Who would have thought that clubs could boost their profits from focusing on the health of other businesses? More than ever, profitable clubs in the industry are thinking outside the box and assisting corporations with their health and wellness.
Companies such as Club One in Northern California have worked hard to conquer this area of fitness that hadn’t yet been discovered. “Corporate wellness is no longer just a perk or benefits offering,” explained Paul Walker, Club One’s general manager and corporate wellness expert. “Health clubs are not just a service provider, but a true wellness partner that can help lower health care costs for corporations — in some cases to the point where the program pays for itself in savings.”
Corporate Wellness Works for You
When clubs adjust their focus to think of corporate wellness, they are adjusting to a community based fitness initiative. “Over the last three to four years, we have really focused on selling our clubs as a preventative wellness solution,” Walker said. “Through our people, programs and services, we can help create a healthier workforce for any organization.”
Club One began its program by looking at corporations around their club locations. “We identified companies within close proximity to our clubs, contacted appropriate Human Resources or Benefits Managers and scheduled informational visits to introduce the company to our corporate offerings,” explained Walker.
There have been many situations within the U.S. that have given clubs the means to look further into corporate wellness. “As the healthcare crisis becomes more prominent, the importance of health risk management within a corporation becomes more critical,” explained Club One COO Bill McBride. “Today, population risk management is emerging as a key factor in corporate-health cost-control. This is key to our industry as more and more corporations turn to reputable experts who understand the importance and how to keep people engaged, active and fit for life.”
Don’t let the idea of touching base with corporations be terrifying. The opportunity is there, and it doesn’t have to be complicated. “Anytime Fitness offers a comprehensive, yet simple approach to corporate wellness,” said Beth Loechler, the director of corporate partnerships for Anytime Fitness. “At the club level, we are excited to offer personalized plans, including group rates, employer-subsidized memberships, gift cards and onsite services.”
Clubs have a lot to offer corporate facilities. Businesses in general would love to get a break on their health insurance, but they can’t get the best deals without the club’s help. “Employers are desperately trying to trim their health claims, and many are still trying to recover loss of productivity as a result of recession layoffs,” Loechler said. “It’s a great benefit to the employers to know that we are continually watching the trends in employee wellness and updating our programs so they have access to proven and effective strategies.”
How to get your club involved
If a club decides to make the leap into the corporate fitness community, it must first research the competition around its city. Ask a few questions such as: does your club have competition within a 10-mile radius? Does the competing club have corporate accounts? If so, try and discover how much they cost and at what value.
Every detail you can discover about competing clubs in the area can make marketing easier. Perhaps there isn’t a competing club — at which point, get moving on the corporate marketing.
There are many ways to market for corporate facilities. “When we work with a club, we help them develop relationships with corporations which will benefit both parties,” explained Matt York the vice president of marketing and operations for Premier Fitness Marketing. “The key to a good corporate program is to make sure that it is a win-win situation for both parties and to keep it simple.”
The majority of corporations don’t want to deal with the hassle of giving employees an exercise facility. The space and finances to build their own facility are often out of reach — therefore, giving the club an advantage.
“Our most effective approach to marketing our corporate wellness program begins with creating a good relationship with our members and educating them on the benefits of having a corporate wellness program at work,” Walker explained. “Members advocate for corporate wellness programs and will put their human resources department in touch with our corporate membership representatives. Other strategies simply consist of getting outside of our club, introducing ourselves to businesses in the neighborhood and educating them about our corporate wellness program.”
Vitabot, an online nutrition tracking company, also aids clubs in contacting and locking in corporate facilities by letting clubs private-label their online nutrition program. John Peters, the market director for Vitabot, who has previous experience on the frontline as a membership sales consultant for Sport & Health for four years, helps clubs market themselves successfully. “We help clubs reach out to HR directors by providing compelling marketing material and ‘online guest passes’ to Vitabot through the clubs website,” Peters explained. “The corporate membership representative simply e-mails our material to the HR director and asks them to forward it to all employees. This saturates the employee base with a seven or 14-day trial offer to our interactive nutrition program through the club’s website, in conjunction with other services they are offering the employee: seven or 14 day guest pass, tanning session, one hour consultation, etc.”
This drives business to the health club without a lot of marketing cost. “The HR director simply forwards an e-mail with our marketing material to every employees’ inbox clearly defining what the club is offering to the employee” Peters said. “Nutrition is about 70 percent of the solution to achieving fitness goals, and we allow the health club to offer a world class service of nutrition to employees. Also, some employees are just looking for nutritional counseling and we allow the health club not only an entry point into the nutrition market, but also a potential profit center by selling non-member employees. Employees can use Vitabot at home or work through the clubs website which always keeps them in view of the health club.”
Successful Strategies for Implementing Corporate Wellness
A lot of clubs do different things to make their wellness programs stand out among other clubs. Many have discounts or host types of nutritional guidance concepts to help sell corporations.
Club One offers a couple of different programs to satisfy more corporations. According to Walker, the first program is “a subsidy program where a company can choose to subsidize a portion of their employees’ membership to aid in retention, recruitment, increased productivity and higher morale. More importantly, we see a higher employee participation percentage through subsidized programs that effectively lowers organizations healthcare expenditures.
“We also offer wellness solutions beyond our health clubs. Our online behavioral change program called Habit Change® that allows employees to establish healthy habits and reinforces positive behavior.”
Club One has about 20 years in corporate wellness and has developed some full-proof systems that aid in their success. “We offer turnkey management solutions that help lower absenteeism while boosting morale for boutiques to Fortune 500 companies,” explained Club One’s Vice President of Corporate Health and Fitness Robyn VanDerLuit. “In addition to managing corporate fitness centers, our total health management solutions include: movement sessions like yoga, walking and boot camps; departmental challenges, weight management programs, energy breaks, online behavioral change programs and employee incentive management.”
Clubs have to reach out to employees and show them simple ways to get healthy. When a majority of corporate employees spend a lot of time in front of a computer and sitting in an office chair, they aren’t always up on health and nutrition. “Our most important strategy has been staying in tune with wellness trends,” Loechler said. “We know that to succeed, we have to stay current with the latest employer demands for programming. Our business partners love that we have taken the administrative headache out of employee wellness. We do the research so they don’t have to.”
Creating a successful corporate wellness program within or outside of your club may not be easy, but by listening to other clubs that do it well, the pain of creating innovative ideas in the beginning can be side stepped. Follow plans that have worked in the past and the club will secure business throughout its city. -CS
