I went out for my first bike ride of 2012 last night. I managed 20 miles and I’m really feeling the effects today!
I saw so many people out running and cycling. The arrival of the sun seems to make us all think about how we look and feel and in the office we have had a huge number of enquiries over the last two weeks about our corporate gym memberships.
Working with both local and national gym groups, sports centres and leisure centres across the UK, we have negotiated corporate rates for annual gym memberships. This means our clients can offer their employees membership at the gym, leisure centre, sports centre of their choice. Employees are able to choose the one that suits them best in terms of distance from their home or work, the facilities on offer and the cost.
Annual membership is paid up front by the company and then reouped form the employees’ salary over the course of the next 12 months. This gives the employee 3 fantastic benefits:
1. They get to choose the gym that they want to use, not one that they had to use in order to get any kind of discount.
2. They don’t have to find a big lump sum to pay for the membership so their family finances aren’t hit.
3. They get the added bonus of also making a saving in employees national insurance on the annual cost.
When we undertook a customer survey last year, gym membership was seen by employees as one of the most desirable benefits to have so it’s great for staff motivation and retention. At neutral cost to the company, by offering this, employers are enabling their workforce to get fitter and healthier. It is also a great benefit to offer when recruiting new employees.