ukactive has launched a business performance benchmarking tool for gyms and leisure centres, enabling them to compare how their facility is performing against the industry average and rival establishments.

To be intitially based on five metrics – total membership, attrition rate, joiner rate, membership yield and average length of membership – the move chimes with ukactive CEO David Stalker’s call in the 2014 Health Club Handbook for industry strategy to become more evidence-based, a theme he returned to in a recent interview for Sport Management magazine.

There have been several previous attempts to launch benchmarking schemes, without anyone finding the perfect formula. As a result, ukactive has partnered with auditing and consultancy firm Mazars since 2011 in consulting gyms and leisure centres on how to ensure the tool will be most effective.

The overall aim of ukactive and delivery partners Mazars is to enable decision makers to measure their business against the marketplace and use the knowledge to enhance performance.

“Benchmarking is crucial for the success of any customer-focused business but in our sector, gyms and leisure centres have had no means of doing so until now,” said Stalker.

“The increased competition and diversity in the marketplace from low cost gyms and tightening local authority budgets makes this project more timely than ever.

“The long-term sustainability of our industry is dependent on having this level of insight to inform strategy, improve delivery and identify new avenues for growth.”

Available to all ukactive members – from high-end fitness chains to local authority facilities and leisure trusts – the benchmarking tool enables users to view the impact of seasonal trends on activity levels, receive detailed information on market share and build a historic database of activity to monitor patterns and progress.

The software is configured to ensure that only the data owner can view the information uploaded, while other users can view competitor data in a non-identifiable capacity. Third party data management partners are also able to submit data on behalf of numerous clients.

To date, the cost has been covered by a grant towards the early development of the tool, gratis expertise supplied by Mazars and a considerable time investment by ukactive staff," says Stalker.

Participating gyms and leisure centres will have until 10 May to submit their data.