Corporate Fitness and Active Aging

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!

Daily headlines remind employers of what they are already feeling with the squeeze to find qualified candidates to fill the record-setting job openings across nearly every industry. And for HR professionals responsible for hiring in senior living or corporate fitness centers, it may already be challenging enough to recognize the necessary skills when hiring a fitness professional who can cultivate the engaging onsite fitness center you desire. In the past couple of months, I have heard from multiple fitness management clients that they are grateful that they are partnered with NIFS to manage their fitness center personnel as its one less department they have to worry about as time, resources and candidate pools are stretched thin with staffing struggles.

It isn’t through luck that NIFS is able to recruit some of the best in the fitness industry to manage our corporate and senior living client fitness centers. We have been recruiting, vetting, and welcoming talented fitness professionals to our team across the country for over three decades. That experience has helped us build a foundation and a reputation that attracts degreed and passionate staff. If you are struggling to hire the right talent to create an engaging fitness space, consider how you might apply these factors in your organization’s hiring practices that have elevated NIFS recruiting efforts:

1. Create a following: we have a careers page on our website where hundreds of followers have opted in to receive notifications about vacancies NIFS has available across the country. We regularly update our website when a position becomes available and followers receive a notification right in their inbox. Even if they aren’t regularly visiting our website, our position announcements are delivered right to them! In addition, candidates can submit their resume to NIFS to house in our database so we regularly have qualified candidates to comb through as positions become available.
2. Partner with local universities: doing business in 16 states across the US puts us in proximity to some of the best exercise science and kinesiology programs, many of which are the alma maters to our staff. This has created opportunities for us to attend job fairs and post on university job boards to recruit new grads and more experienced alum. I remember hearing about NIFS in one of my first undergrad classes in the exercise science program at Ball State University (chirp chirp) and NIFS was one of the first employers I looked into upon graduation…and I’ve been here ever since. We recently hired a candidate who told us about admiring the work NIFS does in fitness management from the strong reputation she heard it carry in her master’s program at her university in southern Indiana.
3. Network of amazing staff: our staff come to us from a variety of backgrounds working in commercial gyms, rehab settings, athletic training, sports performance, nutrition, and health coaching. From that experience brings a broad network of connections to spread the word about NIFS vacancies with former peers, classmates, colleagues, etc… Talent attracts talent and we love when our team helps us find the right fit for a client!

If you are tired of the turnover, lack of coverage support during staff vacations, or simply need time freed in your busy schedule from staffing struggles, contact NIFS for a conversation about fitness management services and let us champion the fitness staffing piece for your employees’ onsite fitness center or for your senior living fitness center.

Finding the right fit may only be half the battle when staff retention also comes into play. We recently had an applicant who works for a senior living community. He shared with us that he’s looking for other work because he feels like he’s on his own and has little connection and support from community personnel. He likes his community and loves his residents, but feels like there is missed opportunity to elevate his program or his own professional growth. We’ve written about networking opportunities for fitness staff before – check out these ideas here! Don’t go through the pains of recruiting, hiring, and training a great candidate just for them to quickly be searching elsewhere. Even though NIFS team is geographically stretched from coast to coast, we are strongly connected. NIFS team member Candace in Virginia recently shared the following with me, “I truly love being a part of the NIFS community, it has absolutely been my favorite company to work for throughout my career. I always feel appreciated with this company.” That is truly music to a director’s ears as loyal and appreciated employees take exceptional care of our clients.

Click below to find out more about our staffing services

Senior Fitness Management  |  Corporate Fitness Management

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: Kayla Hill
• City, State: Towson, Maryland
• Years with NIFS: 1 year
• Position: Wellness Director
• What brought you to NIFS: The work matters! We have the power to direct our attention to the things that truly express and support what we believe as an organization and on an individual level. The potential is limitless.
• What is the most impactful moment you have shared with a member: One of our members loved to dance but was losing functionality of her limbs due to Parkinson’s. It became clear that she was sinking into a depressive state. I invited her to come down to the fitness center one afternoon and dance with me. While hesitant, she agreed. With the help of her aid, we got her up on her feet and shaking her tailfeather. She expressed sincere gratitude and said that she couldn’t remember the last time she had that much fun.
• What separates a NIFS fitness pro from the rest: NIFS is an inspiring community of adaptable and courageous people who show up with full hands and hearts on deck. The Fitness Management staff put passion into everything they do. There is a clear sense of gratitude and joy. 
• What is your favorite thing about working at your client site: My site is a true haven of warmth, positivity and love. Our community is filled with big-hearted individuals who continue to show up for one another. We are family.
• What motivates you: 1. The opportunity to develop human potential. 2. Exploring possibilities for innovation. The more creativity I can bring into the mix, the more motivated I am to achieve a goal or complete a task.
• What is your favorite hobby: I enjoy producing comedy skits and editing videos.

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

ACTIVE AGING   |   CORPORATE FITNESS

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: Christy Monday
• City, State: Indianapolis, IN
• Years with NIFS: 12 years
• Position: Fitness Manager
• What brought you to NIFS: After completing my college education I became certified as an exercise physiologist with ACSM. I started at the NIFS commercial fitness center in downtown Indianapolis. After five years, I transitioned to corporate fitness coordinating the internship program, and coverage staff while also managing a fitness center in downtown Indianapolis. I currently am working at a corporate fitness center in Indianapolis.   
• What is the most impactful moment you have shared with a member:  I have worked with many members with different health and fitness goals over the years, and one of the most impactful moments is when a member could not longer play basketball due to pain he experienced in his knee joints after playing. It was determined after checking with his physician, he did not have any structural damage to the knee. I worked with him for several weeks on improving his flexibility. By week six he had greater range-of-motion in his hips, calves, hamstrings and quads. He was able to participate in playing basketball again with no pain.
• What separates a NIFS fitness pro from the rest: I like that staff are encouraged and have the freedom to provide new services or programs for a site, in regards to what he or she thinks is best, that will engage members to obtain their best health. It is great to have management support and trust staff in this process.   
• What is your favorite thing about working at your client site: I enjoy walking along side members to support them on their journey of better health and fitness.
• What motivates you: When members share their health and fitness success stories! It motivates me to do my best to impact the next member who needs support to reach their health and fitness potential.     
• What is your favorite hobby: Cycling is a great activity I like to do that takes me outside to see different country roads, bike trails, and city and state parks.   

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

ACTIVE AGING   |   CORPORATE FITNESS

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: Lauren Kelsheimer
• City, State: Terre Haute, IN
• Years with NIFS: 4.5 years
• Position: Fitness Manager
• What brought you to NIFS: I happened upon a message on LinkedIn from our previous Director. I thought it was an ad, but took my chances and reached back out to her to see what potential there was in a position like this. I am glad that I did!
• What is the most impactful moment you have shared with a member:
  A member’s husband passed and she really became a recluse. I decided to reach out to her and see if she wanted to start participating in exercise classes or exercise in the fitness center. She was very hesitant, but agreed to come down to the fitness center and see what it was all about. After a few sessions, she really broke out of her shell and now is exercising daily, visiting friends she met from classes or programs, and is living life to the fullest! These moments are the reason I chose this career.
• What separates a NIFS fitness pro from the rest: NIFS fitness professionals strive to create moments of magic for our members. We are passionate and care deeply about what we do. Also, we know the importance of creating experiences for our members that stand out from the rest. NIFS fitness professionals truly work together as a team to produce great programs, events, and fitness offerings and continue to perform at a level above.
• What is your favorite thing about working at your client site: I truly enjoy my residents. They have become family. The team members at Westminster Village are amazing as well. They are always willing to lend a hand and help me with any program or event that I have for the residents to help impact their lives. I enjoy that we all have a common goal and that’s to engage our community and provide fun, exciting programs for them.
• What motivates you: The smiles! I feed off of resident’s energy. If they are enjoying themselves and really feel like they are getting something out of my classes, programs, or events, then I have done my job. They constantly make me want to be better.
• What is your favorite hobby: I enjoy being with my family and jogging.

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

ACTIVE AGING   |   CORPORATE FITNESS

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: Megan McQuade
• City, State: Indianapolis, IN
• Years with NIFS: 9 months 
• Position: Health Fitness Specialist
• What brought you to NIFS: I started working for NIFS following graduation from college in December of 2019.
• What is the most impactful moment you have shared with a member: The most impactful moment that I have had with a member was during an assessment with a client.  She was unable to touch her toes and struggled with flexibility.  We set a goal to work on it and after incorporating some yoga and stretching into her weekly routine her results were amazing.
• What separates a NIFS fitness pro from the rest: Every NIFS Staff member is passionate about helping others achieve their goals, whether that be their co-workers or members at their client sites.  We are all one big support system even though we are spread across the country.
• What is your fave thing about working at your client site: My favorite thing about working at NIFS is the wide range of members I get to work with. I love the variety and being able to apply my skill set to best assist where each person is at in their health and fitness journey! Watching members set and achieve their goals is a reason why I love working for NIFS!
• What motivates you: I am a big goal setter so achieving goals that I have been working towards is what helps me push myself to continue working hard!
• What is your favorite hobby: Baking and cooking!!

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

ACTIVE AGING   |   CORPORATE FITNESS

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: Rachel Leszczynski
• City, State: Issaquah, WA
• Years with NIFS: 4 
• Position: Fitness Manager
• What brought you to NIFS: I started with NIFS as a Health Fitness Specialist in Lincolnshire, IL. It was my first “real job” in the fitness industry.
• What is the most impactful moment you have shared with a member: I think the most impactful moment has been with one of my regular PT clients. When we first started she wasn’t able to stand up from a chair without pushing off. While we’ve had a few setbacks, she is able to stand from a chair without pushing off.
• What separates a NIFS fitness pro from the rest: Not only do NIFS staff take good care of their clients, our network of managers is a great support system and was very helpful in my first couple of years as a fitness manager, specifically with programming. So I guess you could say a NIFS pro is best because of the team as a whole.
• What is your fave thing about working at your client site: My fav thing is being able to access all the hiking trails of the beautiful pacific northwest. Taking members out on a guided hikes once a month is a total treat.
• What motivates you: I’m an active person and being able to stay healthy and do the things I love keeps me motivated.
• What is your favorite hobby: Playing soccer!

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

ACTIVE AGING   |   CORPORATE FITNESS

Turnover in senior living is notoriously high for a number of reasons. One of the tools leadership can use to increase tenure for employees in community settings is offering balanced and thoughtful wellness programs. What follows are suggestions for how to elevate wellness in your corporate strategy so that your workforce understands you care about them beyond the day-to-day work they provide to keep the community running.

Employee wellness is about much more than a walking program.

How you position wellness in the organization can determine whether it sinks or swims. Physical health is only part of the picture. That's not to say you shouldn't offer a walking program. It can be a very simple way to help employees be more aware of how much they're moving during the day. But keep in mind that much of your community's staff members are on their feet most of the day serving the residents; a walking program for them may feel like "one more thing to do" in an already busy, service-oriented day. And giving everyone a wearable fitness tracker doesn't always communicate a "we care about you" message, either. The CNA scraping by on $12.50 an hour might rather have a small raise than a fancy wristband.

[Read More: Why Employee Purpose Could Be the Heart of Corporate Wellness]

Consider the health challenges across your workforce.

Your administrative/leadership team will have different obstacles in achieving good health compared to what you might see for your physical plant staff and nursing aides, and the community's approach to wellness needs and what it will take to address that range. The wearable/walking program I mentioned above is a good example of a well-intentioned offering that often falls flat for hourly staff. But, if you provide compensated exercise time for employees, you might be onto something in terms of a message that truly says, "We want to make it easy for you to live well."

Be careful if you intend to use biometric screenings and health risk assessments as the pillars of your wellness program. They have become hallmarks of a good "outcomes-based" wellness program in recent years, but that title may be misplaced. If you're just getting started on a wellness program for your community employees, it could be tempting to latch onto such screening tools as the place to begin. But there are challenges with these offerings that should not be glossed over.

Also keep in mind how important social determinants of health are for your workforce. The health habits that your crew practice at work are only part of the picture of how well they live. Where employees live can have a profound effect on their well-being. Access to healthy foods, reliable and convenient transportation, safe living environments, cultural norms and other issues have a strong influence for all of us on how they engage with healthy choices, and your workplace wellness program may be butting heads with those strong social factors. Maintaining realistic expectations about the ways your workforce can engage at work will help set your program on the right path.

Align your wellness strategy with the rest of your business strategy.

If your organization is already built on a model of caring for employees, infusing a message that you want to help employees live well should resonate positively. But if employees feel that the culture is punitive and as if their every move is being watched, "wellness" is quite likely going to sound like one more management hack designed purely to cut costs. Here are some suggestions for improving retention through a supportive relationship-based approach. You'll need to get the overarching company culture in place first before you add in a wellness component if you want your message about employee health to resonate with the staff.

Where to look next.

If you're more confused than ever about how to get an employee-centered wellness program off the ground for your workforce, you're not alone. The variable shifts, the wide range in roles (many of which are quite physical in nature), and the simultaneously gratifying and exhausting nature of the work you do, complicate how to both establish and deliver a wellness message and programming. Here are a few suggestions to help you get started:

1. If you don't know what makes your employees tick, start by getting to know them a little better. They may have interests they could share with colleagues that would buoy the whole department or organization.
2. Connect with employees working in a variety of settings across the community to find out what would help them feel supported to live well. You probably won't be able to execute on all of the ideas, but you will likely get suggestions you couldn't have imagined on your own.
3. Start small and with the right messaging. (Hint: You can craft the right messaging when you have information from tip #1.) Always lead with words and actions that communicate a desire to help employees live well. If you say it in words and your actions don't align, employees won't engage.
4. Learn from other similarly situated organizations. There are communities out there doing this work with their employees, and they can help you avoid some of the pitfalls they've already climbed out of.

It's not easy work, but don't let that stop you. Doing well for your employees helps them do right by your residents, and that's a community where everyone benefits. Need a little more information to get your wellness program started in the right direction? Check out the blog below.

Corporate fitness centers are pretty low on the totem pole for most organizations. And that's how they end up just "existing" with the rest of the benefit items; they're on the list of nice things to have, but there's nothing about the corporate fitness program itself that tells leadership it's really thriving or performing well for the employees. If that resonates with you and what you're seeing in your worksite fitness program, it might be time to change things up.

Here are three signs that indicate it's time to take a fresh look at what's possible in your corporate fitness program.

#1: If You Haven't Seen Your Fitness Center Staff Out and About...

...its time to check in on how the staff are serving all of the employees (not just the corporate fitness center members). While it's likely that your fitness center staff are well degreed and credentialed for exercise, they also probably have some skills for promoting other areas of health. If they're not leaving the fitness center to provide additional worksite wellness programming, it's possible they were told that their domain is the fitness center and they should not be doing other health-related programming in the building. That's an easy one to correct; have the conversation with them and see what they can start offering across your campus to support employee health.

One of the beyond-the-fitness-center initiatives our staff members provide allows the employees to put up a signal at their desks that they'd like a quick consultation with the fitness staff. In one case, it was fun stress balls that were the signal; in another case, it was little green army men. Employees picked them up at a promotional table along with a flyer describing the at-your-desk exercise service. Then at designated times, NIFS staff walked the work areas looking for employees who had left out their signals. They provided brief consultations and exercise/stretch recommendations for employees at their desks, and they dropped off a membership application for the fitness center. In just one offering of this program, our staff interacted with an average of 40 new employees each week and picked up 15 new fitness center members directly from their consultation conversations with employees at their desks.

#2: If You're Not Getting Monthly Updates on How the Fitness Center and Related Programs Are Performing...

...it's time to at least ask for the data to see what the fitness management provider can produce. If the vendor isn't in the practice of tracking at least monthly visit and participation data, you may want to rethink the partnership because it will be a steep hurdle to get them thinking about data collection if that isn't already part of their business model. In truth, you should be able to count on at least two types of data from your corporate fitness center:

• Monthly fitness center numbers: Total visits, unique users, frequent users (we track 5 or more and 8 or more visits per month), along with appointment volume and group fitness participation.
• Program outcome data: Executive summary–style reporting that shows key outcomes from the initiative along with a program overview and plans for improvement in the next offering.

#3: If No One Has Really Raved in a While About the Staff or the Fitness Center Programs...

...it might be a good time to confirm how strong of a relationship the staff members have with your employees. We believe the foundation of our successful corporate fitness center partnerships is relationships. While it can take a while to build strong connections, once established, you should expect to hear periodically from your employees about how the fitness center staff are doing great work, helping to motivate them to do more than they would on their own, etc. If you're not getting those kinds of comments, your corporate fitness program might be in a rut and it's time to breathe some new life into what's possible for your employees' health through an exercise program.

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Ready to dig a little deeper into what's possible for your corporate fitness center?  You're in luck - we have a whole guide on the topic designed to walk you through three key opportunities to build a more successful program.