In a general context of growing lack of motivation at work, a Basque company has implemented a surprising measure aimed at motivating its employees, improving the work environment and, they say, also promoting an improvement in the physical and mental health of workers. The company RK Informatika, based in the Biscayan town of Gernika, has opted to pay the gym fee to the entire staff and to gather its workers around a CrossFit group every midday.
Between pull-ups, squats and burpees, from the managers of this computer company to the salespeople, they meet every day at lunchtime in the box at the Crossfit Gernika gym to practice this demanding sporting discipline. Around 80% of the company’s around 30 workers have accepted the challenge posed by management, who could not be more satisfied with the results they see.
The idea arose from the company’s management itself, after John Pollock and Gontzal Uriarte, the owners of the company, became interested in CrossFit. “We saw the results firsthand, at the level of mental state, motivation and physical health. We thought we could offer it at the company level to also see those results among the workers and in the company itself,” explains Pollock.
Those initial expectations have been met, according to this businessman of Australian origin who has lived in the Basque Country for a quarter of a century. “We did not have a problem of demotivation or absenteeism. We simply thought it could be a positive measure, and so it has been. Casualties have been reduced, performance has improved and, above all, the climate in the company is even better,” he adds.
In recent years, the company has experienced very significant growth that has led it to multiply its staff by five, after focusing its activity on the development of management software after years focused on computer maintenance. Most of its workers are new and cohesion in the company was limited until a few months ago, so the context was conducive for an initiative of this type to take off.
It is in this section where they have most clearly perceived the benefits of this commitment to sport in the workplace, according to Damin Abdelhadi Mulay, the company’s sales representative. “The relationship between some departments was minimal, and the union it has generated is incredible. It’s not just that we notice a mental and physical change, that we perceive it. Above all, we observe that at work there is much more unity,” he concludes.
