The Benefits Offered by Providing Gym Memberships to Your Employees
By now, you understand how important it is to provide your employees with a robust and well-thought-out benefits plan. By doing this, your business will see many benefits. For example, you can reduce your turnover rate, attract top talent, and more. With these perks, you can also begin improving productivity and see gains for your bottom line.
However, there is one benefit that some companies overlook – gym memberships. While looking into health products and reading Le-Vel Thrive reviews, providing information and products to workers is a great first step. A gym membership is something that all businesses, regardless of size or industry, should consider.
Even though this may seem like a significant and unnecessary expense, it does not have to be. If you consider offering this perk to your workers but are still unsure if it is the right step for your company, keep reading. Here you can learn about some of the top benefits offered by including gym memberships as part of your benefits packages.
Create a Culture of Health and Wellness
You can provide the gym membership to your workers alone or make it part of your business’s bigger wellness program. If you currently offer some wellness benefits, adding the gym membership to this can be a smart move.
Even though there is no way for you to make everyone go to the gym daily to work on their physical health and fitness, by providing the gym membership, it is going to make it easier for your team to engage in these healthier activities, like regular exercise.
For some employees, the cost of a membership is prohibitive. However, when you offer the gym membership as one of the employee’s benefits they receive, you will be able to remove the barrier they have had to improve their health and well-being, which most people will appreciate.
Working Out is a Type of Preventative Medicine
If you have workers who are regularly engaging in exercise, they will be much healthier in the long term. What does this mean for you? One of the main things this means is that they will require fewer days away from the office. Engaging in regular exercise offers several health benefits. It can improve a person’s sleep, reduce stress levels, and help those who participate in it maintain a healthy weight. All of this will help them reduce the likelihood of developing some type of chronic disease.
Providing your employees with a gym membership is something that will be engaging for your workers. This is also going to help promote better health. There are more than a few good reasons that you should focus on the health of your employees.
It Is a Cost-Effective Benefit to Offer
One of the top reasons that you should think about offering a gym membership to your employees as a part of their benefits package is because it is a cost-effective option. A wellness program will also be a cost-effective plan. With these, you can help your employees avoid longer-term or chronic health issues that may require the use of expensive medications or costly surgery.
A gym membership is something that is much more affordable than most people’s month-to-month prescriptions. You could even negotiate some type of corporate discount for your business at one of the local gyms. If you are working to help ensure that your employees maintain their health, they are much less likely to require more expensive benefits from you. While the individual may still catch a cold occasionally, they are much less likely to develop some type of chronic condition that requires ongoing treatment as time passes.
It Helps with Your Employee’s Personal Finances
As mentioned above, urging your employees to be healthier is a smart step. Remember, day-to-day work can be quite demanding. Offering a gym membership will help your employees release some of the stress before going to work or after getting off, all while being able to stay healthy and fit. Some employees may walk on a treadmill for about 30 minutes per day, while others will hit the weights for two hours after work. Both of these are fine. The key is to give your employees the option to go without having to cover the costs.
Reduce Sick Days
Exercise is a good way to help boost a person’s immune system. Even just a few minutes of moving each day will make a significant difference. If your business provides a gym membership to workers, employees will be urged to exercise, which helps build immunity for quite a few of those germs floating around your office.
Boost Endorphins
Did you know that endorphins are well-known for helping to stabilize moods? They are also beneficial in treating people who have a better sense of contentment and happiness. Your endorphins are going to be “super-charged” when you exercise. When your workers are taking part in regular exercise routines, they will provide a serious endorphin boost. This is going to help improve the “vibe” around the office significantly.
Improves Focus
Countless studies have proven that people who can exercise regularly will feel more focused when trying to handle day-to-day tasks. One reason for this is the endorphins that were mentioned above. It is also because the exercise will help to reduce stress while improving sleep patterns. Regardless of why, when you have employees who are going to the gym regularly, their performance at work will change and be better.
The Tax Benefits
The Workforce Health Improvement Program Act was introduced in 2007. The goal of this act was to amend the old IRS code from 1986. According to the old code, employers were allowed to receive tax deductions for gym membership costs if they are offered on-site. The new code was developed to include off-site deductions, too.
For employers who are responsible for covering the cost of unemployment taxes, Medicare taxes, and Social Security taxes as part of fringe benefits, they can add the gym to this list. However, it may be possible to add the cost of an off-site gym membership to this, as well. Using crm for small business to ensure employees are utilizing the health perks will help to track benefits.
Usually, the IRS considers something a fringe benefit as a type of taxable income if an employer offers the benefits off-site. As a result, a small business owner who cannot subsidize the costs of on-site gym memberships will not receive benefits when they pay for worker’s off-site memberships. If they are covered as a fringe benefit, the IRS makes it necessary to include the monthly costs as income on the W-2 tax forms.
Offering Gym Memberships Provides Countless Perks
When it comes to offering a gym membership to your workers, there is no question that it can provide several benefits to your workers. Be sure to keep this in mind and the information here. As you can see, there are more than a few reasons to invest in your workers’ health and well-being. Doing so is going to pay off in big ways for your company and your bottom line. Keep this in mind to ensure your employees receive the best benefits package possible. Being informed is the best way to ensure that your employees get the benefits they need to ensure they are happy and content in their jobs.
