Aycliffe Today Business #10 | Page 8

8 | Aycliffe Today Business LET’S GET ENGAGED? What would YOUR staff say if you asked them “What is it like to work here?” Knowing how engaged your employees are with your business is vital to continued success. An “engaged” employee is fully involved in, enthusiastic about and adds value to their work. However one disengaged employee can undermine all of the positive efforts of four times as many engaged people. Measuring and tracking levels of engagement means you can tailor your actions to get the very best of results for your customers. Employees with the highest level of engagement perform on average 20% better and are 87% less likely to want to leave, than those who are not. Actively engaged people are productive and willing to learn, they will act in a way that furthers their own interests and that of the business and they will have a positive impact on everyone around them. Increasing the number of actively engaged people within your company can improve productivity, reduce absenteeism and result in a more positive and effective working environment. People Gauge™ is a simple but sophisticated online solution that accurately measures what your people think and feel about working for you. It has been designed specifically to help you identify where exactly you should focus your attention to get the very best from your people and gain significant and sustained improvements. The state-of-the-art OneGym on Aycliffe Business Park LOW-COST GYM NOW OPEN FOR BUSINESS! A state-of-the-art low-cost gym is now open for business on Aycliffe Business Park. OneGym has opened its doors on Durham Way South after an extensive, four-month refurbishment programme. Paul and David Pearson opened OneGym in Bishop Auckland in 2012, offering users access to all the latest fitness equipment without costly add-ons like swimming pools and saunas that they don’t necessarily want to use. And having attracted healthy membership numbers at their first fitness facility, the brothers have now opened a second, much larger OneGym in Aycliffe, while members of OneGym can use both facilities using their same ID card. Eight new jobs have been created at the new 12,500 sq ft fitness centre, which has facilities for fitness classes as well as a gym in which more than £150,000 has been invested in installing the latest Cybex exercise equipment. The low-cost gym business model was originally established in the US and mainland Europe, with membership costs kept significantly below those charged by leisure facilities in hotels or ‘lifestyle’ gyms. Having proved that the concept works in the North-East, the OneGym management team remains ambitious about extending their brand presence to further parts of the region in the next few years. Managing director Paul Pearson, who has a longstanding background in the regional health and fitness industry, said: “We were always very confident that OneGym would be a hit in the North-East, and comfortably surpassing our membership targets for Bishop Auckland has shown our expectations were well founded. “We can keep membership costs down by cutting out all the added frills that gym users don’t necessarily want, but end up paying for anyway elsewhere, while still offering the top quality equipment and changing facilities that people expect and tailoring the way we operate precisely to meet users’ needs. “We’ve wanted to open in Newton Aycliffe for a long time and think the demand will be just as strong as we’ve had previously, especially from all the businesses that are right on our doorstep. ” Dave Pearson added: “We’ve already attracted the sort of membership numbers we expected at Aycliffe and we expect them to pick up gradually as the word about our facilities gets around. ” The original launch of OneGym was funded through an investment from regional fund management firm NEL Fund Managers via the Finance For Business North East Growth Fund that it administers, as well as by further capital from NatWest Bank and the firm’s management team. Sounds like a future marriage made in heaven! Zanna Bewick Director Elphaba Business Solutions www.elphaba.co.uk Market your business direct to 250 companies on Aycliffe Today Business, with advertising from just £130. email: [email protected]