Making March Madness Improve Employee Productivity

Posted by zengerfolkman on March 17, 2011 · 1 Comment 

The anticipation is building for the 2011 NCAA men’s basketball tournament, more commonly known as March Madness.  Over the next few days, millions of b-ball fanatics will tune in to the excitement, viewing from home, sports bars, and through the wide spread technology of mobile devices. According to a study by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, 8.4 million hours of tourney viewing will be done at work.

Obviously, 8.4 million hours seems like a lot of lost time on the job. Multiply that figure by the average hourly earnings of $22.87 among private-sector workers and the financial impact exceeds $192 million. What’s an organization to do in order to avoid a significant loss in productivity and profitability?

You may be expecting me to say something like, “Ban the streaming websites” or “Check in twice as often with your direct reports to make sure they’re hard at work.” “Absolutely no game watching!” Actually, no.

According to CBSSports.com, 8.7 million hours, or nearly 75 percent of the total 11.7 hours of streaming online video and audio accessed during last year’s tournament, was consumed in the first four days of the Tournament. Approximately 80 percent of the four-day total was achieved in the first two days, based on the fact that 3.4 million hours of March Madness on Demand was streamed on the first day of the tournament alone.

This means that most of your lost productivity happens in less than one week.  Let’s be honest with ourselves – there’s no getting around this. One way or another, employees will find a way to be involved in the games, or else be less productive because they are wishing they could be watching. The best thing you can do to improve your productivity during March Madness is to forget about improving productivity during March Madness! Focus on the bigger picture. Here’s what I mean.

In our research at Zenger Folkman, we’ve identified “Positive Work Environment” as one of the 16 competencies that differentiate extraordinary organizations. Organizations that excel at this competency have employees who want to go the extra mile, would recommend the company as a good place to work, and are proud to work there.  In a study done at Sears, researchers Rucci, Kim, and Quinn found that a five-point improvement in employee attitudes resulted in a 1.3% improvement in customer satisfaction, which in turn increased revenue growth 0.5 %.

So here’s my advice: embrace the madness, if just for a week. Use this as a time to build camaraderie among employees and establish better connections with your boss or direct reports. Start a company bracket competition, or set a viewing time for a great game during the lunch hour. As your organization strives to create a more positive work environment, you’ll start to see the difference in your employee productivity and satisfaction, customer satisfaction, and profitability.

Of course, this is coming from a basketball fan, so take it for what it’s worth. I can’t wait to see how my bracket does—how about you?

Rachel Godfrey – Marketing and Communications Specialist

Filed under Employee Commitment and Engagement · Tagged with employee commitment, employee engagement, employee productivity, employee productivity during march madness, employee satisfaction, happy employees, high performance, human resources, Leadership, Leadership Development, march madness, ncaa, ncaa tournament, professional development, zenger folkman