Case study: An alternate approach to March Madness
A billion dollars — that’s how much March Madness could cost companies in productivity every hour this year. But not every employer is running scared of college basketball.
The ol’ March Madness scare statistics
Somewhere between 50 million and 100 million Americans will be spending their workdays updating brackets, checking scores and following or watching games during the annual college basketball tournament, according to Challenger & Gray.
That could cost U.S. companies at least $1.2 billion for every unproductive work hour during the first week of the tournament.
For astute HR pros, that info should come as no surprise: Statistics are released every single solitary year on the mayhem March Madness will unleash in the workplace.
But some employers don’t dread March as much as others.
March morale booster
Take Regus, a provider of flexible workplaces that has more than 800 business centers across the U.S.
During March Madness, managers began noticing that clients were coming together in the company’s business lounges to catch the games in between meetings and conference calls.
So those managers began filling the lounges with drinks, food and balloons in an effort to create a sense of community.
Not only that, but those managers also noticed the diversity of types of people watching the games together: At any point, there may have been a CPA, a lawyer, an advertising executive and a software engineer all talking and cheering together.
Once upper management at Regus caught word of the “watching parties,” that gave them an idea.
Now, each center is encouraged to celebrate March Madness in the way that works best for them.
The parties have really helped connect employees and clients who might otherwise never have spoken, according to Sharon Edmondson, VP of HR for Regus: “There’s something to be said for embracing these so-called unproductive moments and turning them into something rather productive.”
Boost morale and bandwidth
Other companies have adopted similar strategies as Regus, including DISH.
Darren Heitner with Forbes recently detailed DISH’s decision to encourage its employees to take breaks during the workday to watch March Madness. (It also helps that employees can watch the games via DISH’s “DISH Anywhere” app.)
The company has even boosted its bandwidth offerings during the first week of the tournament to handle employees who’d like to watch from their desks.
The benefits of March Madness
So yes, March Madness will suck up employees’ time at work, whether you permit it or not.
But is that such a bad thing?
Columnist Donelson R. Forsyth notes the many benefits of March Madness in the office:
- March Madness helps morale. Employees get “for free what those teambuilding junkets often promise but don’t deliver.”
- It can also boost energy. If employees connect emotionally on the same level during the tournament, it can help them pursue their work with some extra vigor.
Forsyth concluded that:
March Madness promises to give more than it takes. The NCAA Tournament is a grand spectacle that creates excitement without violence, a sense of community without outcasts, and disagreements that do not devolve into conflicts. If workplace success depends only on how many hours are logged at the task, then it makes sense to block those game feeds and ban those office brackets.
But if success is linked to such interpersonal processes as cohesion, positive collective emotions and efficacy, and honest communication, then there might be a method to this March Madness.
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