March 12, 1:24 pm
March Madness will cost employers $1.8 Billion. So what?
Earlier today I was contacted by a newspaper asking my thoughts on a report by the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas stating that March Madness was going to cost companies $1.8 Billion due to time wasted at work as employees focused on the games. Here were my thoughts:
In the big picture, the estimated $1.8 billion loss from activities surrounding March Madness sounds large, but comparatively, companies lose more than 60 times that each year from mismanaging poor performers. Rather than squash people’s excitement about life events outside the workplace, why not invest in training managers how to be better managers so performance is boosted year ’round? It would be exponentially more profitable than trying to squash people’s excitement during March.
A February, 2010 poll shows that 65 percent of workplaces organize office pools for the Super Bowl, and 57 percent do the same for March Madness. Does it affect production? No doubt, but only in the short term. I would challenge Challenger, Gray, and Christmas Inc. to do further research on the higher levels of production resulting from an increased sense of teamwork among employees who rally around March Madness activities.
Companies that try to stop people from doing things that build esprit de corps are asking for trouble. They may gain short term compliance, but they lose long-term commitment. In the bigger scheme of things, I think limiting employee involvement in things like the Super Bowl and March Madness is a bad idea.
If a company wants to get creative they could find a way to capitalize on the event, such as throwing a March Madness office party as a reward for meeting production numbers.
Filed in Training, Motivation, Management, Team Building, Workplace, Corporate Culture
Great post Dan! There are always two sides to every media headline and I’m glad you brought attention to this one. I’ve shared your post with my readers in my weekly Rainmaker ‘Fab Five’ blog picks of the week (found here: http://www.maximizepossibility.com/employee_retention/2010/03/the-rainmaker-fab-five-blog-picks-of-the-week-1.html) to help them put things in perspective as we head into March Madness.
Be well!
Chris Young