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editor’s
letter
Subscriptions
Julie Albone
+44 (0)1462 471915
cherish your staff
Circulation Manager
Michael Emmerson
It’s clear that the health and fitness industry made it through
OCK.COM/BILL NOLL
+44 (0)1462 471932 2009 relatively unscathed, as members showed loyalty to their
.IST Editor clubs. There were far fewer business failures than expected and
Liz Terry
on the whole, we’re going into 2010 in reasonable shape.

WWW +44 (0)1462 431385
However, keeping the cash flowing and the budgets under
VER: Managing Editor
control in 2009 may, in part, have been achieved at the cost of
Kate Cracknell
goodwill from team members, as club owners – particularly in
+44 (0)1462 471906
ONT CO the private sector – have employed some pretty hard practices to keep their businesses running.
FR Deputy Editor
Many health clubs have been operating with reduced numbers of staff for months as a result of the
Jo Talbot
+44 (0)1462 471906
recession, and although members may tolerate this for a certain length of time, it does ultimately
Assistant Editor
undermine the business if there’s no one on the gym floor during peak hours. All retention research
Katie Barnes
shows that regular, encouraging, friendly and involving contact with staff sustains members’ loyalty
+44 (0)1462 471925 and commitment, so cutting back will inevitably have a negative impact on the business.
News Desk
Being short staffed also piles added pressure on the people who are left behind and 2009 saw the
Pete Hayman industry stretching its people to their limits
+44 (0)1462 471938
Some operators employ
in many cases, with holidays cancelled,
Sarah Todd
overtime extended and back-to-back shifts
+44 (0)1462 471927
large numbers of low-paid
being worked to keep things running.
Tom Walker
However committed people are, if they’re
+44 (0)1462 471934
staff on zero-hours
asked to overwork on a regular basis, it
Products Editors
contracts to ensure
ultimately makes the business unsustainable
Mark Edmonds
and even the most loyal will struggle not to
+44 (0)1462 471933
there’s always a pool of
let their resentment show, causing further
Sarah Todd
fairly desperate people
+44 (0)1462 471927
damage to relationships with clients.
But it isn’t just employees who’ve been
Designers
competing for the
Andy Bundy
available work slots
taking the strain. There’s evidence to show
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that some in the industry are resorting to
Ed Gallagher
sharp practices in dealings with freelance staff
+44 (0)1905 20198 such as specialist martial arts or yoga instructors. We’re getting reports that freelancers are being
Claire Toplis repeatedly underpaid by operators and, in some cases, being obstructed when they try to apply for
+44 (0)1462 471910
recompense to further delay payments being made. Is this the operators in question juggling cashflow
Website Team and temporarily underpaying non-core staff to get through a squeeze? There’s no evidence of criminal
Katie Eldridge
activity, but it’s certainly clear that if some operators can overlook freelancers’ payment claims for a few
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weeks or months, they’re taking the opportunity of doing so to keep the cash in the bank.
Dean Fox
Another issue which needs to be addressed is that of low-paid staff on zero-hour contracts. It
+44 (0)1462 471900
appears some operators are engaging large numbers of zero-hour staff and then making them
Emma Harris
compete for relatively small amounts of work – often on an ad hoc basis. The advantage to the
+44 (0)1462 471921
operator is that this ensures there’s always a pool of trained, available and fairly desperate people
Tim Nash
competing for work. It also means these staff are more likely to work for the lowest possible amount:
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people in this position tend to be junior, less well qualified and who are often on the minumum wage.
Michael Paramore
+44 (0)1462 471926
But is it right for us to exploit people in these ways, sometimes offering them only the barest
amount of job security? Surely we want to build a reputation as an industry that looks after its people
Publisher
Jan Williams
and creates good jobs and prospects? We need to recognise that our people are the key to our
+44 (0)1462 471909
success, and when the market begins to grow again, as it most surely will, these operators will reap
Sales
what they’ve sown when it comes to the goodwill of the teams who deliver services to customers.
Julie Badrick
+44 (0)1462 471919
Liz Terry, editor
John Challinor
+44 (0)1582 607970
Nadeem Shaikh
health club S P O R T S Attractions
management M A N A G E M E N T management
THE 9A NEW 9
3D
VILLAGE
DIMENSION THEME PARK
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FOR CINEMA
Bringing fencing to Maurice Kelly
a wider audience On re-engineering Rileys BANKSY
THE SCARLET VS
Three sisters open their BRISTOL
W I N S T O N eco hotel in Cornwall MUSEUM
Financial Controller
HIGHAM
Getting Wigan Active
Sue Davis james ca an
MICHAL KREJZA
The head of the EU Sport
F O O D F O R
ben silcox Unit talks about its policies
on the birth of the
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T H O U G H T new nuyuu fi tness Banksy v s
How can operators make money Bristol Museum
from selling nutritional products?
How many 50m
2 0 1 0 P R E D I C T I O N S swimming pools CHIP CLEARY
do we need? Do we need a tourism bank?
Financial Administrator
Denise Gildea
+44 (0)1462 471930
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