Walking into The Bank of Bermuda's new state-of-the-art gym in the basement of its headquarters in Front Street, the first words that greet you are "commit to be fit".

And that gives you a pretty good impression of just how dedicated the bank is to getting its staff healthy.

For, not only does the bank offer its employees the use of the gym facilities, including weights and cardio-vascular equipment, and exercise classes, but it also puts on a range of well being programmes and advice on such things as nutrition to preventative medicine.

The bank used to have a small gym located at its offices in Compass Point before someone came up with the bright idea of turning a storage area in the basement of its main offices into a brand new gym.

Work on plans for the gym started in earnest about 15 months ago, culminating in the official opening of its doors in September 2007.

Nigel Crow, chief financial officer of the Bank of Bermuda, was actively involved as a sponsor in instigating the set up of the gym alongside the company's corporate health manager Julie Harrington, who runs the overall scheme.

"It has worked really well," said Mr. Crow. "Why I am the sponsor is because the organisation really wants to promote a healthy lifestyle for its employees. Many staff have said it is really nice that this is sponsored from the top of the organisation.

"The scheme kicked off with an imaginatively-titled weight loss competition called 'The Biggest Winner', a more positive-sounding alternative to the popular TV series 'The Biggest Loser', according to Mr. Crow.

The idea was for 350 employees to go head-to-head over a three-month period to see who could shed the most pounds, with 292 of them successfully completing the contest, losing a total of 1,676 pounds between them.

In addition, the Bank of Bermuda Foundation donated $5 for every pound shed to charity, amounting to $8,380, with the bank itself not only matching that figure, but rounding the total up to $18,000, which was split equally three ways between Open Airways Bermuda, Bermuda Heart Foundation and Bermuda Diabetes Association.

Since then the bank has been running a programme called 'Scaling Down', from June to December last year, aimed at getting its larger members with a Body Mass Index (BMI) over a certain level to lose weight via exercise classes and nutritional tips and advice.

'The Biggest Winner' contest was relaunched in 2008 much to popular acclaim, with a different twist to it this time round, as 387 staff were divided into four groups and have to compete against people of similar a BMI.

Exercise classes are also held regularly in the morning, at lunchtime and in the evening, with everything from body sculpting to pilates, yoga and even kick-boxing available, as well as between one to three personal trainers on site at all times.

There is also an opportunity to get a breath of fresh air outside of the gym, with walks organised for health conscious employees around Clearwater Bay, the Botanical Gardens and Horseshoe Bay on Saturday mornings.

"My primary focus and job here at the bank is to encourage the staff to become more conscious of their own state of health and to look at how they take care of themselves," said Ms. Harrington, who also produces a newsletter entitled 'HealthCent' focused on employees' health and well being.

"We do a health risk assessment here at the bank and encourage all staff to participate in it and give them a snap shot of their health and where problems might lie and how they can address them."

Other initiatives include a HealthFair where bank members are encouraged to take blood tests and there was a staff forum held in December offering them the chance to have their blood sugar levels read.

"It is obviously good for the individual and its is good to be a good corporate citizen and it is one of those rare situations where everyone wins," said Mr. Crow.

"There are about 430 people involved in these various initiatives, but more like 600 in the organisation that are very conscious that we are aware of their health as a main issue.

"We find that if the staff are healthier due to us running these sorts of things, staff morale also increases and they actually meet people that they might not have necessarily have met through doing this."

At $45 per month for gym membership, which comes out of staff's salaries, and the use of the facilities seven days a week between 6am and 10pm, the Bank of Bermuda's health and well being scheme seems to be not only good value for money, but also a good way to keep fit and enjoy yourself at the same time.