated and how to advance'—and ambiguous evaluation criteria are the primary causes of early resignation. Currently, this opacity is accelerating the drain of young talent from the industry. (*2: Kyujin Box Job Statistics Data)

STREAM's low 3% turnover rate is the result of management decisions addressing this industry structure. The company minimizes the costs of recruiting and retraining associated with turnover, using the generated funds to provide direct compensation to frontline staff, such as paying overtime in one-minute increments and offering monthly salaries exceeding 320,000 yen upon promotion to store manager. High retention rates improve management efficiency, and passing those improvements back as compensation further increases retention—this virtuous cycle supports the company's rapid store expansion.

### [STREAM's Promotion System (2)] Evaluating Based on 'Numerical Criteria', Not Intuition [Note: The provided source text ended abruptly with 'RI', translation follows the provided text]. RI...