The World Cup! 4 ways to manage sporting events in the workplace
While big sporting events are, for many, exciting and create a sense of anticipation and optimism, they can become a big headache for employers. Is anyone working today? Where has everyone gone?
Rather than getting to the event and becoming stressed and frustrated, with requests or sudden absence, if you prepare in advance, you can embrace the period with ease and confidence that your staff are engaged and productive.
The Russia 2018 football World Cup runs from 14th June and ends on 14th July and while England may or may not, be in it for the duration, you may have staff supporting different teams or others committed to watching the whole thing. Creating a set of guidelines upfront will ensure everyone is aware of the rules during this time, particularly as many of the games kick off during normal working hours.
You will need to tell staff members what you expect from them to minimise disruption.
Creating a sporting events policy or a memo to send out to staff prior to the event will ensure that every employee is treated fairly with the same opportunities to watch, or not watch, the games. Decide whether you are wanting to lay down that this will be a business as usual time, whether you will be approving holiday requests via your usual process. Other options could include whether you will consider flexibility in start and end times, changing days to accommodate people who would like to watch the games or even just moving and extending some break times, therefore possibly avoiding serious misconduct and unauthorised absence.
Here are 4 areas to consider when deciding on your approach to big sporting events.
Set clear and written expectations.
This allows for a fair approach, applicable to all. Not everyone will be interested in the football and they may complain about this as ‘special treatment’, however you can remind them these are not permanent changes to any contracts, but any adjustments are only for a temporary period. You may allow them to take advantage of requests for flexibility in this period as well for other reasons.
However, for business reasons you may not be able to accommodate flexible working at all and if this is the case, it may help to explain the business reasons for this and avoid the questions and requests from the start. If you are able to consider some flexible working, but this will depend on the volume of requests, you may need to set out a ‘first come first served approach’ for both flexible working and annual leave requests, the key is to explain and discuss to come to an agreement. In your communications you may want to warn employees that absence during the tournament will be closely monitored and any unauthorised absence or sickness which you have a reason to believe is not genuine, is likely to lead to investigation under the absence policy. Return to work interviews will be a very useful tool for managers as employees are less likely to feign illness if they know they will need to justify their absence and discuss it on their return.
Flexibility
So why would you introduce flexibility during events? Flexibility as an approach can be used as a strategic tool to improve performance and productivity, with many benefits for businesses, both direct and indirect. Offering these options before the event can help to avoid increased sickness absence, unauthorised absence with staff disappearing or meetings booked at ‘convenient times’ and reduced performance ... therefore some flexibility with the employer supporting employee interests during this time could help actually boost morale and ensure that the work continues to get done around the matches.
This will be key to maintaining and productive business and engaged workforce.
Research shows that giving a little to the employees in how and when they can do some of their work, provide huge indirect return through the psychological contract and contributing to creating a culture of trust. Studies have shown benefits can include employees becoming more emotionally engaged, motivated, more satisfied with their work and more likely to speak positively about their organisation, as well as less likely to quit (CIPD). Increasing talent attraction, recruiting the right people for your roles as well as retention of your talent and reducing the costs associated with turnover. A win win, especially as happy staff lead to happy customers with evidence of improved customer service and increased customer loyalty.
Embrace the shared experience
Team-building and creating trust are all about creating shared experiences, subject to the nature of your business and staffing arrangements, as well as how the teams are performing, you may consider showing some matches on televisions at work or allowing those who are interested to have earphones in, while listening to games. Alternatively, arranging scheduled breaks during day time matches in communal areas (or even leaving the building when you don’t have that space, subject to your business needs and customer service) can be an opportunity for team events and time out together.
Creating your policy
What to cover in your policy; you will want to cover your view on watching matches, annual leave requests, who can approve leave and attendance or whether employees when leaving early will be required to make up time or have unpaid leave. Also, to ensure you cover your approach to fairness and banter and reconfirm that any offensive comments or behaviour when discussing national rivalries will constitute harassment or unlawful discrimination and will be addressed as a disciplinary matter. Reference your absence and disciplinary policies where appropriate as well as your IT and internet policies for personal website usage and social media policy. If you have a statement on no alcohol at work, you may want to include it here.
It can be helpful to talk to staff as you are doing this, by working together both employers and employees will understand the needs of either party. Getting your policy in place and ready now and making agreements will only help to save time and improve the process each time there is a big event on, whether it be the Olympics, Rugby World Cup, Football World Cup or Wimbledon. For a sample policy, or support getting yours tailored to your business, get in touch today.
