The old adage, "healthy body, healthy mind" has a new addendum: "happy employee". At least, that's the view of a growing number of corporate employers. These days, they are not only willing to offer staff-subsidised memberships to fitness centres, but in some cases even build fully-fledged sports facilities on-site so that workers can go for the burn - before returning to their desks.
"Increasingly, what we're seeing is the `whole person' approach," says Conor Hannaway, head of memberships and corporate development at Dublin's Irish Management Institute. "Corporations are realising that if you want people to contribute as a whole person rather than just as a pair of hands, then you have to look after the whole person."
Gyms like Dublin's Iveagh Club, which attract many corporate memberships, are miles away from the sweaty, male-only exercise worlds of the past. With an indoor pool, weights and cardiovascular equipment, a range of fitness classes, a sauna, cafe, and full beauty salon, the Iveagh Club markets to the moneyed business crowd and appeals to women as well.
Of course, it's not as if Irish employers have only just discovered that their employees enjoy access to pools, pitches and rowing machines. Several, particularly semi-state agencies and very large corporations, have had facilities for their workers for years. Guinness, for example, celebrated its bicentenary in 1959 by building its much-used pool, gym and squash courts complex at the brewery. In Crumlin, Guinness also has pitches and a clubhouse at the Iveagh Grounds. Guinness fields teams in a variety of sports, from water polo to GAA and rugby, attracting non-Guinness employees as well.
Guinness recognised that there were benefits to having a wider interest in its employees, says Peter Scott, director of corporate affairs for the company. He points out that in the 1950s, they wouldn't necessarily have been thinking about the connection between health and productivity; "but it would be a consideration at this stage".
Semi-states like the ESB and Aer Lingus/Aer Rianta have some of the largest corporate sports facilities in Ireland. Both have 25 metre pools and extensive gyms, and the Aer Lingus complex near the airport also has a track, and field after field of sports pitches.
Some of the sites are nearly businesses in themselves. The Aer Lingus site, for example, is primarily funded by employee memberships ("The company makes an extremely small contribution per employee," says Declan Conroy, director of public affairs at Aer Lingus) as well as some outside memberships.
Various Aer Lingus sports clubs also lease out their facilities to public groups. The pool is used by a number of swimming clubs for training, for example, and soccer clubs make use of the pitches. A massive softball tournament has taken over the pitches from time to time.
Waterford Crystal also has its own sports complex about a mile down the road from the factory in Waterford. Set on 25 acres of land, the complex has a sports hall, pool, gym, pitches and an 18hole championship pitch and putt course - plus a bar for athletes who believe in the virtue of a carbohydrate diet.
Michael Evans, who manages the facility, says the company promotes the facility to employees - "there would be an idea behind it of general health" - and adds that they try to tailor some of their classes and programmes to suit employees. However, they are also open to the public. Indeed, at the moment, the Waterford Crystal pool is the only "public" pool in the city.
While all of these sites cater for employees, they reflect a "recreation" approach to fitness - the facilities were built many years ago and tend to be focused not just towards the employee but their entire families and, often, the general public.
More recently, the trend has been to offer private on-site facilities to employees only, or individual memberships to upmarket gyms. Fitness is seen to bring benefits not just to employees but also to employers - so much so that some employers don't mind if employees take a mid-shift break to lift weights or do step aerobics.
It's an attitude imported from California, where the high technology industry in Silicon Valley needs to lure a well-paid, collegeeducated workforce and then try to retain them in the face of steep competition.
Technology companies famously use a very low-key approach to the work environment - casual clothes, no time clocks, free sodas, snacks, and espressos - and onsite sports facilities. With many first-time employees in hi-tech industries coming straight from colleges with extensive gyms, and given the general interest in working out, the on-site gym seemed an obvious option for management.
Californian technology companies are spearheading the infiltration of an employee gym culture into Ireland, as well. Computer chip manufacturer Intel is leading the pack with its own recreation centre, open 16 hours a day. Across the road, Hewlett-Packard has a gym and two fitness consultants. H-P has a corporate policy promoting "work/life harmony", notes transplanted Californian Patty Killen, H-P's organisational development manager.
"Fitness contributes to lower stress levels, which means a more productive, more creative person" she says. Database company Oracle's Dublin call centre also has a small but well-stocked gym. Peter Scott, managing director of the direct marketing division, met some resistance when he insisted on adding it to the building plans "because it takes up space", but he won out in the end.
Fitness, he argued, benefits employees. "A, they're sharper and B, their endurance is better," he says. He doesn't mind if employees take a mid-shift break to pump iron. "I encourage people to take a break, from a psychological perspective."
Tim Harris, an account manager at Oracle, uses the gym every day. "I'm normally in there for about an hour. I do a warm-up on the bikes, and then work out on weights, a different body part each week," he says. "It's a stress reliever. When I come out of the gym, I always feel much more positive and relaxed."
But it's not all a Silicon Valley prerogative. Bank of Ireland has recently decided to promote employee sports and fitness in a high-profile way, hiring the Irish golfer Mary McKenna to head up its sports and social activities section. They subsidise fitness club memberships and also have their own facilities. "They have an understanding of the importance of sport for people," she says. The banks also have a great tradition of inter-bank sport competition, she adds, and she spends many weekends away at anything from soccer to fly-fishing competitions. "Obviously, a healthy body is a healthy mind," she says. "You're going to get a better worker."