KEY POINTS:
Healthy, fit people work better and are more productive than their less active counterparts, research has shown.
It has also been shown that it's important for employees to feel cared about by employers.
Management consultant Andrea Needham says workplaces that have gyms, or membership subsidies for outside gyms,
are showing their employees that they care about their health and wellness.
She said having a gym would be a drawcard for new employees.
Even if a company does not have space for a gym, it could encourage people to go out for a walk or a run.
"Companies should have showers at work so that if employees want to go for a bike ride or a run, they [can] without coming back to their desks sweaty and smelly."
Fletcher Building Group human resources executive Peter Merry says the company has a gym for staff at its head office in Penrose.
"We have 370 worksites and can't have a gym in each - but we do arrange a discount card, which features gyms, for employees around the country.
"The message we send out by having a gym is that we care about our employees' work/life balance. We want people to be able to keep healthy at work and promote their wellbeing."
Fletcher Building's gym offers challenges and classes for employees, which include spinning classes, weight reduction, pump classes and more. There are physical assessments and instructors to turn to. During lunch breaks, employees can do the "lunch crunch" _ a tough half-hour workout. Merry says the facilities are well patronised. Employees pay a fee to belong but it is subsidised by the company. Employees, their partners and people who have retired from the company use the gym.
He says people keep fit and it makes a statement about the company taking care of its workforce. "We don't just do the talk."
Merry thinks having a gym probably helps recruitment. "Modern employees are clued up. They have high standards and want to work for an organisation with integrity."
As far as staff retention is concerned, he says the gym is probably a piece in the puzzle when people evaluate their workplace.
"It gets a tick; people like it."
Another company that takes its staff's fitness seriously is OI Glass Packaging in Great South Road. It has had a well-maintained gym with cardiovascular and weightlifting equipment since July 2000.
The executive secretary, who looks after the gym, Katie Leigh, says staff who wish to use the facilities pay a dollar a week. The company then subsidises it.
"We have a membership of 132 people," she says. The company has 186 staff.
Health, safety and training manager Fran O'Keefe said the gym grew out of a social club. "The social club was reasonably active but it took a dive when the shift pattern at the company changed. A suggestion that came out of that was we should have a gym."
Leigh says the company has increased the size of the gym three times.
"Upkeep is not much of a problem."
The company uses a contractor, who installed the gym in the first place, to come every six weeks to clean the equipment and check it's all in working order.
O'Keefe says sometimes sports students from Unitec do practical work at the gym and work out fitness programmes for members.
"The obvious advantage of the gym is that from the company's point of view, fitter people do a better job. People who are interested in their own wellbeing tend to be better employees; they're more motivated."
She says that if there are injuries in the gym it is the company's responsibility.
"We are exposed to injury risk but we haven't had anything serious. Maybe a graze or two. Our members tend to be quite careful. The benefits far outweigh any risks."
O'Keefe says that many of the jobs at OI Glass Packaging are manual. The gym helps people improve their physique in order to do the job better.
The company does not use the gym for recruitment purposes and people are only told about it in the induction process or when they're short listed. O'Keefe does not think the gym aids staff retention. "That's more about money and working conditions."
There is a social aspect to the gym, Leigh says. "There's a competitiveness between the guys.
"Members chat to each other and help each other with the equipment.
"There's a definite spin-off making the factory office environment a friendlier place."
Telstraclear is a company that has a gym subscription plan. Jodine Laing, corporate communications adviser, says employees have access to a gym as "one opened next door and we have a corporate discount for employees".
She says Telstraclear's Takapuna office also has a gym close by and, in addition, the branch provides bikes to staff.
"They're maintained by us and are booked online by employees who want to go for a ride during [their] lunch break," she says.
"We like to encourage a healthy lifestyle for staff. Promoting their wellbeing is a high priority."
Mercury Energy staff members have access to a free on-site gym and tennis court.
"We have about 350 staff members and more than 160 have registered to use the gym," says Chantelle Urquhart, communications and sponsorship manager. "Mercury Energy believes that having a gym on site is an attractive benefit to prospective staff members and includes this benefit in its recruitment advertising."
