As the Covid-19 lock down forced the temporary closure of businesses across the country, the outlook for companies supplying services to corporate partners looked precarious. Among them was Gympass - the world’s largest corporate wellness platform.
Prior to lock down, the Gympass model comprised giving access to employee members to over 2,000 fitness facilities across the UK. When fitness facilities closed, Gympass tackled the challenge head-on and swiftly pivoted its business model to deliver physical activity and mental health solutions digitally through Gympass Wellness – a collection of world-renowned apps to enable HR managers to cascade wellness solutions to its work forces. The uptake was rapid, and not only did its new services bridge the gap for companies, its solutions are here to stay adding immense value for its corporate partners.
Gympass decided to roll-out services in phases, ensuring it moved online exercise, nutrition plans and mental well-being to market quickly before adding more apps, family solutions, live online classes and one-to-one virtual personal training sessions.
The expanded Gympass offering better equipped employers with a holistic and flexible wellness program that aligned with their evolving needs. Some of Britain’s biggest work forces including Tesco, Thames Water and Network Rail warmly welcomed the refreshed business model.
Tesco was quick to cascade the Gympass Wellness opportunity to its staff as part of its comprehensive delivery of sharing digital health and well-being options. “The last few weeks have brought unprecedented change to our colleagues’ lives and well-being,” said Toni McKay - Head of Health, Well-being and Colleague Experience at Tesco. “We are thankful to all of our well-being partners in their resilience and flexibility to adapt quickly to the change, in turn supporting each colleague in a way that suits their needs. Some fantastic digital innovation has brought to life on demand classes and activities to households in isolation, and helped us learn more about our minds and nutrition during this difficult time.”
Meanwhile, Ian Turner, Head of Reward & Benefits at Network Rail was very impressed with how quickly Gympass responded to the pandemic and the shutting of gyms due to lock down. “The Gympass Wellness platform was created and rolled out quickly, initially with a small number of online fitness apps to provide employees with alternative ways to keep active at home during lock down. They have since added many more online services to the platform to cater for all types of fitness needs. Adding mental and financial well-being services to support employees is both welcome and much-needed during the current lock down.”
Finally, Aimee Cain, Thames Water Occupational Health & Well-being Manager was relieved to find Gympass had pivoted fast to release a range of remote resources. “We quickly identified the need to manage the impact of lock down on the mental health of our workforce. The digital Gympass Wellness platform offers far more than just online workouts, with plenty of financial well-being and mental health resources also available. This really bolstered what our health and well-being team could offer giving them ready-made materials to signpost to colleagues.”
“We remained committed to supporting our customers with our digital resources to offer a truly 360-degree wellness solution,” says Luke Bullen, Gympass CEO UK/IE. “Workplace well-being challenges have been exacerbated by Covid-19 and so, now more than ever, it’s vital that employers safeguard the physical and mental well-being of their work forces. Our latest digital offering enabled HR teams to do just that and helped to answer the extraordinary demand for digital fitness and wellness solutions. And as a business, we have many more innovations to come.”
