As one of the most frequently requested benefits, corporate access to gyms and health clubs is widely recognised as a great way to attract, motivate and retain employees. However, the options available in this area have hardly changed in years.
Through payasUgym employees that are part of a corporate scheme can visit any of the participating gyms on a pay-as-you-go basis and will only ever pay for the gym sessions that they actually use. They receive a corporate discount on every visit and there are no inductions, joining fees or membership. Employees simply load credit to a free online account in the same way that they would top up a pre-paid mobile phone, and then use this credit to buy vouchers for gym use at any of the participating gyms. payasUgym is also available for use via a free iPhone application and the company plans to release similar applications on Blackberry and Android devices later in 2012.
Employers have the opportunity to contribute to this gym use if they choose, or they can reward employees that go the extra mile for their company by awarding ‘gym credit’ which can then be spent at any of the 200 participating gyms and health clubs.
Corporate health and fitness benefits are regularly justified on the basis of reduced absenteeism, greater productivity and improved morale but until now employers have not been able to categorically measure the impact. Through payasUgym, employers will now be able to contribute to their employees’ health and fitness routine as well as monitor usage and measure the real impact on their business.
Since launching to the general public at the start of 2011, payasUgym has proved to be particularly popular with busy professionals that prefer flexibility over committing to membership at one location.
Jamie Ward, co-founder of payasUgym, says: “We know how important it is for employers to offer their staff exciting and cost-effective health benefits but nothing has really changed over the past 10 years in this area. payasUgym offers employers a completely new way to provide totally flexible gym use to their employees whilst also measuring the effectiveness of the service on their business.”
“The demands of business today mean that employers and employees are increasingly looking for innovative and flexible solutions that also demonstrate sound commercial justification. We believe payasUgym will deliver on all counts.”
Martin Todd, Head of Reward in the HR Operations team at Grant Thornton, says: “We were looking to enhance our current gym offering and payasUgym does just that. It gives our people the flexibility to go to the gym when they want, just pay for what they use and is simple to sign up to whether they are at work, at home or on the move.”
payasUgym offers employers the choice to run either a contributory or non-contributory service depending on their specific requirements. For contributory services the employer will only ever support employees that actually use the gym.
