The Summer Olympics have begun! Don’t expect many of your employees to medal in productivity over the next two weeks.
With the games taking place in London, the time difference puts the majority of events during the U.S. workday, meaning staffers will be watching online, passing along updates, etc.
You might even see some tempers flare if folks are chatting about events employees’ are recording at home to watch that evening.
Strike the right balance
Of course you don’t want to come down too hard on staffers – the Olympics are exciting and provide an opportunity for some in-office camaraderie.
So how do you strike the right balance between a little leeway and a major productivity drop?
Check out these tips to navigate the next few weeks:
- Put IT on the case. If employees are live streaming events on their PCs, your network’s going to feel it. And that’s going to make systems slow for those folks trying to get real work done. So you will want to encourage IT to keep an eye out for tech drains – that might mean you’d have to take a bit of a harder line. (IT may even want to put temporary blocks on certain types of sites for the next few weeks.)
- Caution smart clicking. Even if you tell people not to look for updates and watch events online, some are probably going to anyway. That’s why it’s critical you stress with employees never to click on unknown links or things that come up via a random Google search. Only go to trusted sources for their updates.
- Harness it for a morale boost. There are plenty of ways you can take the excitement of the Olympics and use it to give staffers a lift in their spirits. One idea: Have each staffer in your department pick a country competing out of a hat. That is that person’s team for the day. The next day, people earn points depending on their country’s medal count for the day. (Be sure to change countries each day so everyone gets a fair shake.) The staffer with the most points at week end (or at the end of the Games) can leave early one Friday in the summer – or another highly desirable prize.
