The PTDC

Established in 2011, thePTDC.com welcomes over a million visitors a year to its 1,000+ articles for professionals working in the fitness industry. It has evolved from a purely educational resource selling books and courses to a company with a suite of focused products, services, and technology, ranging from the industry-leading certification for online trainers to business coaching to fitness coaching. Tens of thousands of health and fitness professionals in virtually every corner of the globe purchase products or services from the PTDC each year.

We aim to infuse joy into our work, and we want team members to bring their true selves to the workplace. We believe that in the big picture leading meaningful, healthy lives takes precedence over pretty much everything. With this in mind, we work with passion and commitment when at work and dedicate ourselves to our hobbies, time with family, or other individual interests when not at work. Leaders support these ideals by modeling this behavior. We’ve also found that providing flexible, remote work opportunities—or an in-person experience at our Toronto, Ontario office—supports the flexibility and balance we seek for team members.

We want every team member to be responsible for the areas of the business they oversee, and we task leaders with providing them coaching and support. Team members provide input into the top-level strategy and plan and supporting KPIs, and they take part in a quarterly project planning process to determine company priorities. Team members have the autonomy to design and execute their work. And we are outcome-oriented, looking at how people are growing and what they're achieving, not how many hours they log or when they log them.

Our hiring process uses an evaluation and rating system where each interviewer provides feedback based on clear, objective hiring criteria. Today, our team is about 50/50 men/women and global, with team members from Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, Namibia, Spain and the US. However, we recognize that we have opportunities to improve, especially in building a more diverse leadership team. We're committed to this, and accordingly, our 2021 and future plans entail dedicating more time and resources (i.e., budgeted dollars) to these efforts.

We feel that most growth and development comes from team members being put in a position to succeed in achieving their goals, do their best work, learn and therefore grow, all the while working together to solve real problems that arise day to day. Improving on this day-in, day-out is our focus.

As part of the development work around diversity (i.e., "We're committed to this, and accordingly, our 2021 and future plans entail dedicating more time and resources (i.e., budgeted dollars) to these efforts."), we plan to include in the scope of that project additional services covering individual team member development.

We also provide a professional development allowance.

We view the hiring process similarly to the way we engage with strategic partners, as a conversation between two parties who each bring value to the table. Together, we are exploring how we can each serve the other. We try to minimize the power dynamic that favors the employer, and we aren’t fixated on the typical “interview” convention for gathering and sharing information either. Our process allows people to share ideas in writing or by video, for example.