- Showers must be used before entering the pool
This is a matter of hygiene, a sweaty person who has just been to the gym or someone who is generally unclean shouldn’t enter the pool without showering.
This guideline is put down for hygiene reasons again. True there is chlorine in the water which is a good anti bacterial and germ killer, but it is no excuse for people who have just left the sauna or gym to leave a trail of their excess dirt and grease into the pool.
6. Customers must not use weights prior to induction
This guideline is there to prevent customers from injuring themselves as well as causing damage to the machinery and others.
Without this guideline I am pretty sure there would be a lot of injuries in the gym. Quite often when you go to the gym you will see “newbie’s” with delusions of grandeur, they go straight for the heaviest weights and pump them like there’s no tomorrow, no doubt with visions of looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger. It is imperative that new inductees are shown and trained on different equipment by a qualified member of staff.
- No children under the age of 11 are allowed in the pool unless accompanied by an adult.
This is an important safety guideline as there are some very irresponsible mothers and fathers in this world who would let their children into a pool whilst not realising what standard of swimming their children are at. A lifeguard can only do so much and isn’t a telepath tic so cannot tell if a child is a strong or weak swimmer. This is a good guideline because it keeps children safe and forces mums and dads to be responsible. Once again having this guideline saves the leisure centre from being sued if this guideline wasn’t there and the lifeguard could not save a child’s life the leisure centre would be in serious trouble.
- Please wear the correct footwear
If correct footwear is not used serious or minor injuries can occur. It is important to raise this point as there are a lot of people out there foolish enough to go to the gym in incorrect footwear. For those that didn’t know what type of footwear to wear the guideline will explain it to them possibly helping them with their performance.
Employee guidelines
- Wear the correct uniform and clothing
This is important as an employee’s dress code should reflect the company’s image. As a reflection of the company’s image an employee has a responsibility to wear clean, correct uniform. They are on the frontline and if a customer has a complaint they would rather be approached by a smartly dressed employee. From the start of their quarrel they are less likely to have a go at a smartly dressed person rather than a scruffy one. A scruffy employee would be perceived as someone who doesn’t care and as a reflection of the leisure centre a customer sees the employee as the company itself. What I am trying to get at is that if the employee is scruffy then so is the company.
- Arrive to work on time
It is important to be punctual to work as it can set a bad example to other employees around you. If one employee is consistently late and getting away with it, others start to look and think to themselves ‘Well it won’t hurt to be five minutes late if he/she is getting away with it’. Also if you arrive late they are not getting work done which they are being paid to do and most likely others around them are covering and doing their work for them, this is bad teamwork.
- Staff should know fire procedures
It is obvious that management need to make sure that all their employees know all the fire procedures. This will keep both the employees and customers safe. If certain employees do not know or understand all the fire procedures they themselves are at risk as well as the customers. A leisure centre would leave themselves liable for suing if It was found out that a fire drill went bad due to staff not knowing fire procedures.
- Employees must know first aid
First of as well as having qualified first aid personnel there needs to be a 1:50 ratio of first aiders to the amount of people in the building. For very much the same reasons as the fire procedures, this guideline would protect customers, the employees, as well as protect against possible suing. It is a must need guideline as injuries sustained in gym’s and leisure centre’s are numerous and it must be ensured all these injuries are taken care of quickly and efficiently.
- Check equipment regularly so that it is safe for customers use
This guideline helps prevent injuries to customers. Obviously accidents can happen but if regular checks are done you can slim the chances of injury. It will encourage regular maintenance checks and ensure that employees look for simple things like wear and tear or loose wires that people could trip over. It is an important guideline because it makes sure that the employees have to consider the risks of the equipment and think of measure to check and prevent these risks.
- When treating a customer one’s manner and attitude must be calm and conservative
When dealing with customers it is important to give off a good impression. If they ask you a simple question for example, it is good to be attentive to what they are saying. An aura needs to be given off that pervais an interest in what they are saying. If a customer comes up with a complaint and are perhaps rude it is important that an employee can keep their cool and not snap back. A situation is far more likely to be rectified if the employee is calm and composed, that way they can calm the customer down and help them to understand and fix or help with whatever problem they have. As I have said before the employees are on the front lines and whatever aura they give of the customers effects the company (leisure centre or gym) as a whole.
- No smoking on the premises
The smoking guideline needs to work both ways. You can’t very well have a customer guideline saying no smoking and then have your employees casually smoking away. This is an important guideline for the same reason as the customers. You can’t have people coming to the gym seeing employees smoking away, customers may find it off putting especially if they are smokers and it doesn’t set a good example. Again it would put off putting non-smokers as well especially ex-smokers who will represent a large client base. The atmosphere has to be that of a healthy one. If a customer must smoke an area needs to be made off premises where they can relieve themselves.
- Treat other staff with respect
At work it is important that there is a good atmosphere within the workforce as well as a high standard of moral. This starts with all the employees treating each other with respect. You can’t have a members of staff disrespecting each other a workplace needs discipline. This is a guideline that shouldn’t need to be upheld but sometimes it does. It is important as staff should have a comfortable environment to work so that they can efficiently get on with their work, the last thing an employee needs is having another member of staff on their mind whilst trying to work.
Method’s of distribution and evaluation
There were a few methods of possible distribution, including:-
- posters
- videos
- leaflets
- word of mouth
- lectures/speeches
- E-mail
If I was trying to distribute my customer guidelines I think I would go for a big, bold, eye catching poster. I would want to make them numerous around my gym/leisure centre so that there would be no escaping them. As well as that I would go with Videos, these are virtually inescapable as they can be positioned directly in front of various exercise machines. Leaflets are far too easy for customers to ignore. the majority would screw them up. Word of mouth shows a lack of effort really, very pointless, plus it would be time consuming to go through each customer guideline as well as explaining them. A lecture or speech would be pointless most people don’t have the time or the patience to sit through one. Most people are no it alls and most likely feel they would not have to sit through a customer guidelines speech. E-mails are unreliable I feel, they can easily be regarded as junk mail and are easily ignored. E-mails are not in your face like a poster or a video. When distributing my information that is what I’m looking for a in your face “Escape this if you can” approach. With both videos and posters being used it will be hard for someone to ignore. With the employee guidelines I feel I could only go for a speech a rousing one ala “Gladiator” or an Alex Ferguson speech where I can really hit home and make my employees understand what I am trying to get through to them. Any other method they can just ignore and it will show a lack of conviction from the employer. You can’t beat a face to face conversation to get your point across.
As for my evaluation the only method that I would choose to use is a questionnaire. With a questionnaire you can get straight to the point and ask what questions you feel need to be asked. The responses are gathered in a standardised way, so questionnaires are more objective, certainly more so than just asking people their opinion via talking to them. Generally it is relatively quick to collect information using a questionnaire. However in some situations they can take a long time not only to design but also to apply and analyse. But potentially information can be collected from a large amount of people.
Some other advantages to a question are:-
- Questionnaires are very cost effective when compared to face-to-face interviews. Written questionnaires become even more cost effective as the number of research questions increases.
- Questionnaires are easy to analyse. Data entry and tabulation for nearly all surveys can be easily done with many computer software packages.
- Questionnaires are familiar to most people. Nearly everyone has had some experience completing questionnaires and they generally do not make people apprehensive.
- Questionnaires reduce bias. There is uniform question presentation and no middle-man bias. The researcher's own opinions will not influence the respondent to answer questions in a certain manner. There are no verbal or visual clues to influence the respondent.
- Questionnaires are less intrusive than telephone or face-to-face surveys. When a respondent receives a questionnaire in the mail, he is free to complete the questionnaire on his own time-table. Unlike other research methods, the respondent is not interrupted by the research instrument.
