Summer of Sport
This summer is set to be one full of sport including:
⚽️ Euro 2024 Football
🎾 Wimbledon
🏃🏽♂️ Olympics Games 2024
🏊🏻 Paralympic Games.
🏏 Cricket T20 World Cup
🚴🏾♂️ Tour de France
It is all set to kick off (no pun intended) on14th June with 24 nations taking part and many football fans will be on the edge of their seats to find out who will win. Then there is Wimbledon (hopefully the sun will have returned by then) followed by The Olympics and Paralympics.
According to Broadcast Magazine there has been a sharp increase in sports viewing post-pandemic and it is likely you have at least a few fans wanting to watch matches, games and events some of which may take place during working hours
This may then present some challenges when it comes to managing your employees especially if you do not have a Sporting Events policy to refer to.
Below are some tips that may help:
Make the events enjoyable:
Celebrate each event, set up a football sweepstake, a lunchtime olympics or run a quiz. Any event that can bring your employees together and boost engagement is good for your business and your employees.
What options are available to employees if they want to watch an event?
Use the events as a way of developing a greater sense of morale and camaraderie. Attendance at work can be encouraged by holding themed events, such as fancy dress, food, or lunch-time games, and live notification of results.
If you are able to show events during work, allow employees to take their breaks so they can watch specific games/events, or you could allow employees to work at different times in order to see their favourite team/athlete/player. This is an option I have seen work well over the years.
Remember not all employees will want to watch and may want to take annual leave for different reasons, so processes over the duration of the tournament must be applied fairly.
How to Manage Absence?
For employees wanting time off, remind them of how much notice they need to provide and how requests will be managed to ensure it is fair for everyone.
You may want to consider limiting the number of days off each employee can take to watch events to ensure the business can still operate but that everyone that wants to, can take time off.
You should have an absence management policy already in place so any unauthorised absence (due to overindulging when watching a match or celebrating a win, or calling in sick to watch a match) should be dealt with in the normal way.
Your absence policy should detail how your employees should report an absence and it should also have a trigger to highlight excessive time off.
How to manage employee behaviour?
The vast majority of your employees will get into the spirit of these sporting events with no issues but there may be times when passion runs a bit high resulting in poor behaviour.
Sport can bring out lots of passion but this needs to be demonstrated respectfully. The office should always be a safe and welcoming environment for all.
Be clear on your alcohol policy especially if you have employees returning to work after lunch when they have been watching an event.
Make sure your employees are aware of your expectations and that they are responsible for their behaviour.
Offensive language should never be being used or tolerated and outline the possible consequences if poor behaviour is reported.
To avoid the potential for discrimination or harassment, remind your employees that the office should remain free from banter that could qualify as harassment or discrimination,
If you need any support lets chat.
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