Your company is ready to open an employee fitness center with on-site aerobics classes, swimming pool, and weight machines. The center will be open 6 AM to 10 PM daily;

a qualified instructor will be on duty at all times. Employees get first preference; if there is extra room, spouses and children may also use the facilities. Locker rooms and showers will be available.

Your company hopes that the fitness center will help out-of-shape employees get the exercise they need to be more productive. Other companies have gained as many as 762 workdays from shorter hospital stays by fitness center members. People who exercise have medical bills that are 35% lower than people who do not get enough exercise.

Write the memo announcing the center. Hints:

• Who pays the medical insurance for employees? If the employer pays, then savings from health- ier employees will pay for the center. If another payment plan is in effect, you'll need a different explanation for the company's decision to open the fitness center.

• Stress benefits apart from the company's saving money. How. can easier access to exercise help employees? What do they do? How can exercise reduce stress, improve strength, and increase their productivity at work?

• What kind of record does the company have of helping employees be healthy? Is the fitness cen- ter a new departure for the company, or does the company have a history of company sports teams, stop-smoking clinics, and the like?

• What is the company's competitive position? If the company is struggling, you'll need to con- vince readers that the fitness center is a good use of scarce funds. If the company is doing well, show how having fit employees can make peo- ple even more productive.

• Stress fun as a benefit. How can access to the center make employees' lives more enjoyable?