4 Ways The World Cup Will Affect Your Work As A HR Manager
Are you aware that one of the biggest global sporting event began this week?
Yes, The World Cup and it has an audience of 3.2 billion people.
That’s a lot of people!
And with that, expect some of your employees to be World Cup fans. This will come with its own pros and cons.
You must therefore try and get a balance between your employee happiness while at the same time ensuring that the company’s operations stay normal.
So, how will this tournament impact on your work? Will it be too negative? Will it have any benefits?
Here are 4 ways in which the world cup will affect your work as a HR Manager:
CONS
1. Your employees will call in asking for unnecessary days off
To start us off, you will notice an increase in unnecessary number of absentees and sick off requests as well as leave request.
This will be from employees who love football and are passionate about the sport.
Because they are looking for ways to catch up with the tournament, they will deliberately come up with excuses to skip workdays and watch their favorite teams play!
Will you tolerate absences related to the World Cup? No, of course not.
You will have to treat requests to be absent or late in accordance with your policies and practices.
2. Employees will report late to work and leave early than expected.
Some of your employees will want to catch up with the action that may be happening late in the night or during the early afternoons and the results?
For late in the nights, employees will wake up late for work and probably arrive late at their respective work stations as a result.
For those football actions happening in the early afternoons, some employees will want to sneak out earlier than the stipulated time.
The result will be sleep derived employees who may show up late at their work stations as well as leave earlier. This may lead to poor delivery and poor work performances.
To curb this situation, you will be required to remind them of their targets, your workplace policies and laid down work procedures to be followed.
3. Distractions at work places that may lead to accidents and slowed productivity
Your employees will be thinking of the action in Russia and how to be part of it instead of focusing on the immediate company tasks.
If the games are not easily accessible, some employees will try find ways to watch them.
They may stream it on their smart phones, which can be a distraction that could result in serious workplace injuries to employees who work on manufacturing floors or operate heavy machinery.
Write a memo outlining policies to be followed to prevent accidents and other disruptive activities like live streaming that may lead to a slow internet network.
4. You will experience problems caused by excessive internet use
You know how internet is important in our daily working life.
If there are a lot of people on the network, then there is bound to be slow internet that may disrupt some activities that are heavily dependent Internet.
Imagine If a large number of employees stream a match to their desktops all at the same time, there could be an effect on the employer’s network, as well as on general productivity levels.
You should make clear the policy on internet use, whether or not they decide to relax this in relation to the football as well as keep an eye out for excessive use.
However,
Things will not be that bad as indicated above for you. The Tournament will come with some benefits as well which if carefully weighed then can impact positively on your work.
PROS
1. It will help in boosting the Company Morale and Employee Motivation
Firstly, you are aware of how companies are grappling with creative ways to motivate their employees.
Your employees watching the World Cup at the office will show that the company is geared to creating a ‘feel good’ environment.
This will bring positive energy to work as your employees will feel that they are valued and that is a real motivator.
Compared to employees who are motivated, disengaged workers are less efficient, miss more workdays and cost their employers lost productivity.
Your employees will feel satisfied and likely to deliver on their tasks.
2. The World Cup will enhance Employee Engagement
Secondly, better engagement leads to a better team that has better productivity.
Companies whose employees are engaged perform better than companies whose employees are not by over 200%. When your employees are engaged at work, they will feel a connection with the company.
You have employees who rarely interact dues to work schedules and maybe personality issues. Having such employees mingle with the rest will be a plus and help create better employee engagement.
Your employees will believe that the work they’re doing is important and therefore work harder.
3. A chance to establish Inter Departmental Communication
Thirdly, this could be a good session to brainstorm on those marketing ideas with the marketing team. How often do you mingle in other department’s affairs?
How often do different departments in your company meet? Rarely right? This is an opportunity.
Finance will meet sales here, HR will meet purchasing and maybe Marketing will have a conversation with Production all in a football situation!
Don’t you love that!
4. There will be an Increase in overall Productivity of the business
Lastly, experts have argued that there will be Increased Productivity by the employees and the business as a whole.
This is clear in the face of positive morale, high employee engagement and enhanced communication. Emotions are likely to run high during games, resulting in a more informal and relaxed environment.
These environments are known to enhance employees’ motivation where employees simply want to come to work and deliver.
To sum it up…
There will be issues such as misconduct and absenteeism hence employers need to make sure that employees are aware of the rules in advance before the tournament kicks off.
But I also believe that taking care of your employee’s interests is an effective way to build a motivated team. This will then impact on everything from productivity to retention and recruitment.
So, will you and your team be part of this global event?
Perminus Wainaina is a Certified HR Consultant and the Managing Partner at Corporate Staffing Services where he manages a team of 20 staff. He helps CEOs, executives, and managers solve their biggest HR pains, dysfunctions, and key challenges and turn their teams into a well-oiled machine that contributes dramatically to business success.
Regards,
Perminus Wainaina
CEO & Managing Partner
www.www.www.corporatestaffing.co.ke