Ignite a Passion for Fitness in Your Workplace and Everybody Wins

By Troy Sechrist

I’m passionate about all things fitness, from group training and running, to obstacle racing, surfing, and yoga. And every day I feel the myriad benefits of being active: greater strength, endurance, flexibility, and overall better health.

I’m also passionate about sharing my fitness experience and am fortunate I can talk about it on a large scale with hundreds of employer groups, helping them ignite a passion for fitness in their workplaces. When given the right amount of spark − in the form of opportunity, awareness, and encouragement − employees will engage in fitness in a way that helps everybody win.

Employers win by increasing employee wellbeing, gaining a more productive work force, reducing healthcare costs, and enhancing recruitment and retention potential.

Employees win on multiple levels, too! Good fitness programs offer discounted access to a wide array of local and national gyms, curated fitness videos, and wellbeing coaching to help get them started.

But, ultimately the best reward for employees is the opportunity to improve their overall health. Exercise can improve sleep, ease stress, and facilitate weight management. The timing couldn’t be better for that: In a recent Harvard Health survey, 39% of participants said they gained weight during the pandemic! Many are looking for help to get back on track. And they’re looking to employers to provide that help. According to a 2022 Employee Benefits Research Institute (EBRI) survey, three in four employees (74%) agreed that employers are responsible for making sure employees are healthy and physically well. Yet only four in 10 (43%) employees rated their employer’s efforts to help them improve their physical health as very good or excellent. Is your company doing its part?

For employers concerned about the costs of implementing another benefit program, there are solutions. Programs like the Active&Fit Direct™ program are painless for employer groups. Active&Fit Direct is a member self-pay program, so it’s free to implement, offers free marketing campaigns to build awareness and drive engagement, and requires no payroll deduction, no user minimums, and no eligibility feeds.

Employees get a sweet deal too. They can choose a standard membership with unlimited access to 12,200+ gyms (like LA Fitness®, Golds Gym, Anytime Fitness, Crunch, Chuze, Curves®, and Blink), along with 9,300+ workout videos, and lifestyle coaching − all for $28 a month*. They can switch gyms any time, and there are no long-term contracts or cancellation fees.

There is no doubt that fitness benefits spark tremendous interest in getting active, and they could very well ignite a whole new passion for fitness at your company.

Need more info on how you might establish a fitness program at your company? Please reach out to me at Troys@ashn.com

Troy Sechrist is Vice President, Strategic Partnerships, at American Specialty Health Fitness, Inc., which provides fitness programs to employer groups, health plans, and associations nationwide.

*Plus tax and enrollment fees