{"id":19291,"date":"2020-08-18T09:30:24","date_gmt":"2020-08-18T13:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.benefitscanada.com\/news\/best-buy-canada-helping-staff-work-out-from-home-with-virtual-fitness-classes-148971"},"modified":"2020-08-18T09:30:24","modified_gmt":"2020-08-18T13:30:24","slug":"best-buy-helping-staff-work-out-from-home-with-virtual-fitness-classes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/2020\/08\/18\/best-buy-helping-staff-work-out-from-home-with-virtual-fitness-classes\/","title":{"rendered":"Best Buy helping staff work out from home with virtual fitness classes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Courtesy <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Kelsey Rolfe<\/span> | August 18, 2020 <\/p>\n

Best Buy Canada Ltd. has had a well-used on-site gym at its Burnaby, B.C. head office for a decade.<\/p>\n

But when employees started working from home during the pandemic, the company decided to bring the gym to their laptops with a virtual fitness program.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe realized that staying fit and staying active was something we wanted to continue for people who were already part of our gym membership population and we wanted to offer it in a bigger way because of all the crazy stress that\u2019s been added to people\u2019s lives due to the COVID-19 pandemic,\u201d says Carol Graziani, director of human resources services at Best Buy Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to go beyond the basics of, \u2018How do we get work done?\u2019 to \u2018How do we maintain some of our culture and take care of our people in the same way we were committed to doing in the physical world?’\u201d<\/p>\n

Read: How to energize employees using virtual wellness<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The company partnered with Curtis Health, a corporate health and wellness service provider that managed its onsite gym, to offer virtual fitness classes to the company\u2019s entire employee base. Employees have access to a regular rotation of classes through a virtual gym website called Thrive, including high-intensity interval training, pilates and yoga, which they can tune in to over Zoom. While head office employees had previously paid $20 per month to attend the onsite gym, access to the virtual gym is free.<\/p>\n

Graziani says the company asked Curtis Health to offer two additional classes for its employees: a daily stretch break and a daily 20-minute meditation session. With employees going from \u201cZoom meeting to Zoom meeting,\u201d they\u2019re not often leaving their desks, so a stretch break is a good reminder to get their bodies moving, she says. Meditation was added to help people \u201cbreak up some of the stress they\u2019re feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prior to the pandemic, roughly 250 to 300 employees out of 1,000 regularly used the gym at Best Buy Canada\u2019s head office. While the company doesn\u2019t have numbers on how many employees are accessing the virtual offering, class sizes have been consistently around 12 to 20 people.<\/p>\n

Read: How workplace fitness can improve employee productivity<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

In addition to the virtual classes, employees can access information on nutrition, mindfulness, coping with coronavirus-related stressors and family resources on the virtual gym website. Curtis Health also hosts occasional classes for employees and their children to participate in together. \u201cWith schools being closed and employees having their kids at home, there\u2019s a [triple] pressure of being a full-time parent, a full-time teacher and a full-time employee,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

The virtual offering may have been implemented to support employees during the pandemic, but Graziani doesn\u2019t see it as a temporary program.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have been very successful working at home and, as we look to the future, I don\u2019t think we\u2019re ever going to see a day when we have 1,000 people onsite every day. I don\u2019t see that as the future of the office for us anymore. The pandemic certainly has given us an opportunity to think creatively in ways we\u2019ve never had to think before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read: How Rocky Mountain Soap supports staff with fitness classes<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Read the full article at BenefitsCanada.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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