Using March Madness to Improve Employee Morale  |
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 It's that magical time of the year for basketball fans. That's right it's time once again for March Madness! During the next three weeks offices and workplaces around the country will be abuzz with the latest news and information about the big tournament and high hopes will be set for alma maters participating in the big dance.All this excitement brings with it office pools and wagers placed by workers who try to predict how the 64 team tournament will pan out. Not surprisingly all this extra-curricular office activity will have an impact on productivity: a 1.2 billion dollar loss in American productivity to be exact. Stop! Before you rush to send out a scorching e-mail to everyone in the office warning of the repercussions for office gambling and using company time to get in on the March Madness fever you should know that there is an upside. Office pools and all that chatter about college basketball can actually encourage camaraderie and help to boost employee morale in your organization. The key is getting March Madness to work for your organization and its team members. Try as you may, but it is highly improbable that anybody can stop the March Madness bug from going around the workplace. It is inevitable that somebody will be filling out tournament brackets during work hours. Sure monitoring worker's online activities and threatening termination for anyone participating in office pools or online tournament brackets is one option to ensuring your organization stays productive during the coming weeks. However think of the time and effort this would take to enforce, the high costs of employee turnover associated with terminating those who break the rules and recruiting new team members to take their place, not to mention the devastating effects this could have on organizational morale. Perhaps there is a better solution. Given the strong correlation between employee morale/satisfaction and levels of production, customer satisfaction, and firm revenues it might be advisable that you actually embrace the phenomena that is March Madness and sponsor an event within your organization. This approach to dealing with the distractions of March Madness can have a number of benefits for your organization. First off formally sponsoring a March Madness event or tournament poll allows managers to control the college basketball tournament on their terms. Consider using any number of sports sites such as Yahoo! Sports or ESPN to host the tournament bracket for you. This can eliminate much of the time an ambitious employee might spend setting up a bracket on paper and printing it off for others to fill out. Another main advantage of controlling the office pool is that one can place the kibosh on any illegal office gambling. While rarely enforced, gambling in the workplace is illegal in most instances and could pose a potential liability to companies that knowingly allow it to take place. Instead consider offering a small prize such as a college sweater, or free round of golf to the winner or top placers in the office pool. Better yet customize the prize to those receiving it and truly show you care about his or her personal interests. Another benefit to sponsoring a March Madness pool in your office is that it allows managers to better control the amount of time team members spend on the big tournament. Having a scheduled break time for 15 minutes twice a week to get together and discuss the tournament pool and how everyone's favorite team is doing is a great way to minimize excess time talking about the tournament. Most organization allow for a 15 minute break in the morning and afternoon that this get-together could easily take the place of. Think about it - instead of huddling around the water cooler complaining about workplace issues or gossiping about other team members, employees will be encouraged to set aside their workplace dissatisfactions and take a fresh breath of March Madness air. In the process team members will get to know each other as they talk about where they went to college, who their favorite teams are, or who the next Michael Jordan or Lebron James is going to be. Thanks to this scheduled March Madness break time team members may begin to forge new friendships which can lead to greater collaboration on projects and assignments. Camaraderie can play a huge part in the effort toretain employees . It has often been said that people leave people, not jobs. If workers feel a bond or connection with their fellow team members they will be less likely to feel discontent with their job and will be encouraged to stick around longer. Any loss in productivity because of March Madness could well be countered by the effects that this newfound camaraderie can have on the efforts to retain employees. Another thought of how to incorporate March Madness into your organization without killing levels of production while raising employee morale is to designate a day (Fridays work great!) where team members are encouraged wear ties or sweatshirts supporting their favorite school in the tournament. A great addition to this day could be a pot luck lunch where team members share some of their favorite arena foods with fellow team members. What this all boils down to is Employee Morale at your organization. Everything discussed above can have an incredible impact on the level of employee morale within your organization. High levels of employee morale have countless benefits including increased employee retention levels, reduced turnover costs, higher levels of productivity, and most importantly increased sales and profits. It should be no surprise that happy employees stay in their jobs longer, produce more, and drive revenue growth. There is no secret formula to high levels of morale buried somewhere in a desolate desert. Rather it is often the little things that management does that say, "work can be fun" or, "this is a great place to work". March Madness is just one example. Avoid the temptation to scorn the big dance as these efforts will probably be ill received and ineffective at best. Instead embrace what makes March Madness great - the camaraderie it encourages between people of all backgrounds. I will bet that any lost production will soon be recouped by the positive benefits associated with improved employee morale. More great information on: Employee Retention Strategies Employee Selection Solutions Human Capital Development Motivating Employees Rewarding Employees At The Rainmaker Group we are dedicated to helping your organization to create an organizational culture that breeds and encourages high levels of employee morale. The benefits of high employee morale are just too powerful to ignore. Give us a shout today and start maximizing possibility in your organization! 1-866-988-RAIN   Additional Information and Resources: |
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