Corporate Fitness and Active Aging

Are your fitness and wellness programs reaching your residents, but now you’re wondering how to take your community’s reputation to the next level by demonstrating an even bigger commitment to a healthy, active lifestyle campus-wide? Perhaps it’s time to incorporate a staff component into some of your resident fitness and wellness initiatives! There are several benefits of employees participating in challenges or broader wellness initiatives with residents in your community settings, here are the top 5!

• Improved Health and Wellness: Regular physical activity is not only beneficial for your residents, but for everyone! By participating in resident fitness and wellness challenges employees too can maintain a healthy weight, reduce their risk of disease, improve their strength, flexibility, and cardiovascular health, and improve their overall health and well-being. By participating alongside residents, they’re also more likely to stick to their goals as they become role models, supporters, and more accountable.
• Team Building: You want a strong collaborative team leading of employees leading the way at your community, right? By including employees into fitness and wellness challenges and encouraging them to work together towards a common goal, you’ll be fostering team building, collaborative programming, communication, and a sense of community which can be beneficial for them in all aspects of their lives, including at work.
• Enhanced Job Satisfaction: When employees can participate in activities which promote better well-being, they’re likely to experience increased energy levels, decreased stress, improved mood and greater job satisfaction. Increased job satisfaction and morale can lead to greater productivity, and increased employee retention!
• Positive Impact of Resident Experience: Participating in a challenge alongside one another can foster positive relationships between employees and residents. This provides them with the ability to build rapport with each other and leads to better communication, and enhanced employee-resident interactions. When your residents see that the employees are engaged and committed to healthy habits through participation more residents may be inclined to join in as well, which can improve their health and fitness outcomes and enhance their overall quality of life.
• Positive Reputation and Retention: By demonstrating a commitment to employee health and well-being, while continuing to promote vibrant lifestyle options for your residents, you will be more apt to attract and retain not only residents, but also a top performing team!

If you wish to have a productive workplace environment and retain top talent, we urge you to open some aspect of your community-wide wellness initiatives to your employees.

Staffing shortages and employee retention challenges: the headline every organization hopes to leave behind in 2022. Finding the right staff and providing them with the connection and resources to grow is a key focus for many as we charge ahead into 2023. The creativity and networking of ideas forging our current team of staff has NIFS Fitness Management on fire, and I can’t think of a better way to start the year! As your community evaluates employee satisfaction, retention, and recruiting efforts as well as the impact your fitness program is having on resident lives, here are a couple of scenarios to consider regarding your fitness staffing model.

Do You Have the Time to Manage Your Community's Fitness Center Staff?

We recently experienced a client change where a new executive director with a background in fitness decided quickly in his new role that he wanted to bring fitness staffing in-house and do all the hiring. He felt he had the vision and expertise to effectively lead the fitness staff. Though he knew the qualifications to look for in candidates and had some programming experience, what he did not recognize was the time and commitment it would take to run such a valuable part of their community.

Six months later, the community’s newly hired fitness manager was applying for positions with NIFS and said he felt like he was on an island with little support, collaboration, or resources to help him serve the residents. His executive director had a full plate and couldn’t be dialed into fitness, and his life enrichment director was also busy and had no expertise in fitness programming herself. Within a short period of employment, he was looking to leave the community and seeking an organization that would offer him the support and a team of like-minded peers to grow and develop his skills. The executive director’s intentions were in the right place, but with a full plate, he lacked the time to fully support his new employee.

Is Your Fitness Staff Getting the Support They Need?

On the flip-side, we have numerous clients who have had their own in-house fitness staff and they saw opportunity to do better for their residents. Their staff had the qualifications for NIFS to onboard them, creating a seamless transition for the community and residents. The one common theme these new team members tell us is that they are grateful that they will have resources, best practices, and a team of peers doing this work across the country to help them take their senior fitness center program from good to GREAT. This is a win-win because we were able to onboard someone who knows the community and the residents, and inspire them with the solutions to their daily challenges and networking of new ideas.

In other instances, the staff the community hired did not possess the qualifications or skills to enhance what they were doing and the community made a change altogether, allowing NIFS to recruit a qualified fitness manager. In both instances, we helped clients evaluate the fit of their personnel when looking to elevate their resident service model.

If your community is looking at employee retention strategies, consider the support, growth potential, and collaboration available to your fitness staff. Think about the limits of your fitness program without new ideas, resources, and innovation pouring in from a network of fitness professionals in a similar setting and how you might better support your fitness staff.

NIFS Fitness Center Management Is Ready to Go!

To say we are excited about our current team and the ideas being developed for 2023–2024 for our clients and their residents is an understatement! NIFS Fitness Center Management staff members are developing relationships, sharing ideas, and inspiring one another to serve their residents with a fresh focus in 2023. We are providing them with professional development funding for new certifications, an annual curriculum of staff enrichment trainings, and a leadership team with 50+ years of experience in fitness and senior living to guide and support them. Let’s go!

We say it with pride quite regularly, our amazing staff in corporate and senior living fitness centers are what help us serve our clients so well. Their strong educational background in health and fitness helps us set the bar high while their exceptional creativity and relationship building skills allows them to keep their members engaged and asking what’s coming next. Since we have the privilege of getting to know our staff across the country, we thought our followers might like to as well. Join us monthly as we throw a different NIFS team member a High Five.

• Name: Morgan Garrett
• City, State: Scottsdale, AZ
• Years with NIFS: 9 years
• Position: Senior Manager
• What brought you to NIFS: I was wanting a more consistent schedule and to work with a variety of clients.
• What is the most impactful moment you have shared with a member:  One of my clients let me know that what he looks forward to most now, is our sessions. He feels that they have improved his quality of life in the last few years and is so happy he started working out.
• What separates a NIFS fitness pro from the rest: The ability to adapt to situations and abilities of clients. To know what is going to work for each client and helping them to achieve their goals.
• What is your favorite thing about working at your client site: The atmosphere, positivity of each member. I also enjoy the direct management relations at my community.
• What motivates you: Making the fitness center fun and enjoyable for all levels of care.
• What is your favorite hobby: I enjoy golfing, hiking and traveling. I also love cooking on the grill and having friends over.

Interested in learning more about our staffing services? Click below for what best fits your needs.

ACTIVE AGING   |   CORPORATE FITNESS

The senior living industry has been fervently moving over the past decade to renovate and build fitness centers for their residents and the momentum is only growing.

As reported in Senior Housing News, funding towards wellness real estate increased
by 6.4% from 2015 to $134 billion in sales in 2017 and is projected to grow to $180 billion by 2022.

Now savvy consumers are further moving the needle inquiring about what programs and services are available to residents in those fitness centers. After all, that $180 billion projection for 2022 incorporates “wellness environments” as two meanings…both the physical spaces as well as the human environment and the individuals who residents will have to interact with and receive the support they need.

Having a personal trainer and fitness classes are a great starting point but it leaves a lot on the table to fully reach your entire resident population and not just the able-bodied residents who would likely find a means of being active regardless. Wherever your community might be in your fitness program development, check out these five advantages on how partnering with fitness management experts like NIFS can help you further serve your residents while giving your marketing and sales team a boost in setting your community apart from your competition.

FIVE ADVANTAGES TO PARTNERING WITH FITNESS MANAGEMENT EXPERTS LIKE NIFS

1. Fall Prevention Programming
   NIFS comprehensive Balance Redefined program provides residents with a variety of balance training and fall prevention services year round. From balance exercise prescriptions to balance classes and educational workshops to closely collaborating with therapy, residents gain confidence and skills to maintain their independence and live well.
   
   
2. Fitness Center Layout And Design
   Having a fitness center is one thing and having a well-designed fitness center with equipment that is functional, safe and laid out in a way that supports the scope of programming available to your residents is another. There are many manufacturers who claim to meet these needs but be cautious in the selection process. Our experience with dozens of equipment vendors, communities, etc., allows us to support clients in making choices on equipment and the layout of their space that best meets the needs of their residents.
   
   
3. Marketing & Sales Partners
   Resident successes and engaging programming happen every day in your fitness center but getting those stories into the hands of your marketing and sales team can be a challenge. We provide clients with monthly resources for social media posting on current programs, health observances, etc., as well as routine reports summarizing program successes and resident accomplishments so they can help prospects not only see your physical spaces but learn about the offerings and resident accomplishments.
   
   
4. AL/SNF Programming
   We all know communities are selling a lifestyle promise to residents wherever they might be in their aging journey and as healthcare needs change, so do fitness program needs and available resources. Our staff are readily teaching classes, providing one-on-one services and bringing programming resources to activities staff in licensed-areas on the campuses we serve. When we build a relationship with a resident in IL, we want to continue that relationship as the resident moves through the continuums.
   
   
5. Robust Programming
   Even in communities where they have hired an FTE in-house to manage their program, we have learned that the limited resources available to that individual limits the potential for programming and services. We are regularly bringing residents fresh new offerings every single month to keep them inspired and asking us what’s next. With a network of like-minded professionals across the country, a NIFS fitness manager is plugged into new ideas, resources and trends that help bring a variety of wellness and fitness offerings to residents efficiently and with consistency.

Looking for a partner to help you in that exploration process? Contact NIFS for more information on our Fitness Management and Consulting Services.

Our fitness management staff members have some of the best stories around on the impact their fitness programs are having on resident lives in the senior living communities we serve. They hear comments from residents or their family members, they see new faces in classes, and they track the data in programs and services that demonstrate solid engagement. Our staff takes great pride in these affirmations knowing that the work they are so passionately committed to is truly making a difference not just for residents but also for the culture of a community as a whole.

In 2020, NIFS is embarking on a new platform to more effectively bridge the gap from these stories garnered in community fitness centers directly to the marketing and sales teams. We have always partnered with clients on helping them in their marketing and sales messaging, but we are taking this to a new level in 2020 as more clients want to differentiate their communities during prospect tours and via social media in particular. Community fitness centers are becoming more commonplace in the industry. Communities know they need to have the physical space available. However, a truly comprehensive program can be a distinguishing element to showcase through the right storytelling about your resident successes.

How to Capture and Share Your Stories

Here are a few tips to help your community capture and share some of that marketing gold happening in your fitness center!

1. It starts with the data. Having a strong foundation in your fitness program, where you are tracking total members, visits to the fitness center and classes, engagement in various services each month, etc., can help you identify the wins and program successes you want to spread the word about during prospect tours and social media postings. If you don’t have a solid foundation established to track this data with consistency, it’s difficult to substantiate the impact your program has with any bearing. Click here for more insight on the value of strong data.
2. Capture the feedback. With a qualified fitness professional at the helm of your fitness program, you have someone who has a strong relationship with your residents, who is coaching them and guiding them in the fitness center, and who hears directly from your residents about the strides they are making in their fitness, balance, and overall well-being. Having a system in place to share resident success stories can be marketing gold to help your consumers identify how living in your community might positively impact their quality of life as well.
3. Make it visual. On your website and social media channels, avoid use of stock art where possible. If prospects are following you socially, let them genuinely experience your community by seeing your spaces alive with vibrant activity week after week. They’ve likely seen your fitness center, pool, or aerobic studio during a tour, but you can help them truly feel what your residents experience through your images and videos or let your fitness manager go live for an even more engaging experience. Being able to see their friends and acquaintances thriving in a space they once toured can build a much stronger connection than stock art alone.

Let NIFS Help

The era of social media is changing how consumers shop from afar. Don’t miss out on creative opportunities to help your prospects experience your community week after week as they scroll through their Facebook feeds. If you have questions about how to effectively move forward with some of these components or how to have the right structure in place to do so, contact NIFS for more information on our fitness management or consulting services.

One of my favorite things about my job is when I have the opportunity to visit our client sites and spend time with our staff. Not only are these team members exceptionally knowledgeable and creative in developing fitness offerings for active older adults, but their passion to serve their clients and residents never ceases to amaze me. I think this is what truly differentiates the service NIFS provides from a traditional contractor partnership—how our staff members become one of the team and integrate so seamlessly with the community’s staff and vision.

Examples of this were evident to me during a recent trip to Baltimore, where I had a chance to visit and connect with staff at three communities we serve.

We integrate with your team. Sometimes partnerships with contractors can feel like everyone is working in a silo, and opportunities to bridge communication, resources, and so on are missed. Our staff members are committed to learning about the culture at a community and building relationships with the key players who have a stake in resident well-being, including activities, dining, therapy, home health, and much more. Our staff members attend resident-care meetings, collaborate on upcoming programs and events, and fluidly refer residents to and from therapy services. For a client in Towson, Maryland, our staff meets regularly with the activities team to collaborate on a monthly programming calendar and a streamlined approach to what is offered to residents across the continuums of care. Each week, our fitness staff member also sets up the movie and serves popcorn in the theater at the movie matinee—they are part of the team and lend support beyond the four walls of the fitness center.

We learn about your residents. While many communities have similarities, what sparks enthusiasm and interest from residents can be different from one community to the next. Our staff members learn about resident interests through surveys, evaluating program outcomes, and tracking participation data to measure the impact of various programs. Then they hone in on niche offerings in which the residents are most receptive. In some communities, residents thrive on healthy fitness competitions, while others are more engaged in educational presentations. We tailor programs and services to the unique needs and interests of each community we serve. For a client in Pikesville, Maryland, our Fitness Manager has learned just what makes the residents tick, down to the time of day they schedule offerings for peak engagement. Our manager strikes just the right balance in maintaining steady favorites while introducing new programming to keep residents inspired and challenged.

We help you reach your goals. The community’s goals become our staffs’ goals, and being a part of the team helps us support those efforts. Our staff members have helped clients expand brain-fitness offerings, navigate construction and design projects, as well as bridge programs and services across the continuums to better serve residents in licensed-areas. Communities are regularly evolving to meet the needs of their residents and prospective residents, and we are proud to partner with clients in playing whatever role we can to support those efforts. For a client in Baltimore, Maryland, we have worked hand in hand with their architects and leadership on the design of a new fitness center as they undergo renovations. Our Fitness Manager has done a tremendous job navigating the messaging to the residents about transitions to temporary spaces, changes in class times, and so on.

Residents often don’t recognize our staff as contractors and have the impression that we are community personnel, and that is fine by us. The more fluid and integrated we are, the more the residents and our clients benefit. This recent trip to Baltimore exemplified this continuity at all of our client locations in the area, and I once again took pride in watching our staff in action, doing what they do best!

Fitness management is the cornerstone of our business. Recently we have seen an uptick in clients requesting our support in developing broader wellness programming for their residents through the continuums of care. Sometimes the need arises due to challenges with community personnel who don’t have the tools and resources to cultivate the desired lifestyle for residents. Sometimes it’s because they don’t have a point person to pull everyone together out of their silos across the continuums. Sometimes it’s both! Sound familiar?

How Well Is Your Community Collaborating on Purposeful Programs?

Ask yourself a few questions about how well your community is collaborating and building programs with purpose and intention:

• Do activities staff collaborate regularly on program and service options across departments and disciplines such as dining, fitness, health services, the chaplain, and the social worker?
• Do activities staff across all continuums of care collaborate regularly on programs and services and work toward common goals together?
• Is your calendar full of activities to keep your residents busy (for example, cards, movies, speakers, shopping trips, and so on), or is your calendar crafted with activities that create purpose for residents?

A Visit with a Senior Living Client in New Jersey

I provided a solution to these answers during a recent visit with a senior living client in New Jersey. We have been providing our traditional fitness management services to this client for the past four years. The approach we discussed was shifting our degreed and certified staff into a Wellness Director role, who maintains fitness duties in the fitness center while also facilitating a strong collaborative approach with activities personnel in independent living and health care.

This particular client has come to expect creative and diverse program offerings from our Fitness Manager. Events offered last month for Active Aging Week included Yoga Poses and Doggy Noses (yep, that’s yoga with dogs folks), a Blood Drive, and Movies & Smoothies. Past events included their Polar Plunge, Mind Moves, and Healthy Habit Bingo. As the client recognizes the experiences we create for residents that promote engagement and movement versus sit-and-listen events, they begin to lean on us to support them more broadly outside the realm of fitness. We are also seeing a strong desire for the standard of programming cultivated within independent living to carry consistently through assisted living and health care environments. But we are aware of the struggle communities have to bring that to fruition.

NIFS Staff Members Make the Difference

Our strength lies in the people we hire—in their ability to build exceptional relationships with the residents who participate in their programs and also with the staff at the community with whom they collaborate regularly. Their background as health and fitness professionals empowers them with program solutions to support whole-person well-being. The tools and resources they have behind them from NIFS create the space for strategic planning with key stakeholders in resident well-being.

We essentially become a champion for your community by fueling ideas, breaking down the silos, and getting everyone working from the same playbook on a new standard of program and service offerings. If you are interested in hearing more about NIFS's support of broader wellness programming within your senior living communities, contact me or read on.

This summer, teams all around the country ironed their bowling shirts, warmed up their throwing arms, and double-checked their TV connections in preparation for the first-ever 10-week session of the NIFS Wii Bowling League.

What started as a little friendly banter between colleagues quickly became a full-blown tournament as NIFS managers from various fitness centers started exploring new opportunities for some variety in recreation programming. After a few group emails had been sent, we finally came up with the idea to host a virtual bowling tournament.

Residents formed teams of two to four people. Each week, teams played their round of bowling and NIFS fitness center managers sent scores in to be tallied. Each Monday, updated standings and a new schedule were sent out to all participating sites. This went on during seven weeks of regular play, and then the single-elimination playoffs began. After three weeks of playoffs, only one team was left standing: The PinStrikers from Lakewood, NJ are this summer’s Wii Bowling Champions!

Thinking of hosting your own Wii Bowling tournament? Here are a few tips to make it successful:

Make it accessible to everyone.

Nearly everyone can learn how to play Wii Bowling. That’s one of the best things about it! Just practice patience when teaching new people and everything will go well. You can even play while seated if balance is a concern.

Be sure the rules are clearly communicated.

Avoid frustration from all parties and be sure you are clear about the rules you’ll play by. For our tournament, we had a schedule and then the standings were set according to win/loss record rather than by scores. It made the tournament aspect much more interesting because there were no clear front-runners or favorites.

Make it fun!

I hope this goes without saying, but fun should be the first priority here. Be sure everyone is clear that it’s just a game and the opportunity is open to everyone!

Have you ever hosted a virtual tournament between teams of people in different communities? NIFS can help you evaluate your program and improve offerings for your residents with NIFS Consulting, click below for more information.

Clients regularly ask me whether we have any recommendations or contacts for certain exercise equipment, or if we have any successful models in place for collaborating with rehab departments or cafeteria vendors. The bulk of our contacts in the world of fitness are with current clients where we have our professional staff on the ground managing their fitness program, or with consulting clients where we are providing support and resources to enhance their existing program. However, we also have a large network of industry contacts that we partner with, allowing us to (1) provide the quality service we do to our clients and (2) support other businesses outside of a client setting.

Once clients experience the ease of replacing their cardio equipment or launching a multi-vendor wellness initiative with our support, they recognize the added value that expertise brings to the partnership they have with NIFS. I love seeing clients supported on both sides—with our passionate staff on the ground in their fitness center serving their members, as well as with our administrative support helping guide their leadership team’s decision-making on broader facility and program needs.

Read on to learn about the relationships we build and the scope of our reach in supporting clients in 14 states across the US.

• Equipment vendors: From balance and fall-prevention equipment, to group fitness supplies, to the latest trends in strength-training equipment, we have vendor partners across the US who help us find equipment solutions to meet our clients’ needs. For our senior living clients, we know which manufacturers have equipment that meets the unique needs of an active older adult population. For our corporate clients, we have partners who outfit facilities across the US with the latest and greatest equipment to create a welcoming and inspiring space for your employees. Not to mention, the relationships we have with equipment manufacturers provides us with national buying power, which we can pass along to our clients.
• Architect and design firms: Particularly in a senior living setting where strong emphasis on quality, high-end fitness amenities for the aging population is on the rise, forward-thinking architects and designers reach out to us for consulting support on how to create a truly functional space that will best support a strong program when renovations or new construction are complete. These firms benefit from our end-user perspective, and we often pick up on some new ideas to file away in our bank of resources for future projects with clients.
• Client vendors: At the site level, our staff regularly partners with other health and wellness vendors on campus to effectively bridge programs and services for their members. We work closely with rehab providers, cafeteria vendors, registered dietitians, employee health services, and many more. Some of these providers have a similar reach as we do in their profession across the US, and others are local providers, but we build strong connections with all to best serve our clients.

While the fitness industry can be full of fads, an ability to build strong relationships is a trend that will never go out of style and is essential for the success of any fitness program. We pride ourselves on the relationships we build with our clients, members, and vendor partners and love bridging new connections for clients to enhance their programs.

Interested in more information on the value we bring our clients? Read this quick read on 5 Reasons to Hire NIFS to Manage Your Fitness Center.