Even before any of had heard the words Covid-19, keeping environments such as gyms clean for both staff and customers was essential.
Now we are all more aware of hand hygiene and how easy it is to pick up infections from hard surfaces, maintaining a healthy and enjoyable space for those that work and play there is more important than ever.
Working hard to keep on top of the level of germs and bacteria in a gym is as good for morale as it is for physical fitness and health.
1. Gyms are high-traffic environments
Gyms are busy spaces. If you have ever queued for equipment at peak times, you will have a good idea of just how many people might be using a gym on any given day. That footfall is naturally higher during the evenings and at weekends, but even during office hours, many gyms are quite busy.
Some germs can live on hard surfaces for 24 hours or even longer, so it doesn’t take a degree in maths to work out the potential for onward infection as the bug is spread to other surfaces too.
Encourage a culture – clients and staff – of wiping down before and after use.
2. The ‘gym smell’
Bacteria is not only unsanitary and liable to spread infection, it is likely to smell too.
Many of us as familiar with the ‘gym smell’ from school. If you want to avoid that in your gym, make sure that the accumulation of sweat and dirt is taken care of frequently throughout the day.
Not only is the gym smell a health-hazard and a contributing factor to high staff turnover, it’s extremely off-putting to potential new clients, leading to a drop in revenue.
3. Cleanliness is a business asset
There are few communal areas where people are in such close proximity with each other and sharing the same equipment. A gym can look – and smell – clean, but nothing beats frequent sanitising to keep germs to a minimum.
Regular cleaning and disinfecting can also serve to prolong the life of your gym equipment, thus reducing overheads by lengthening the time between necessary servicing or replacement.
4. Staff retention
People who work in gyms tend to highly motivated by health and fitness – not just helping others to achieve their fitness goals, but careful about their own.
Staff that are expected to work in a gym without an ingrained ‘keep it clean’ culture will soon move on to somewhere that does.
A clean environment is good for morale; staff as well as clients.
5. It’s not just Covid
Covid is probably still the infection we think of first when picking up bugs, and is likely to be so for a while yet. However, fungal and bacterial infections are happy to jump on the bandwagon in a dirty environment, and in a gym, this doesn’t just mean the exercise area itself.
Keeping changing rooms and any communal breakout areas well-disinfected is just as important as the gym equipment unless you want to offer free foot infections as a membership perk!
A clean space is now a definite business asset. Making clients and staff feel safe and protected is an essential consideration for a gym – a healthy environment matters.