Workplace Fitness Center Analysis

WORKPLACE FITNESS CENTER ANALYSIS 2018

Prepared by Irina Girbea

Director of human resources

Report distributed on April 29, 2018

Prepared for Progressive

Corporation
Workplace Fitness Center Analysis

Abstract
Culture is a key driver of organizational strategy, but it’s an element that needs to be given
continuous attention by adaptive leaders, and revisited as projects, people, and their environment
change. Every employee wants something more than just a working day in his office. People are
tired about monotone, about doing the same thing every day. They need to meet new challenges,
set new goals and spend their days different.
Companies that meets their employees needs and create a safe place for everyone can keep their
workers for years. One of the feature to promote a healthy working environment is to build
onsite a fitness center that employees could use it during their working hours. This report will
contain positives and negatives, and what kind of risks to expect by building a fitness center in
our company. It will look at the ways that we can promote to succeed this idea. The report will
also look at what people think about building on-site fitness center and how other companies
implement this idea.
Workplace Fitness Center Analysis

Table of Contents

Abstract …………………………………………………………………. 2
Table of Contents ……………………………………………………….. 3
Transmittal ……………………………………………………………… 4
Executive Summary …………………………………………………….. 5
Analysis of a Workplace Fitness Center ………………………………... 6
Introduction ……………………………………………………………... 6
Analysis …………………………………………………………………. 7
Positives …………………………………………………………………. 7
Negatives ………………………………………………………………… 9
Risks …………………………………………………………………….. 10
Conclusion and Recommendations …………………………………...… 10
References ………………………………………………………………. 11
Workplace Fitness Center Analysis

Transmittal

I am pleased to enclose Progressive Inc “Workplaces Fitness Center Analysis 2018”. This report
is a new way of how we can improve the wellbeing of this company by building an on-site
fitness center to our main office for use during work hours. Here you will find the positives,
negatives and risks expected by implementing a fitness center.
This report contains the main idea, to understand all the benefits followed by having a fitness
center in our company. By promoting a positive culture, we are building a strong and a healthy
team, and a program that benefits the company.
With this report, I would like to show you the ways to improve the welfare of this company.
Together we can make this a place productive and a safe for our employees. We can show to our
workers that we can meet their needs and they can feel confident at their workplace.
Please contact me if you have any questions. I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Irina Girbea
Director of Human Resources
Progressive Inc.
Workplace Fitness Center Analysis

Executive Summary
This report develops an idea of how we can improve our corporate healthy culture. The main
purpose of his report is to convince the Employee Wellness Committee on why we should build
this fitness center. Here is attached the positives, negatives, and risks involved in building an on-
site fitness center. This report contains an example of a worldwide company as Facebook, who
already implemented this idea.
Our business depends on creating a healthy workplace culture in which we and our employees
thrive. We need to build an atmosphere where employees are safe, comfortable, valued and
assisted. A healthy workplace culture has employees who are given every opportunity to take
care of their physical health. The main idea of this report is to give this opportunity to our
employees. The benefits followed by implementing a healthy culture are the following: 1. Fitness
improves employee population energy, attitude, focus. 2. Personal fitness leads to improve self-
confidence. 3. Confident employees are more willing to take on leadership roles. 4. Healthier
employees get sick less. 5. The greater number of fit employees in the company increases the
likelihood of team building opportunities in work team projects. 6. Healthy employees are
happier. 7. Happy and healthy employees promote a positive company image.
The number of benefits is obviously big, but there is some negatives and risks as well. Because
we are not such a big company, the cost of building an on-site fitness center is high for us.
Anyway, together we can find some ways of how to avoid spending more money than we need.
One of those ways is to buy some used furniture and weight equipment for our gym. We also can
provide to our employees, memberships with reasonable prices. We would also need to hire two
full time employees that would we responsible for maintaining the equipment, running possibly
weekly exercise classes and watching after our employee not to get hurt. One of the risk is that
only couple employees will use our fitness center. Therefore, I advise taking a survey between
our coworkers, and to find out what exactly they are looking for.
Overall, by building the fitness center we will make a big improvement in our company culture.
It is going to be a win-win because employees who believe that their employer cares about their
health-offering comprehensive wellness programs-feel more engaged and invested in their
company.
Workplace Fitness Center Analysis

Analysis of a Workplace Fitness Center

Introduction
Our workplace has evolved during the time, every year number of our employees grows. We
know how important is for every employee to feel safe at work, that’s why we are trying to
improve our insurance every year. One important thing is that we are spending way too much
money on health insurance and that’s why I am trying to find a better way to maintain the health
of our employees and to save our money.
The new workplace fitness center will be a great benefit for our company. We can help our
employee maintain a healthy lifestyle by including couple specialists in our fitness center.
We all know that the greatest factor
that affects our health is our lifestyle.
By including the right person in our
fitness center, who can help everyone
build their own diet we can help our
employees to choose a healthy
lifestyle. As we can see from this
chart, lifestyle is the most important
factor. “You are what you eat.”- is a
well-known phrase and I think
together we can become more
confident and healthier as a team.
This report will look at the positive
and negative facts that will affect our Figure 1. Factors that affect health
company by building on site a fitness center.

A fitness center is a great investment in our company because it has a lot of benefits, not only for
our team health but for our social environment as well. Who doesn’t socialize in the gym?
Everyone in each fitness center likes to talk with each other about their goals, about their meals,
about how many pounds he left or gained, about everything. Our fitness center will be a great
social area for our employees to interact with each other. Also, employees suffering from high
stress levels have lower engagement, are less productive, and have higher absenteeism levels.
There is no better way to fight stress than to exercise. Employees who feel supported in their
efforts to eat healthy and exercise regularly are more likely to stick with it. Resulting in personal
health and productivity benefits. Good health is its own reward, but it drives change in other
areas as well. Healthier people tend to take fewer sick days, are less tired, and are more
productive at work. Is it not great, having a place at work where you can speak about other things
than your job? And who doesn’t like the idea having a gym in your own office?
Workplace Fitness Center Analysis

Based on the survey of

Workplace Health
Priorities, Employees are
more interested in health
programs than employers
could offer.74% of
employees are interested
in on-site fitness center in
their company, and only
31% of employers could
offer that opportunity.
People are looking for
something new, for
motivation, for a reason to
go every day in their
offices. Big companies
know how to maintain
Figure 2. Gap between what employees their employees for years.
want from wellness vs. what employers offer They know, their greatest
mission is “to meet people
needs”. We all should take big companies as an example. According to Glassdoor, Facebook is
now the most desirable place to work in the US. That’s not shocking, considering some of the
company’s tempting perks. Facebook focuses on several different spheres, including health,
family, community, finance, and convenience. This worldwide company is focused on achieving
employee needs. Also, one of their sphere that they are focused on is health. They have an on-
site fitness center, where people during their work hours can go and workout. Facebook is
convinced that the fitness does not only help their employees to maintain a healthy lifestyle, but
also help people socialize and be more open minded.

Analysis
Positives
The greatest benefit about building our own fitness center in our company is that the benefits
apply for both the company and the employees. Benefits for our company includes attracting
qualified personal and more important is that we will keep our employees who already knows
how to work with our system. People are looking for a safe place with a lot of benefits, and our
company with our own fitness center includes that. Who likes monotone? People are tending to
find something new all the time, therefore they are changing their jobs every couple year. Only
companies that are trying to achieve employees needs can keep their personal for decades. The
more benefits a company has, the more employees are trying to keep their jobs. Engaged
workers, those who do feel emotionally connected to their jobs, report healthy lifestyles, are
better team players and more productive. It’s a win-win. Employees who believe that their
Workplace Fitness Center Analysis

employer cares about their health-offering comprehensive wellness programs-feel more engaged
and invested in their company.
According to Gallup, there is a list of the most important benefits apply for both the companies
and the employees:
 Accidents – healthier employees are more focused and aware, risk of injury due to
inattentiveness in lower.
 Workers compensation claims – overweight employees file twice as many worker’s
compensation claims and cost companies around $73.1 billion a year.
 Work-related illnesses – better fitness decreases stress, increases strength and boosts
immunity in most employees, reducing chances of illnesses at the workplace.
 Sick pay – Healthier employees get sick less often and save companies money.
 Low morale – greater employee population health improves staff morale all around.
 Stress – healthy lifestyles include more awareness of and need for work-life balance.
 Self-confidence – personal fitness leads to improved self-confidence.
 Leadership – confident employees are more willing to take on leadership roles.
 Goal achievement and sense of accomplishment – improved productivity, energy,
attitude, and self-confidence results in higher likelihood of goal achievement.
 Team building opportunities and cooperation -the greater number of fit employees in
the company increases the likelihood of team building opportunities in work team
projects.
 Positive company image – Employees who are happy and healthy exhibit that vibrancy
into the community and promote a positive company image of caring and social
responsibility

According to Virgin
and Pulse
Workforce magazine
survey, nearly 90%
of employees
consider health and
wellness paramount;
employees want to
be healthy-
physically and
mentally. People are
happier at a
company that
promotes a healthy
work culture.
Figure 3. Wellness Improvement System Model
Workplace Fitness Center Analysis

Overall, healthy employees not only contribute to the health of a company’s bottom line-
productivity, culture and savings, but also to the larger society. The dividends in a healthy
population payoff are immeasurable.

Negatives
Despite of all positives that a fitness center at the workplace could provide, there are some
negatives as well. Because we are not such a big company as Facebook, one of the biggest
negatives is the cost of building it and maintaining it. We also need a big amount of space for the
actual fitness center with all the facilities that everyone needs after their workout. We need to
make sure that our employees will use our facilities and to be sure that we are meeting their
needs.

Luckily for us we have our basement that was never decently used. We can construct our fitness
center in our basement. There is plenty room not only for the fitness center but for the showers
and lockers as well. It allows us to save money on renting extra space in our building. Another
way to save money is to buy used exercise equipment rather than buying all brand-new.

Figure 4. Fitness Center Space Type

To be sure that we are buying the right equipment for our employees, we can run a survey
between our coworkers. In this way we are going to find out what they use in gym, and what
Workplace Fitness Center Analysis

exactly they need. We need to build a room where we could keep weights, and everything
needed for group exercises. We also can make a schedule for the group exercises and those who
want to participate.

Risks
One of the biggest risks is that only a couple of our employees will use our facilities. Also, as we
all know most of our employees already have memberships to random fitness centers, that’s is
why we need to implement some techniques that will give our fitness center the best chance for
success.

Figure 5. Average membership prices

There is an average of the prices for different types of membership. We need to provide for our
employee reasonable prices, more reasonable that they already have. In this way we can help us
too. The money collected can help pay for the maintenance cost of the fitness center.
All the fitness center has special personal that takes care about the customers, so they do not get
hurt. We need to hire trainers who will help our employees choosing the right exercises and
watching out after them.

Conclusion and Recomandations

By this report I have provided a lot of benefits by the construction of an on-site fitness center. It
will allow our employee to perform in their jobs better. Happy employees stay longer at the job
and are less likely to seek other employment, reducing recruitment costs and productivity losses
in re-training. Job performance improves by 25% if employees eat healthy and by 15% if they
exercise at least 30 minutes 3 times a week. There are obviously more positives than negatives.
The greatest negative is the cost of the construction, but I think we can find more ways to
decrease the cost. One way to save money on the construction is to buy used furniture and weight
equipment for our fitness center.
Workplace Fitness Center Analysis

References
http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-employee-perks-benefits-2017-11#a-wellness-
allowance-to-finance-gym-membership-or-other-healthy-activities-3

https://www.gohealthhero.com/blog/10-benefits-of-healthy-employees/

https://www.surveymonkey.com/mp/how-to-build-a-healthy-work-culture/

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