Suffice to say, the way we ran our clubs day-to-day changed in
lots of little ways.
We reopened with the mantra ‘forget about your job description’.
Everybody just pitched in and did what needed to be done, and that
is still the case. Work life has by no means returned to normal or
settled into a ‘new normal’. Constant assessment, discussion and
adjustment are the order of the day, and will be for quite some time.
Staff have totally nailed all the new hygiene, cleaning and social
distancing protocols, and group exercise coaches have been stoked
to be doing what they love again. Far from being annoyed with all the
new procedures, members have expressed gratitude for the amount
of cleaning and safe exercise measures we have implemented. Noone
has seemed anxious, nervous or uncomfortable to be back
in club. Arguably, those that might be concerned are still on a
membership freeze or may have cancelled. Overridingly, member
feedback has been that it is good to be back, to be moving again and
to be reunited with their fitness community. Importantly, they also
feel safe, and like we are taking very good care of them.
Evolving timetables and classes
We opened all our clubs with a strong timetable offering, predicting
70% of members would return. We learnt some quick lessons upon
reopening, however: the CBD remains very quiet, and we soon
realised we had scheduled too many classes, while, conversely, we
needed to add more classes to our suburban clubs.
Our Sydney CBD clubs opened on 15 June 2020 with class
occupancy in the first week of 33-35%, but with group exercise
penetration at 90%, illustrating the fact that those in the city who
were choosing to return to our clubs were prioritising group workouts
over gym floor training. By comparison, our suburban clubs had class
occupancy of 50-60% but group exercise penetration of 70-80%. By
July all our newer urban clubs had a group exercise penetration of
90%, while our older suburban clubs had 70-80%.
So, fewer people were returning to the city clubs than to the
suburban clubs – but those that were returning were more inclined to
be group exercisers than gym floor trainers.
The reason for CBD club traffic being lower than that in the
suburbs is understandable. Many businesses have no date set for
workers to return to their office, have set dates as late as November
for select staff to return, or implemented a staff rotation policy that
sees different staff returning to the workplace on different days
of the week. It is also noticeable that more offices are now up for
lease in the CBD, as businesses opt to save on rent by running their
operations more cost-effectively remotely.
Some companies have brought back some staff rostered on
shifts from 7am, 8am, 9am and 10am rather than having them all
start at the same time, as it would take too long to get all staff up to
their offices with the current restrictions on how many people can
be in a lift together. Other businesses, meanwhile, have done ‘early
bird’ parking deals, so many workers are leaving the CBD early,
leaving the PM peak classes and gym floor extremely quiet. AM and
lunch peaks, however, have been better attended and all peaks are
definitely growing as the weeks pass, with an increase expected in
July and particularly after the July school holidays. In early July we
have started to see more members swiping in outside the heart of
each peak.
We have had to add additional classes to suburban clubs in the
Hills, Moore Park, St Leonards and Bondi, as all those yet to return to
working in their usual city offices and exercising in city clubs are working
out in the clubs near to their homes rather than their workplaces. They
are keen as beans to get back to classes, but with fewer participants
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