Annabel Sargeant
The Gym Group employs more than 2,200 people across its 206 gyms in the UK. The company's goal is to provide an affordable, contract-free gym that is open 24/7 to break down barriers that might hold many people back from their goals.
Since more than 75% of its workforce are "deskless" employees without access to a computer, The Gym Group faced the challenge of keeping employees engaged, recognized and informed on company news. These employees are essential talent consisting of fitness trainers who are running fitness classes, performing member services and ensuring things remain clean, safe, and legal – but this demographic had a higher turnover than desired.
It was particularly important to find new ways to keep this group engaged and improve their retention.
The team gathered feedback from employees to ensure their employees' needs would be met by new initiatives, and found that the majority of employees preferred things that were quick and accessible, especially when it came to communications and recognition.
Bradley Martin, Engagement Manager at The Gym Group says,
“[Our employees] want a place where they can be informed and be connected, through our smart blogs and our hubs, where they can recognize and be recognized, and a place where they can get some decent perks and some tasty discounts.”
Working with Reward Gateway, the team launched a new recognition and communications platform called "CORE." CORE makes it easy for employees to send and receive peer-to-peer recognition through eCards and view company-wide news through the blog feature on the platform, while also showcasing the organization's brand and culture. The platform also supports employee wellbeing with a Wellbeing Center, where employees can access recipes and videos to promote their mental and physical health.
CORE has seen great success, with the completion of their engagement surveys increasing to reach 88%. From those surveys they were able to determine that they had a 14% increase in employee engagement. Overall, engagement metrics improved year over year in the areas of recommending The Gym Group as a great place to work (66%, improving by 3%) and that its employees feel energized when doing their job (58%, improving by 7%). Read the full case study here to learn more about The Gym Group's recognition and communications journey.
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