Meet Paul Thomas …
Paul manages the Bounce Fitness Centre in Cairns, overseeing the centre's daily operations. Bounce Fitness Centre Cairns is a community sports and recreation centre.
Paul’s roles include:
- Managing staff, providing them with a positive workplace culture ensuring their personal health and wellbeing is met.
- Organising and finalising rosters.
- Identifying signs and sources of strain on health and wellbeing (both physical and mental) within job roles and key performance indicators (KPIs) of himself and others.
- Ensuring there are policies and procedures to manage the health and wellbeing of self and staff.
- Following legislative responsibility to provide a safe working environment for self and others.
The Cairns centre also sees head office operating from here, and Paul has regular contact with the Human Resources Manager, Laura Irish.
Paul has worked closely with Laura to create a workplace culture that strives towards supporting the staff and trainers’ personal health and wellbeing.
As the manager of the centre, Paul aims to lead by example and establish the appropriate foundations to set for the team to manage their personal health and wellbeing. Paul prides himself with putting his mental and physical health first and wants to set this example for his team.
In this module, you will learn the skills and knowledge that enable Paul to perform his role relating to managing his personal health and wellbeing:
- Review health and wellbeing framework
- Develop and implement personal health and wellbeing strategy
- Review personal health and wellbeing strategy.
There will be opportunities for you to develop your knowledge and skills throughout the module, so you are ready for your assessment. This includes looking at Bounce Fitness policies and procedures relating to health and wellbeing.
Let us begin by asking Paul the following three questions.
There are three main reasons why we must focus on developing a healthy workplace1.
- Firstly, ethics and making sure that people are not exposed to any type of harm is simply the morally correct thing to do.
- Secondly, from a business perspective. The most successful businesses are those with the best track record when it comes to health and safety. Ensuring that staff are healthy also reduces their absences, which in turn maximises productivity.
- Thirdly, from a legal perspective because there are laws that require employers to protect their staff from injuries and illnesses. Complying with these laws allows an organisation to stay in business.
Fitness centres can be very busy and sometimes stressful without enough staff to cover absences. So, we aim to limit the stress wherever it is possible. Personally, I know If I become stressed, my work effectiveness diminishes and I am unable to manage the centre and the employees effectively. As the centre manager I work closely with human resources and try to provide work processes that benefit the health of employees and prevent the development of chronic disease risks in the workplace, such as sleep disorders or physical problems that can mean we lose staff.
In my experience as a manager, I have observed three common denominators that affect workplace personal health and wellbeing.
Firstly, the way that work is done – this is sometimes referred to as a ‘work organisation’. For example, we did not have a process for managing health and wellbeing during the early stages of operation and now we have an Employee Assistance Program available.
Secondly, the actual physical environment where work is completed. This includes gym areas with heavy weights, weight machines, and the classrooms where certain classes are run. We need to ensure that weights are properly put away, so they do not become a trip hazard and are secured in their place to avoid them falling. Some clients need help and supervision when using heavyweight machines. Finally, strict protocols have been in place in the wake of the pandemic to ensure all gym equipment is thoroughly cleaned between use.
Thirdly workplace culture. Depending on the workplace, the culture can swing one of two ways, either it is positive, or it is toxic. The culture of a workplace is essential for operation. If the staff are not happy, the staff will walk. It is important workplace culture is established very early on in such a way to ensure the staff want to continue working. Toxic workplaces can have a serious impact on mental health and physical wellbeing. Many people spend more time at work than they do at home, and if they are experiencing ongoing issues within the workplace, this will inevitably start to trickle into their personal lives.
From my perspective, I am a much better partner, community member and boss if my health and wellbeing are in good shape. When we are all looking after our health and wellbeing, the whole workplace atmosphere improves. Productivity is higher, downtime is less, workers' job satisfaction is higher, and that means lower absenteeism rates. Finally, our clients also benefit and want to return. So is good for repeat business and for recommendations, I can’t imagine anyone wanting to return to or recommend a fitness service that is under pressure or stress. After all, many people join a fitness centre to help combat pressures.
