The international facilities management provider, ISS, is working with fitness workforce management and recruitment platform CoverMe to source qualified, insured and specialist instructors and manage existing instructor teams for a global banking client’s workplace fitness programme.
Appointed to operate the client’s onsite fitness facilities and evolve its employee wellbeing offering, ISS wanted to enhance the group exercise programme by expanding the range and quality of classes on offer, while attracting high calibre instructors to maintain high standards across three of the client’s UK sites.
ISS also uses CoverMe as its workforce operating platform to manage and support its existing instructor teams. With group exercise proving extremely popular across the sites, maintaining consistency and minimising timetable disruption is essential. CoverMe gives ISS greater visibility of its instructor workforce, simplifies team communication, compliance and cover, and helps ensure classes continue to run even when circumstances change. CoverMe gives ISS a single platform to manage who they have and find who they need.
Katie Chaloner, Global Wellbeing lead at ISS says:
“Our role now extends beyond operating gyms; it’s about creating engaging wellbeing experiences that contribute to employee health, engagement and workplace culture.
One of the challenges in the fitness industry is the variation in qualification standards, experience levels and professional governance. For organisations operating onsite fitness facilities, it’s essential to have confidence that instructors not only meet the required technical standards but are also capable of delivering an experience that aligns with wider wellbeing objectives.”
CoverMe gives corporate fitness providers access to a pool of vetted fitness professionals, helping them recruit specialist talent and expand their programmes while reducing the administration involved in finding and onboarding instructors, as well as sourcing cover.
Chaloner adds:
“Ultimately, our partnership with CoverMe enables us to deliver a more resilient, engaging and premium fitness experience that supports the wellbeing strategy for our client and their employees,”
Tapping into local talent
Demand for group exercise was particularly strong at the client’s flagship site in Canary Wharf, London, with some classes operating with significant waiting lists. CoverMe has enabled ISS to source qualified local instructors to increase capacity and expand the range of classes available to employees.
“Using CoverMe, we can access the best local talent, benchmark instructor rates against the market and strengthen our ability to source high quality cover when needed. This helps us to maintain programme continuity and minimise disruption.
Rather than sourcing generalist instructors, the platform connects experts who live and breathe the programmes they deliver, creating a more authentic and engaging experience.”
Without a network of its own, ISS previously relied on instructors’ personal networks to find cover. Now, the team can connect with fitness professionals who have already been vetted against the required qualification and insurance standards.
“Finding cover takes around a quarter of the time it used to,” says Harriet Ward, Workplace Experience Manager at ISS. It’s much more straightforward; everyone can see what’s happening and there’s no point of failure in the process.
We recently needed cover for a class and sent a notification through CoverMe, which generated responses from 10 to 15 instructors who were already vetted and ready to go. The platform frees up our small, busy team, allowing them to focus on customer interaction, experience and supporting employees in the gym.”
Meeting governance requirements
The governance element of CoverMe is particularly valuable for ISS, which needs to be sure that instructors working in its facilities meet the appropriate technical, insurance and compliance requirements.
Chaloner says:
“We know there are exceptionally talented instructors with many years of experience, but if they don’t have the appropriate qualifications or insurance for the role, we can’t use them. CoverMe gives us that assurance and helps us meet the governance standards required in a corporate environment. It ticks a big box for us,”
CoverMe’s vetting process reduces the administrative burden involved in sourcing, checking and onboarding temporary instructors, while giving corporate fitness providers greater visibility and confidence when bringing in external talent.
Lou Crossland, Chief Commercial Officer at CoverMe, added:
“We’re proud to support ISS in bringing specialist local instructors into the corporate environment. ISS is a great example of how the needs of corporate fitness are evolving. Workplace fitness facilities are no longer simply about giving access to a gym; they are an important part of a wider employee wellbeing strategy. Operators therefore need to connect with great talent while maintaining robust governance, consistency and programme continuity.”
Click here to book a discovery call with the CoverMe team and learn how you can save time in your business.