Whether you’re an office manager at a marketing agency or, like the LNZ team, hard at work in one of the UK’s Direct Debit collection companies – there’s one global event we’re willing to bet is having an impact on your workplace’s productivity this summer…
The World Cup is a huge event and one which sends British fans sprinting to the nearest big screen every 90 minutes. This summer of sport is certainly great entertainment, but it’s also thought to be a huge productivity drain. Factoring in absenteeism, hours lost at work checking scores, early home times and hungover mornings, the event is thought to cost the UK £4bn every four years.
England may be long out of the running, but if you’re keen to keep employees on seats and attention where it should be (especially with the quarterfinals coming up), it may be time to get simultaneously tough and flexible with your team. Here are some ideas you can implement which could help keep your workplace firing on all cylinders…
1. Extend flexible working hours for your whole team
It may be a privilege you only extend to working parents and team members with special considerations, but for the World Cup only, consider extending flexible working to your whole team.
If they were considering “pulling a sickie” or taking leave to catch Argentina V Switzerland, the option to work flexibly around the game could encourage them to show up earlier or come back later instead of calling in “sick”. This can even boost productivity as your flexibility makes your team want to work hard in return.
Remember to keep a close eye on workloads and hours logged to make sure nobody’s taking the biscuit and to ensure that anyone not accounting for the full working week is spoken to.
2. Show games in the office
If you have the space and the facilities, why not give your employees the option to watch games at work (particularly those broadcast at 5 pm GMT). Not only does this mean they won’t need to shoot off early to catch the match, it’s also a good excuse to stop your team hitting the pub which can then cut down on hangovers and sick days! If you want to get your team on board, we recommend laying on snacks.
3. Display and update a wall chart
This might seem like it encourages distraction, but keeping scores and schedules up to date and on display could prevent the endless Googling that goes on as employees search for upcoming matches and get distracted by fun football content in the process…It’s also a good way to breed goodwill, which in turn can increase productivity.
Are your employees football addicts? Is your workplace experiencing a drop in productivity? Do you show matches at work? Share your experiences and tips with our readers below…
