Through late November and most of December, the World Cup is taking place in Qatar. It’s a condensed tournament, which means there are more matches taking place every day, and shorter breaks between games.
But with the cup taking place in the Middle East, many fixtures are kicking off at 10am, 1pm or 4pm GMT – which can be quite the distraction for your workforce.
And while many employers will look to offer flexibility to their staff to allow them to watch the biggest games, that’s not always possible – especially at such lean times where companies must ensure they hit financial targets.
So how do you make sure the workforce stays on task?
Monitoring remote working
Many businesses now offer remote working to their staff, where possible. More people are working from home at least for part of the week.
Of course, this means that there’s a chance they might just be ignoring their work and sticking the TV on. While some UK fans may only watch the biggest games, or those featuring England or Wales, there are others who might want to watch every fixture they can.
This means it’s important you keep tabs on the work being produced. But balance that against being overbearing – you want to keep staff on track, but not be watching their every move online.
Book in regular catch ups, and ask your IT team if they can track staff who are idle either through your chat clients or remote network. And be fair – remind your staff of their responsibilities before you try to catch them out.
Providing breaks
One of the best ways to keep staff engaged with their work during a World Cup is to give them the time off during the biggest matches where you can, and either implement flexible working around it, or take the hit for the sake of 90 minutes.
You’re more likely to have staff focused for 6 hours a day if you give them the time to watch England or Wales, than if you tried to stop them from watching any of the games.
Find a balance, and if your work is critical, offer employees the chance to work earlier or later, so that the times lost to the games aren’t impacting your bottom line.
Keeping on top of absence
This is the crucial step for business owners. Unauthorised absences are sure to rise for many companies during a World Cup as employees get ‘sick’ conveniently on days where games are played – or the day after, if they’ve been out celebrating.
If you work in an industry where any lost hours are crucial, then you might want to consider using a private detective to look into serial offenders for unauthorised absences.
We could carry out surveillance and research to see if an illness is genuine, or if the employee has just found themselves in a fan park watching the game instead.
And with the evidence we provide, you can then take the appropriate action.
Need help looking into a vital employee who might be faking illness to watch the World Cup? Call our team on 01772 334700.