Last night, the Irish owned Aura Holohan Group were officially ranked in the Great Places To Work ‘Top 30 Best Workplaces’ for the fourth year in a row and are the only company in the Health and Fitness sector to make the list. As one of the smaller companies in the category, the group have come in strong at number 22, against some of the biggest multi-national companies in the world including the likes of Salesforce, Indeed and Workhuman.
Pictured – Back: Caroline Hendrick, Tina Kilbride, Mary Horgan, Niamh Holohan, Gar Holohan, Monica Zemaityte, Ruth Geraghty, Kate Howard, Monica McGuirk, Josephine Pepper,
Front: George Robinson, Kelly Connor, Derek Anderson, Aine Temple
This is a remarkable achievement, as unlike the majority of other companies in the listing, the group operates in a low-margin business, so don’t have the big budgets to invest in luxury benefits for employees for which the high-tech multinationals are renowned. But what they do have is an unrivalled commitment and dedicated initiatives to helping their staff develop and excel at being the best version of themselves. The majority of the staff work in the front-line interacting with customers face to face every day to drive the company’s vision of ‘a healthier and happier Ireland’. Executive Chairman of the Group Gar Holohan said, ‘’We focus on promoting our culture of trust, collaboration and camaraderie. Our success is down to the huge passion and dedication to implementing Aura’s values and vision throughout the organisation.’’
The Aura Holohan team were presented with the award at the annual Great Place to Work Best Workplaces in Ireland Awards at the Clayton Hotel on Burlington Road, Dublin on Wednesday 26th of February 2020. Great Place to Work Ireland assess all companies through a robust ‘Trust Index©’ employee survey, and a thorough ‘Culture Audit’ assessment of their policies and practices and their approach to managing & engaging their people.
Speaking at the event on Wednesday, Gar Holohan, Executive Chairman of the Aura Holohan Group commented…. ‘Our USP is our people. You cannot have engaged and loyal customers if you don’t have engaged and loyal staff. We are on a mission to tackle obesity in Ireland and to help people live healthier and happier lives, and we are very fortunate to have attracted a team of people who are passionate ambassadors for this mission. That is why we put a huge amount of our resources into focusing on enabling our teams to make it a ‘Great Place to Work’, which in turns makes it a great place to be for our customers on their health journey.’
The Aura Holohan Group is one of the largest employers in the Irish leisure sector. The brands within the Group include 10 Aura Leisure Centres and 4 Anytime Fitness Clubs nationwide, as well as DKIT Sport in Dundalk and the Support Office in Dublin where they also operate Holohan Leisure Consultancy. The group is Ireland’s foremost specialist in the management of sports & leisure facilities, focusing on quality award winning services across all operations.
Some of the unique initiatives that set the Aura Holohan Group Apart include their:
- Aspire Talent Development Programme, which gives employees unrivalled access to training, development and further career opportunities. This allows employees to upskill to have the opportunity to work in multirole positions and also develop their Leadership potential.
- Access to the Aura Training Academy and Aura Fitness Academy which offers opportunities to certify to the highest industry standards in a range of industry practices.
- GEM Awards programme and Nominate 2 Celebrate programme, acknowledging those who ‘go the extra mile’ which are nominated by their colleagues and customers.
The groups mission is ‘to improve the health and wellbeing of our communities through exercise, sport and active lifestyles’, and vision is to create ‘a healthier and happier Ireland’. The group is constantly seeking people who want to join their mission and align with their vision and values and have a number of job opportunities available.