FITNESS CENTER

Prepared by Margaret Sosnowska

Director of Human Resource

July 12, 2019

 Abstract

Fitness programs result in increased levels of healthy and a reduction in the risk
factors for any diseases. This report looks at whether a company of more than 200
employees should consider building an on-site fitness center. The report will look at the
positives and negatives as well as looking at some of the risks involved with
establishing an on-site fitness center. Recent research using control groups has found
relations between reduction in health care costs, absenteeism, and turnover and
implementation of comprehensive health promotion programs. Issues related to
participation rates, program implementation, and evaluation are also addressed.
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT..............................................................................................2
TABLE OF CONTENT..............................................................................3
TRANSMITTAL ....................................................................................... 4
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .........................................................................5
ANALYSIS OF A WORKPLACE FITNESS CENTER ..............................6
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................6
POSITIVES ...............................................................................................8
NEGATIVES ........................................................................................... 11
RISKS ..................................................................................................... 13
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS ..........................................14
REFERENCES ........................................................................................15
 Transmittal

Enclosed is “Workplace Fitness Center”, as requested by the Employee

Wellness Committee. This report looks at the corporate environment and
how we may improve the wellbeing of this company by implementing an
on-site fitness center to our main office for use during work hours. It looks
at the positives, negatives and risks involved with building a fitness center
and looks at case studies of other companies and how they implemented
similar features.
A way to help decrease expenses of health-care, is to unsure, that our
employees are healthy. We will receive a big revenue to the company,
which we can provide new jobs for our company in the future. The fitness
program, we will help both employees and company. Please contact me
with any comments or questions. You may call at (630)-123-5555 or email
me at sosnowskam@company.com.

Margaret Sosnowska
Director of Human Resources
Company Inc.
 Executive Summary

Let me begin by telling you that a healthy employee is a happy employee. A healthier employee
is more likely to be productive and will miss fewer days of work due to illness and/or injury. This
facility in addition to our preexisting wellness program is a great way to introduce fitness in the
workplace culture.

Why do we must construct a fitness center? The fitness center will lower insurance costs by
providing easy access to busy staff, increasing revenue, and improving the overall mood of our
employee by promoting healthy living. The report will address the positives and negatives that
result from the fitness center.

The benefits are widespread and helpful to both company and employee. Healthcare will lower
since employees will be healthier and incur less claims. Worker productivity will increase as
they begin a regular exercise schedule. Their stress will also reduce as a result. The biggest
negative is the huge up front cost to constructing such a facility. Another concern is the
purchase and maintenance of fitness center equipment. A big risk involved with the creation of
an on-site fitness center is liability issues that come with our employees using the equipment.
Another risk we would run is spending all this money equipment and maintenance and nobody
would use the equipment, because we are not a huge company. Overall, the construction of an
on-site fitness center would be beneficial to a company of our size because the benefits of a
facility far outweigh the negatives overall.
 ANALYSIS OF A WORKPLACE FITNESS CENTER

Introduction

Health and fitness have become important concerns for people, so it is very important to
have a well-designed fitness center suited to the needs of our target employees. For
many planners and developers, utilizing the expertise of a fitness management
company such active wellness is the best way to ensure that our new fitness center
fulfills the needs of our employees, as well as satisfying budget requirements and
meeting all codes and regulations. Many companies understand this and offer their
employees a series of benefits and activities that promote health and well-being. This is
known as an employee wellness program. That’s why Microsoft, one of the world’s leading
tech giants, offers such benefits donating $17 per hour when an employee volunteers at an
organization. This is in addition to other, more conventional, employee benefits, like flex work
hours and free gym memberships. Twitter might take more than 160 characters to describe this
social media giant’s amazing corporate wellness program. Worth naming are the unlimited
vacation days and full medical and dental coverage.
However, we are not Microsoft and Twitter and don’t have the budget that they have
to spend on their employees. There are plenty of companies that are around our size
that provide benefits to our employees that allow them to be successful in the work
environment.

Figure 1 – Program offered by other companies

 So, how does this apply
to our company? Our
company would greatly
benefit from the creation
of an on-site fitness
center for our employees
to use. There are many
benefits to be gained
from a fitness center in
the workplace both for
our company and for the
employees themselves.
Figure 1 shows the
results of a survey where
companies that are
around our size where
asked about some of the
benefits that they offer
their employees. As you
can see from the chart,
about 65% of companies
that participated in this
survey provide their
employees to access of some form of fitness center whether that be an on-site fitness
center or a discount to a local fitness center that they can use. This report will look at
the positives, negatives, and some of the risks involved in the creation of an on-site
fitness center.

Why should we construct a fitness center compared to other alternatives? A fitness

center is a great investment for our company because of all the advantages of a
wellness program and the steps for implementing one in our company. Figure 2
shows the results of a study that looked at what other companies where offering their
employees and compared it to how many of their employees where interesting in
using them.

Figure 2 – Programs offered compared to interest

This chart shows that employees are very interested in having a fitness center at their
workplace and therefore a fitness center would be a great addition to our company
that will provide a lot of benefits to our company.

POSITIVES
It can be hard to see the advantages of an employee wellness program at first
glance. Here are a few benefits of having an employee wellness program.
 Improve employee health
Control health care costs
Increase productivity
Reduce absenteeism
How well do the programs fulfill these expectations? Unfortunately, it is not easy to tell,
since most of the quantitative information about the programs is compiled by vendors or
corporate program managers with a stake in the results. It's a fact: healthy employees
cost less than unhealthy employees. It makes sense that healthier worker miss fewer
days of work. Working is very stressful for everybody. Stress is a silent killer that can
trigger serious health problem and low productivity. We can reduce stress and increase
productivity by building an on- site fitness center. Exercise would promote in good
health with less risk of having health problems therefore resulting in lowering down
health care insurance cost. Employees who exercise together get to know each other
better, and those enhanced relationships translate into all kinds of pluses.

Figure 3 – Employees opinion on exercise programs and facilities

Regular exercise has many health benefits. It can improve sleep and lower stress, help
people maintain a healthy weight, and help them lower their risk of heart disease.
Offering a gym membership as an employee benefit can help your employees engage
in this activity, which then promotes their health. Exercise can also boost the mood
which has a direct effect on workplace performance. Companies with worksite wellness
programs can effectively boost employee morale and improve employee health, and
reduce the risk of absenteeism. Encouraging employees to workout regular at the
workplace fitness center and adopt healthy lifestyle habits could contribute to reduced
absenteeism.

NEGATIVES
Understanding the costs and benefits of implementing an employee wellness program
can help you choose initiatives that make sense for a business of our size. We have run
a wellness program before, we will need to correctly track and estimate the financial
benefits we get from instituting our program, which can be difficult if we don’t know what
you’re doing. Depending on what wellness options we offer, we will have a variety of
startup costs. As for picking out the type of equipment that we should get for the fitness
center we can run a survey around the office to get ideas for some equipment that we
should look for.
 Some equipment that we should get is a
couple of treadmills, bench machines, and
medicine balls. In addition to staff time, we
might need to equip a fitness center,
provide healthy snacks, offer cash payouts
for decreased use of paid time off and
prizes for weight loss or other fitness
contests, print materials that communicate
our program, hire educational speakers,
offer free cholesterol screenings and blood
pressure testing, or send workers to
substance counseling sessions or smoking
cessation programs. According to the study, the most common causes of injury were bad
technique or unnatural exercises. The most common areas of the gym for injuries were the free
weight section and cardio section.

Injuries in the cardio section came from tripping and falling on equipment. Seeking professional
help to learn proper
exercise technique
can help you stay
injury-free. In
addition to the risks
for your body, there
are mental negatives
of exercise.

RISKS

Typical business leaders like calculated risks. There are a few risks that are involved
with building a fitness center that the company should be made aware of so that we can
take preventative measures. If we want to open our fitness center, we’ll find many
rewards. However, we should also be aware of the risks of this type of profession,
including personal injury, general liabilities, financial, and general business risks. By
educating on the risks our fitness center may be exposed to us can prepare to maintain
our business. One of the most common issues involving locker rooms is insufficient
supervision. Where there is water, there is always the risk of a slip and fall injury, and
gym members must assume that risk. Have all of your machines inspected regularly for
loose or frayed cables and any other damage or impending failures. This is something
that we can talk to our legal department about and have them draft some legal
documents to protect ourselves.

CONCLUSION

The factors that define wellness include not only traditional criteria, of freedom from
disease, but also a number of positive criteria, such as adaptability to cope up with
everyday stress, feeling of accomplishment and personal growth, ability to express a
positive and creative life style and a feeling of contentment and happiness. It is clear
that there are a lot of benefits of worksite wellness programs. This research showed that
as anticipated, companies benefit most from reduced absenteeism, increased
productivity, reduced health related expenses, and enhanced recruitment of healthy
employees and, more surprisingly, from having happier healthier workers, an improved
culture at the worksite to support health, and a decreased rate of injury. Employees also
yield advantages, some of which were predictable, including increased job satisfaction,
improved health outcomes, reduced health care utilization, improved employee relations
and morale, and reduced disability. These programs help the employers with the
advantages of investing money in a program that will reduce costs in return, usually in
the form of productive employees, lower absenteeism, and reduced health care costs.
This further improves the wellbeing of the workers, increases their job satisfaction, and
raises retention rates. The wellbeing of employees directly impacts the success of the
company.
 References

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at: https://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/worksite-pa/index.htm [Accessed 30 Nov.
2018].

Pwsc.alaska.edu. (2018). Health & Fitness Center | | Price William Sound College.
[online] Available at: https://pwsc.alaska.edu/health-fitness-center/index.cshtml
[Accessed 2 Dec. 2018].

Case, H. (2018, October 22). What Are the Advantages of Having a Corporate Office
Gym? Retrieved from https://www.healthfully.com/349752-what-are-the-
advantages-of-having-a-corporate-office-gym.html

Drevits, T. (2015, April 20). The Five Benefits of Workplace Fitness Culture. Retrieved
from https://www.corporatewellnessmagazine.com/worksite-wellness/five-benefits-
workplace-fitness-culture/
Hollauf, M. (2016, may 12). 5 Companies Where You Can Exercise While Working.
Retrieved from entrepreneur: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/274207

Sinclair, D. (2018). Exercise in the workplace — Managing the risk - The Work Place
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https://www.theworkplacesolution.com/exercise-workplace-managing-risk/ [Accessed 2
Dec. 2018].