Company fitness center

RachelCA · February 2006

Any experience with setting up a small company fitness center? What should be done to avoid any possible liability?

Geno · February 2006

Yes, have your lawyer draw up an indemnity or hold-harmless agreement and make the signing of such a document a condition for using the equipment.

Geno

pork1 · February 2006

or the premises. Of course, this assumes the facility is to be on site. One can use the equipment, become fatigued, get in his/her vehicle drive out the gate and have a wreck killing someone. You can bet there will be an attorney on your case rapidly and your attorney and insurance company will be running for cover. Regardless of winning or losing it Attorney's at Law are trained and practice at chasing the mighty dollar in the act of defending negliengent claims to the date of settlement just before we get to court.

The smart $money$ is to put real money into the hands of employees for accomplishing the same goals in their local gym.

Stop smoking, loose weight, reduce body fat to muscle mass are all measurable and is worth company money to help the employee achieve any of these. I once successfully started a Stop Smoking campaign. We would litterly pay for the employee to spend up to $200.00 in a physician's assisted stop smoking plan for his patient, our employee. We did it in the form of a loan, to which the employee would pay back with payroll deductions over time. As long as she/he stopped smoking for one year the loan was forgiven. It worked and most stopped, a few did not make it and over the next three months paid back the loan.

Good Luck! I do not recommend any longer the establishment of gyms for the ees. It is an accident looking for a place to happen. The sanitation issue is an absolute nightmare, the ees commit to keeping the place clean, but no-one is willing to get it done. Mold and mildew and body odors and sexual issues is a nightmare, also waiting to happen!

Oh, we HRs are the best at handling nightmares!

Sorry, but it stinks worse than burned pork skin.

PORK

Paul in Cannon Beach · February 2006

We have had an onsite fitness center for several years and there has never been an issue other than complaints about sweaty seats on the bowflex.

I suppose you could find liability issues in anything but this program has been very positive for our guests and ee's who use it.

Healthy ee's have less medical issues, more energy, and a better mindset for work.

Its probably wise to have legal draw up a waiver but I think the positive aspects outweigh the risks.

atainc · February 2006

I have to go with Pork1 on this one. The liability could add up. My wife is a Paralegal and the firm she works for offers $300 per year per employee for Wellness. This is presented to them at the end of the year after they have passed a screening test for weight, cholesterol etc. Now my guess is if a law firm does this, there may be something to Pork's response. I'm sure there are plenty of fitness centers that would love to benefit from any incentive you may give your employees for their wellness. Plus if they do the wellness on their own, the money is their's to keep. By the way, this law firm is a worldwide firm with well over 1000 employees. I guess they figure the $300 they give each employee who passes the screening is worth the millions they would save in lawsuits. We are a small office and have a small gym and the only thing it has collected so far is dust. The smell of sweat in a small office is yuck!

Company fitness center

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