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Workplace Productivity During March Madness

Don’t let March Madness win over your workplace productivity!

Hey there sports fans! Did you hear? March Madness is upon us! Yaayyyyy, she said with all sarcasm. I love sports, just not college basketball. It’s not my thing and I can’t get amped up about it for many reasons: 1, It’s my birthday month (yes, the WHOLE month) and I’m distracted by all things birthday, 2, hubby doesn’t care, so why should I? and 3, it takes up too much time. The brackets, the office pools, the length of time it takes…it’s all eating up time. But I get it, it’s fun. I participated in my first Fantasy Football League this past year and it was a blast, but here’s the thing, I kept it in check when it came to work. Today, we’re giving you some stats and suggestions on how to keep your workplace productivity up during March Madness

According to the most recent report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas, 20% of American workers – that’s 50.5 million – could participate in office pools this year! With average hourly earnings at $25.35/hr (Bureau of Labor and Statistics), each hour spent on March Madness in the workplace costs employers 1.3 billion dollars. That’s a lot of money spent by employers on what is, basically, a hobby. You can find the full report here.

So, what can you do? Most everyone has a smart phone to check for updates and you can’t go around taking away people’s phones, unless it is in direct violation of a company policy. Even without phones, most people can check via the Internet anyway. Well I say; if you can’t beat them, join them! I’m not suggesting that you start wasting your time on March Madness pools, but find ways to integrate this season into your business. Here are some fun examples:

  • Have your employees show their team pride by sporting their fan gear, the employee whose team gets closest wins a prize!
  • business-163464_1280Create a March Madness fitness challenge at the office – the employee who logs the most walking time at lunch at the end of the season wins. This not only encourages good camaraderie in the office, but it also helps your employees maintain a good work/life balance by actually getting them up from their desk. And, while everyone is out for a walk, they can discuss their office pool.
  • Create your own office March Madness based around sales. Make it a fun and friendly competition….and help drive up sales!

 

There are many ways to get creative during this time of year. If some of the suggestions listed above don’t appeal to you, don’t be afraid to seek out suggestions from your employees themselves. They will be happy to see that the boss wants them to have a little fun in the office and still do business. So, enlist the help of a committee to help plan fun and creative productivity challenges.

Don’t forget, March Madness is also a great opportunity to utilize potential advertising campaigns for your business. How can your business benefit? Sit down with yourself today and brainstorm effective ways you can leverage March Madness for your customers. Perhaps through a punch card system or engaging them in a little friendly Facebook competition such as the customer with the most check-ins at the end of the season gets a free drink or meal!

Don’t let the potential lost or wasted hours negatively affect your business. Put March Madness to work for you, today! For me, I’ll just keep quietly ignoring it until it’s over. Soon though, right?

IMG_8227Sara Husted is a partner, owner and digital media mixologist at Think Big Marketing, LLC. She helps businesses and coaches streamline their online marketing through social media strategy and management. For a FREE 15-minute Discovery Session, click here!