A safe gym environment is important for all involved. Safe members are happy members! Happy gym members stay members and tell their friends about your gym. Safe members don’t get injured, which doesn’t cost your gym in repairs, law suits and increased insurance premiums. Here are five key areas to assess when looking to evaluate just how safe your gym is and where you can improve and implement best practices:
1. Waiver practices
The first step in joining a gym is for new members to sign up to. Having them sign a waiver provides a great deal of legal protection for your business against potential legal action and brings awareness to the member as to the dangers related to exercising.
2. Emergency Planning
We don’t want to think about these types of tragic events occurring at our gyms but, the truth is, we never know when tragedy could strike. Having a plan in place and staff that is ready to respond can be vital in the event of a medical, weather, fire or active shooter emergency.
3. Incident Reporting Practices
Documentation is critical in the event that an injury or emergency occurs. Best practices involve having standard forms available, investigative processes defined and staff trained on the follow-up protocol.
4. Slip and Fall Protection
Injuries from slipping and falling remain the leader in insurance claims for the health club industry. Think of all those wet areas, heavy foot traffic and equipment lying around in your club. Doing all you can to protect your members from simple slips, trips and falls will go a long way to keeping those members safe and coming back for more.
5. Equipment Maintenance
For many clubs, cardio and weight equipment is one of their costlier investments. Keeping this equipment maintained on a regular schedule will help to alleviate costly injuries, as well as afford you the opportunity to keep your equipment longer, which helps keep cost down. Members love their favorite piece of equipment to be running like a well-oiled machine!
There are many things you can do and many practices you can implement to keep your members safe and happy and, in the end, keep your costs down. These five will have the biggest immediate impact on your business.
In our upcoming series, we’ll take a deeper dive into each of these areas to further explore gym risk exposures, the steps you can take to mitigate them, and the impact those little changes can make.
Check out our blog page monthly for updates or sign up for our e-newsletters and other important risk management info at www,ventureprograms.com/programs/fitness-wellness-spa/.
Brian Rawlings is Practice Leader for Venture Programs and has spent his career working in fitness and insurance. At Venture, Rawlings is leading the new FITLIFE™ program, which insures fitness, wellness and spa facilities. He can be reached at brawlings@ventureprograms.com.