East Dunbartonshire Leisure and Culture Trust has partnered with CoverMe to support its expanding group fitness programme

Enjoying record demand for group exercise, East Dunbartonshire Leisure and Culture Trust has adopted CoverMe to optimise its self-employed instructor team to deliver in excess of 300 group exercise classes a week.

The trust has gone live with the workforce operating system to improve operational efficiency, reduce class cancellations and enhance the member experience across its growing group exercise programme.

Delivering group fitness classes across three leisure centres and a Community SportsHub, the trust needed a more automated and reliable way of managing instructor cover as demand for group exercise continues to grow.

Thriving group exercise programme

“Group exercise is thriving and we see strong demand across all genres,” says Julie Forrest, health and fitness adviser at the trust. “Our manual systems were no longer fit for purpose and it felt as though we were constantly firefighting, trying to manage instructor cover through spreadsheets, long email lists and multiple WhatsApp groups.”

Operations at the trust’s flagship Allander Leisure Centre highlight the scale of the challenge. The £42.5 million facility has seen more than a 50 per cent increase in usage since its launch in 2023 and its three exercise studios run with a full schedule on a daily basis.

“We particularly need more instructors for our Les Mills BodyCombat and BodyPump classes,” Forrest says. “Even with months of notice, finding cover for these classes can be challenging, meaning we’ve sometimes had to run virtual sessions or change the class type altogether.”

While the trust hasn’t experienced high levels of class cancellations, ensuring consistency is a priority, says operations manager, Fraser Makeham: “It’s all about the customer experience. Even a small number of cancellations and timetable disruptions can disappoint members and we know that if people are disappointed, they may look elsewhere. CoverMe allows us to fill gaps much more quickly and reduce cancellations and class changes over time.”

Tapping the network

CoverMe’s network of fitness professionals will also help the trust to tap into a wider pool of instructors working across the region. Looking ahead, the team can use the platform’s insights to identify gaps in instructor availability by site and by class type, helping to build strong substitute benches, recruit for targeted roles and host instructor open and audition days when needed.

Compliance was another important consideration for the trust. “Ensuring our self-employed instructors were appropriately qualified, insured and keeping their training up to date was extremely time-consuming. CoverMe now takes care of all of that for us,” says Forrest.