The gap between a benefit that reaches 30 percent of employees and one that reaches 70 percent is almost never the budget. It is the first month. This article is the launch plan we recommend, based on what separates our clients with high participation from those with low.

Before launch

• Ask FitKit for the list of locations around each of your offices, by category. Employees decide in the first ten seconds whether this is usable, and the answer is geographic.
• Do not launch in August or late December. Both months suppress the first visit, and an employee who does not use the benefit in month one usually does not start later.
• Set the allowance above the floor of about four visits a month. Below that the launch fails regardless of how well you communicate it.
• Do not restrict categories at launch. Restrictions can be added later, but a narrow launch teaches half your staff that the benefit is not for them.
• Name one internal owner. Benefits without an owner are announced once and then forgotten.

Week 1: announce it properly

One email is not a launch. The announcement should tell employees five things, in this order:

1. What they get, in visits rather than credits. "About eight visits a month" lands, "30 credits" does not.
2. What it costs them. If the company funds it, say clearly that it is free for them.
3. Three named locations near their office, not a link to a network map.
4. That it covers more than gyms. Name massage, mental health and nutrition explicitly.
5. How to register, in two steps.

Pair the email with wherever your people actually read things, whether that is a team meeting, a chat channel or a poster in the kitchen.

Week 2: close the registration gap

Ask FitKit who has registered. The internal owner follows up personally with those who have not. A short message from a colleague converts better than a second company wide email.

We can also run a 15 minute live session for your employees, in their language, where they register during the call. This is the single highest impact thing we do at launch.

Week 3: close the first visit gap

Registration is not usage. Most drop off happens between creating an account and the first booking.

This is the week to push the non gym categories, because that is how you reach the half of your staff who were never going to book a gym. A message about a massage or a nutrition consultation reaches people that a fitness message does not.

Week 4: measure, then fix

Ask for the five figures: enrolled, ever activated, active this month, credits allocated versus spent, and top categories and locations.

Read them as two separate problems. A large gap between enrolled and activated is a communication problem. A large gap between activated and active is either an allowance problem or a network problem, and the top locations report tells you which.

Keep it running

• Add FitKit registration to your standard onboarding pack so new joiners are covered automatically.
• Send one short reminder a month, ideally naming a new location or category.
• Collect location requests from employees and pass them to us. A requested partner is the fastest way to lift usage in one office.

We provide launch materials in Macedonian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Slovenian, Greek and English, including the announcement text, a one page employee guide and the registration walkthrough. Ask FitKit and we will adapt them to your company before your launch date.