Who will ever forget the buzz, the excitement, the energy and the sheer joy created by the 2012 London Olympics!
So with the 2016 Rio Olympics fast approaching, what can employers do to manage the engagement of their staff during this period? Here are a few questions you might like to consider over the next few days:
1. Would it be better for your business to enable staff to engage with the games while they’re working, or risk staff “throwing a sickie” or watching events covertly?
2. Because of the time difference the Games will be showing live on UK TV after 1pm so could you make arrangements for staff to work earlier and finish at lunchtime on days when they want to watch a particular event? Or allow more flexible working so that staff can compete their work on days when there is less sporting activity taking place? Or take their breaks to coincide with key events?
3. Not all of your staff will be interested in the Games, so make sure that whatever arrangements you make are fair to everyone. If you end up with certain members of staff taking on more of the workload through this period of time, how can you compensate or reward them for that?
4. The Games are about international friendship, so if you employ staff from other countries how can you engage them too? It’s not only about celebrating the successes of Team GB.
5. How can you use the Games to recreate that energy and buzz in your business? How can you make it fun for people to come to work during this period? Can you create a party atmosphere?
6. How can you involve your customers in the fun? They are just as likely to be interested as you staff are?
Remember it’s only a few days (5th-21st August) so if productivity is down for those few days due to late nights, is it the end of the world? Especially if you can capture the energy of the Games to lift morale no productivity afterwards.
I appreciate that not all of these ideas are going to be practical for all businesses, but hope that you can make the 2016 Rio Games into a positive experience in your business.
ACAS have issued some useful advice on this topic which covers a few other issues that you may need to consider http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=5794
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