As March Madness gets ready for the first tip-off, employers will be challenged to turn the hoops event from a time of low productivity in a high morale boosting competition.
Randstad, one of the human capital industry’s most insightful pollsters, suggests embracing March Madness. They cite studies showing the connection between happy employees and productivity levels. In some cases, employees will be connected to other employees as they interact when their employer uses the games as a vehicle to boost morale.
Sponsor a March Madness Tournament.
One option is to host a company tournament on one of the many websites, such as Yahoo!, offering free bracket hosting. This eliminates individual employees from calculating results. These same sites have been successful in fantasy leagues for football so they have developed great systems for keeping it exciting without draining your productivity.
Dress down
Randstad calls this take-off of Casual Friday “Spirit for Charity”. Employers such as Oakland County Government have been successfully using the concept for many years. County employees break the dress code by donating a dollar, which is then donated to charity.
In the Randstad version, employees donate to charity to wear the clothing of their favorite team on game day. It will build camaraderie as employees see others supporting their favorite teams, often from different departments. This strikes up friendships.
Competition
Another great way to work March Madness into the workplace in a positive way is to “set up a work productivity contest to mimic March Madness,” says Abigail Tremble, Randstad’s Director of Learning and Development.
She suggests a company sets up productivity goals with a central March Madness theme. “For example, she says, “regional based sales teams could be set up to compete with each other in a series of elimination rounds based on the best sales results. Each team could select their favorite college team and wear their teams colors or jerseys on competition days. Teams could narrow down to the ‘final four’ and then compete for the company ‘championship.’ The winner of the championship could receive a trophy that looks eerily similar to that in the NCAA.”
Summary
Whatever you choose to do for March Madness, start it with a kick-off event such as a team meeting or luncheon. Be creative and weaver the basketball theme into your kick-off event.
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