EXCLUSIVE: Corporate affairs organisation Virgin Management has hosted a spin class for employees and senior management to support employee wellbeing and help integrate senior leaders with the wider workforce.
The Pack spin class, held on Tuesday 26 September, was held to align firstly with the organisation’s wellbeing strategy, which has been designed to cater for employees’ social, physical, financial and mental wellbeing. The exercise class was also used as part of a strategy to help make senior leaders in the business more visible and approachable to employees.
The spin class involved four senior leaders, who headed up different teams of employees to compete against other each other for the fitness-related challenge. A total of nine employees took part in the class overall. The team with the most points collected at the end of the 45-minute session won.
Employees were sent an invitation to attend the Pack class, which was held at a nearby Virgin Active branch that Virgin Management partners with. Exercise classes are typically promoted via the organisation’s quarterly email newsletter.
As part of the strategy to make senior management more visible to staff, business leaders have also hosted team lunches every four to six weeks. These are held either at Virgin Management’s UK head office or at a nearby restaurant, for a total of around 10 employees. This usually includes a mix of new joiners and longer serving staff.
Virgin Management currently organises a different exercise class every quarter for employees in order to keep them engaged with the wellbeing offering. For example, the organisation has previously arranged a revitalisation class, and a Zumba dance exercise class, which was held on its roof terrace.
Cherry Pinchbeck, reward and benefits advisor at Virgin Management, said: “[It] is an event where we plan to help make the [senior leader] team more visible and approachable, but it also helps support our wellbeing strategy as it’s important for the leadership team to lead by example and it’s their support that makes our wellbeing programme successful.
“Our [wellbeing] strategy is one that aims to cater across the four key pillars of wellbeing, whether that be, social, physical, financial or mental wellbeing. Therefore, we arrange a variety of classes to cater for employees individual wellbeing needs to help then on their wellbeing journey. Running the revitalisation class for example helps with employee emotional, physical and mental wellbeing, [while] arranging the Pack class bring people together as a team in a social way and of course improves physical wellbeing.”