Signing up for corporate gym membership may mean that your employees have access to more affordable health insurance rates. This may encourage those who may not have previously considered joining the gym to do so. Regular exercise may have a positive effect on everything from the cost of your corporate Aviva Health insurance (www.aviva.co.uk/health-insurance/) to the number of days which your staff take off as sick leave, so it can be well worth doing. Healthy employees who take good care of their wellness are also likely to make more productive and efficient workers, so your business will undoubtedly benefit too.

For those whose employees rarely socialize together, or only ever tend to meet for drinks at a local bar, then corporate gym membership can also be a great way to offer an alternative, healthier method of team-bonding. If colleagues within your company are often keen to outdo one another, then this is the perfect opportunity for them to put this competitive streak to good use in the gym. Not only will they get to know one another a little better, but they will also be contributing to their own health and wellness.

Those who exercise regularly often report that they feel less tired a lethargic, and are more content in their daily lives. They often sleep better at night and feel more refreshed and focused when it comes to completing important tasks and projects. These are all no doubt qualities which any employer would be keen to encourage in their staff, and offering discounted gym membership can certainly be extremely helpful in achieving this.

The various lifestyles we lead today often threaten our long-term health. Habits and behaviors such as poor diet, smoking, lack of exercise, ignoring to wear seat belts are among the common factors that bring an individual to high risks of premature death or getting ill. However, knowledge of the presence of these risks does not always make a change in behavior, people are not aware of which risks need urgent attention.

Undergoing health risk assessments can reduce risks by health education. It primarily motivates and sustains health behavioral changes to improve the population’s health and productivity hence cutting on health care costs.

A health risk assessment is a short set of questions that will educate you about your health risks. Upon completion of the questionnaire, a customized health report will suggest changes that you may want to undergo to improve your health. Questions ask your health habits about physical activity, UV exposure, chronic conditions, alcohol consumption, biometric measures and others. Health Risk Assessment takers are also asked to have the following available:

Total cholesterol level, HDL (High Density Lipoprotein) LDL cholesterol, Blood Pressure, Last checkup, date of last vaccinations, Date of latest cancer screenings

The absence of any of these data will not forfeit your application for the HRA, but results that are more accurate will be given if all information is known.

Health Risk Assessments have three basic sections:

1. Questionnaire. Upon registration, you are presented with questions comprising the Health Risk Assessment.
2. Risk computation. The answers in the questionnaire will then be compared with the data collected from the greater population. Disease precursors are then matched with individual risk factors and are given numerical “relative risk” to indicate the amount of the precursor’s contribution to the disease.
3. Customized risk reports and educational messages. Risk reports are based on the individual’s statistics matched with the data of the similar population group. After which a summary of the individual’s health risk is presented with recommended lifestyle behaviors and suggestions of reducing the risk.

The Personal Health Record

After registration on health risk assessment, the personal health record can be accessed anytime. It is used to keep and monitor important health information, and is available on your homepage. It includes nine tabs: Health summary, Personal information, Allergies and health conditions tracker, Medications Medical care, Dental and vision care, Calendars and reminders Compose Reports

The Questions

There is not much difference between the questions asked in today’s questionnaire from the ones presented 20 years ago by Lewis C. Robbins M.D. The difference lies on how the answers are used. At present, health risk assessments and preventive medicine play significant roles in managing diseases. Today, corporations, insurance companies, and other networks for managed care are using health risk assessments and statistics from national health to formulate health intervention programs and focus on group risks.

For instance, a risk report may indicate a large portion of employees are not physically fit and could need mobile activities to keep them active when not at work. Alternatively, a company may just discover that a significant number of its members have high cholesterol levels and should therefore develop an education and informational program about preventive measures like diet and exercise.

One of the primary benefits of health risk assessments is identifying high-risk employees whose health status should be monitored closely.

What is Corporate Fitness Center Design?

Corporate fitness center design is a phrase used to describe the development of the architectural plans and the functional amenities and specifications to be used in a company gym.  The types of things associated with this include the design of the room or building, layout of the equipment, the heating and air conditioning requirements, the functional amenities you include (showers, lockers, bike racks, etc.), the types of flooring used, usage and placement of mirrors and televisions and much more.

Why is Corporate Fitness Center Design Important?

Corporate fitness center design has a direct impact on utilization rates and employer liability.  Logic and research supports the fact that well designed corporate fitness centers get higher utilization rates than their poorly designed counterparts.  Who wants to workout in a space where there isn’t adequate air conditioning?  How many employees will workout at lunch if there aren’t locker rooms and showers available for them to use?

Corporate fitness center design can also increase or mitigate an employer’s exposure to liability.  Following are some examples of potential liability issues associated with corporate fitness center design:

• Ventilation: Poor ventilation can cause people to overheat and increase the risk of heart attack.
• Flooring: Cheap flooring in a group exercise room can result in increased risk of knee and joint problems.
• Mirrors: Failure to provide properly placed mirrors can increase the risk of a person getting hurt because they are unable to check their form.
• Treadmills:  Failure to leave enough room behind treadmills can result in additional injuries when people are entering and exiting the treadmill.
• Televisions:  Failure to properly place televisions can increase the chance of injury.  This is especially true when using a treadmill.  Televisions should be placed directly in front of treadmills.  This reduces the risk that a person will inadvertently step off the belt of the treadmill and get injured.
• Locker Rooms / Changing Rooms / Showers:  Sexual harassment and associated risks can be better managed through properly designed locker rooms and facilities.
• Lighting: Failure to provide good interior and exterior lighting can increase the risk of personal injury and safety related issues.
• Used or Refurbished Equipment:  Saving money by purchasing used or refurbished equipment can seem like a great idea but it can also expose you to additional liability.  It’s often difficult to tell just how worn a piece of equipment is so extra care must be taken when purchasing or considering used equipment.

Corporate Fitness Center Design Tips

Following are some tips related to corporate fitness center design:

Hire a Professional: There’s a lot at stake so make sure you work with someone that specializes in corporate fitness center design.  Few local architects and even fewer local gyms can help with this sort of thing.  That may seem obvious to you, but I know of at least one Fortune 500 company that turned to a local gym for help designing and setting up three corporate fitness centers.  Within a year of opening an employee filed a lawsuit over an issue that could have been avoided if they’d worked with a company that specializes in corporate fitness center design.

Equipment Matters: Selecting the right equipment can facilitate utilization and mitigate your exposure to liability.  It’s best to purchase commercial grade equipment vs. equipment that’s designed for home use.  Commercial grade equipment will last longer, has lower maintenance costs and can be safer for participants.  This is another place where working with a professional can make a big difference.  They can help with selection and often have access to significant discounts that local gyms would not be able to offer.

Types of Corporate Fitness Programs

Before you start searching for corporate fitness companies you need to determine what your approximate budget is and determine the types of programs and services your interested in offering or providing for your employees.  Some examples of the types of programs you might offer include:

• Physical activity incentive programs
• Discounted gym memberships
• Exercise classes
• Fitness challenges and contests
• Gym membership reimbursement or subsidy
• Onsite corporate fitness center
• Personal training or group training
• Seminars or presentations about physical activity
• Team fitness event
• Walking programs
• Walking trails

Obviously some of the items in on the list are not all that expensive, but some of them are very expensive.  For example, building and staffing a corporate fitness center is very costly and is not something that many small organizations can afford.

Finding Corporate Fitness Companies

Where you look for corporate fitness companies depends a lot on the types of programs you want to offer, your budget and the number of locations your organization has.  Following are some general perimeters that you can use in determining where to look for service providers:

Local Gyms – If you’re mainly interested in having onsite exercise classes, personal training, discounted memberships, fitness seminars and presentations then we highly recommend contacting a few local gyms.  Every gym we’ve ever talked to has been willing to help with any and all of those types of things.  Some – like seminars and presentations are generally offered free of charge.

Wellness Company Directory – Our wellness company directory is a growing resource that provides you with an easy way to search for and find local, regional, national and even international corporate fitness companies.  The Wellness Directory gives you all the contact information, a description of the organization, links to their website, Facebook and Twitter accounts and user-generated ratings and reviews.  It’s makes it easy for you to find information about the organizations and the types of services they provide.

Internet Search – This is another great way to search for this type of services providers.  We recommend that you check both the organic search results as well as the paid search results.  Most search engines identify the paid results though the distinction is intentionally pretty vague.  Nonetheless, many of the major providers of corporate fitness programs spend a lot on search advertising which makes it pretty easy for consumers to find them there.

There are other ways to find these types of organizations, but this should get you started.  Look for more articles in the coming days about evaluating service providers and on corporate fitness center design.

Corporate fitness is a phrase used to describe physical activity and exercise related programs that are implemented by an employer.  The goal of corporate fitness programs is to increase the amount of physical activity that an employee gets.

Why Corporate Fitness Programs?

You may wonder why an employer would care about the amount of physical activity that an employee gets?  The reasons are simple, logical and well supported by research.  Physically active employees are less likely to be overweight, have fewer chronic health conditions, have lower levels of stress, miss fewer days of work and are more productive than their sedentary co-workers.  By helping employees become more physically active a corporation can lower health care costs, decrease sick days and increase productivity.

In fact, research shows that the average wellness program ROI is about 3:1 over a 36-month period.  Meaning that for every $1 invested in wellness programs the average employer can expect to save about a $3 on health care costs and about $3 on absenteeism.  Not a bad return-on-investment.

Type of Corporate Fitness Programs

There are many types of corporate fitness programs available.  They vary greatly in complexity, price and effectiveness.  Examples of corporate fitness programs include:

• Walking programs
• Onsite corporate fitness centers
• Onsite exercise classes
• Onsite personal training or group training
• Reimbursing the cost of a gym membership or subsidizing the cost of a gym membership
• Arranging for discounted memberships through local or national gyms
• Fitness challenges and contests
• Seminars and presentations about physical activity
• Stairwell initiatives – encouraging the use of the stairs vs. taking the elevator
• Online fitness tools and applications
• Providing incentives for physical activity
• Reimbursing the cost of certain fitness items (exercise bands, stability balls, etc.)
• Having flexible schedules that allow employees more time to exercise before work or after work
• Having “walking meetings vs. sitting in a conference room.
• Installing bike racks so that employees can bike to work.

Successful Corporate Fitness Programs

Successful corporate fitness programs generally involve some type of incentive that rewards employees for being physically active.  The fact is that most people are not intrinsically motivated to be physically active.  Time constraints, work, family obligations, etc all conspire to make it difficult for people to find (or make) the time to exercise.  To change that requires some type of incentive.  The key is to find out what incentives motivate your employees to be more active and then use that to leverage increased rates of participation and physical activity.

Corporate Fitness Programs: Liability Issues

Companies need to be careful when implementing corporate fitness programs.  We always recommend that organizations check with their attorney and their liability insurance provider to make sure that they are not putting the business at risk by implementing these types of programs.

You’ll probably need liability waivers and other documents to help protect the business, but most of this is easily and inexpensively taken care of.  If you’re working with a third-party company to implement this type of program then they’ll likely have the forms available for use and can guide you through this process.

Closing Thoughts

Don’t let the potential liability issues stop you from investing in corporate fitness programs.  They can help you lower health care costs, lower rates of absenteeism, decrease employee stress levels and make employees more productive.