How To Setup A Company Fitness Challenge

I work out at an office gym. It’s a small place which is shared by multiple office buildings around it. That means most of the people I work out with are high tech professionals taking time out of their day to get in a workout. Most people at this gym workout alone. It’s rare to see people working out together since most of the gym goers here lead pretty busy lives and it’s hard to coordinate with friends or coworkers. So I was a bit surprised to see a personal trainer at this gym leading a group of about 5 people through a pretty challenging workout. Even more surprising, an hour after this group started, another group of 5 showed up and took their places. Ever the curious one, I asked them what was going on.

A Company Challenge

They explained to me that this was a company sponsored event.  The company they worked for hired a personal trainer and was encouraging people to go to the gym with this trainer 3 to 4 times a week.  I thought this was a great idea and asked them who had come up with it and how they managed to convince the company to go with it.  Here’s what they said.

First, The Idea

The person who originally came up with this idea was an engineer.  He used to be an athlete in college but had done very little physical exercise since then.  Because he spent such long hours at work, he decided that the work day was the best time for him to work out.  However, he needed two things.  First, he wanted to make sure his boss was ok with him taking off an hour every day.  Second, he needed motivation.  He had tried working out on his own before but never stuck with it.  He decided that the best way to accomplish both goals would be some kind of company project.  Working out with other people would provide him with motivation and making it an official company project would make it easier to get permission.

Second, The Plan

In order to accomplish his goals, our engineer came up with a project plan.  He outlined what he wanted to do and then presented it to his boss.  His idea was simple.  The company would provide a sign up sheet where groups of employees would sign up together to work out.  These groups or teams would work out together 3 times a week.

He justified his idea in multiple ways.  First, it would be a good team building exercise.  Working out together builds strong bonds as people support each other.  That’s good for overall company productivity.  Second, this would help build cross departmental ties and communication.  The teams would consist of people from multiple departments and, as people do, they would keep talking about work even as they worked out.  So engineers would talk to sales, marketing would talk to support and IT would finally talk to something other than computers.  Finally, he showed his boss multiple studies about lower health care costs and higher productivity from people who worked out and were in good shape.

Step 3, Good Response

His boss was impressed.  The plan was well thought out and the benefits seemed clear.  He agreed to a short trial but he actually added one more thing, a personal trainer.  The company found a trainer who would come to the office gym and lead the employee groups through their workouts.  They thought this would make the workouts more structured and productive.

Step 4, Turnout

Out of a company of 100 people, 20 signed up.  That meant 4 groups of 5 each.  The program had an 80% turnout rate.  That means that, on average, 4 people would show up for each session.

Step 5, Costs

The company, which now has 150 people, currently has 30 people participating in the program.  The trainer costs $50 per hour.  There are 18 sessions a week for a total of $3600 a month.  Total annual costs for the company are $45,000, not including work time lost, which I will discuss in a second.

Step 6, Results

On average, the 30 participants have lost 8lbs.  They’ve also increased their muscle tone, lowered their blood pressure and their cholesterol plus they’ve decreased their body fat.  All in all, great progress for 6 months of work.  The company itself says that, while the program has not run long enough to really measure, they’ve already seen increased morale, better communication and higher productivity from the people participating in the program.  On a related note, the company says the people who participate in the program are taking less sick days than their coworkers.  Overall, the company believes they are getting more out of the program than they are putting in and they’re planning to keep the program going indefinitely.

Recommendations

Some tips for those looking to start programs like this at their own offices:

• Have a plan - Don’t just walk up to your boss and say “can you give me time off to go work out?”  Have an idea of what you’re trying to implement with enough details to make it seem real.
• Show the benefits - Tell your employers WHY they should do this, not just why you want it.  There has to be something in it for them.
• Show proof - Bring in articles discussing health care costs.  Show studies on productivity.  Whatever you have, use it to make your points real.
• Put it in terms they understand - Companies care about their bottom line, not your waistline.  So if you’re going to convince them, make sure you’re talking about things they care about.  How will this increase productivity?  How much will it cost?  What will we save? and so on.

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One guy with a good idea managed to get time off from work and a personal trainer.  He got his motivation and the company got a happier, healthier and more productive workforce.  Sounds like a win / win all around.

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