My Health

by Mikael Fredholm

November 2005

The owner of World Class approached me two months ago and told me to investigate the possibilities of organising a fitness convention here in Bucharest. I asked him for some parameters and his response was, “Go crazy!” So I went crazy and booked Sala Palatului and in January 2006 this facility will host Romania’s first Fitness & LifeStyle Convention. But after having secured the 2006 edition of Fitness Woman World Championship as well as having attracted some of the industry’s most well-known aerobic instructors and nutritionists, I couldn’t really call it a convention because it will be far from conventional.

This will be more of a revolutionary event with some absolutely amazing people that will come to Romania for two days to inspire, educate and energise people about fitness, health and wellbeing. So I changed the name to Fitness & LifeStyle Revolution (but this is something I haven’t told the owner of World Class yet.)

So if organising a revolution isn’t enough World Class is also about to come out with our first magazine, bFresh, packed with articles for everyone interested in fitness and wellbeing. I would like to share a few sections from an article that I wrote about corporate health and how different companies value their assets differently.

In my world, employees are a company’s greatest asset. Not too many CEOs would argue. You seldom hear from a CEO that “my machines are more important than my employees”. So if employees are a company’s greatest asset, what can then be more worthwhile than investing in their wellbeing and happiness? After all, everyone knows that happy and satisfied employees perform better. Just like maintaining the machines makes them run more smoothly, maintaining employees make them smile more. From what will a company benefit most: smooth running machines or healthy, energised and smiling employees? What is a company’s most important asset – its employees or its machines? It’s a great competitive advantage – when employees feels well the company perform well.

Companies that invest in fitness club memberships stand out not only as attractive and appreciated employers but are aware of the direct correlation with the company’s performance. A recent survey among our members can confirm this statement. Eighty per cent of our members joined World Class with the ambition to become more fit and 30 per cent said that they also wanted to lose weight. Did we live up to their expectations? The answer is yes! Ninety three per cent said that their training has given them the results they desired when they joined. Another interesting result of the survey is the answer to the question, “If you were about to change your job, how important would a fitness membership be in your negotiations”. Seventy five per cent of all respondents thought that it would be either important or very important.

Why more companies fail to invest in the wellbeing of their employees still puzzles me. But this issue is taken more seriously in Romania than in many other European countries. I am both amazed and proud about the number of companies here, small and large, that provides a membership to a fitness club as part of an employee’s package.