How do sporting events affect employees’ attendance and performance?

With the World Cup about to start, many organisations are concerned about the potential impact this may have on attendance and performance levels.

During the last Euro final, England saw record sickness absence levels of 23.4% on the Monday after the final.

In the last World Cup, 7.5 million football fans said they planned to watch every England match, including those which fell during working hours. In a study around this, 1.2 million UK workers said if needs be, they would call in sick to watch the final.

In many cases, employer’s concerns are valid, that there may be an increase in absence levels, or a decrease in performance and productivity.

There are some steps you can take at work to minimise the impact on absence and performance – including –

• Have robust procedures in place to record holiday and absence.
• Keep records of holiday requests, and whether these have been approved or declined. In the 2022 World Cup, annual leave requests across the UK soared by 13%
• Plan ahead – be proactive and review what you can support in terms of annual leave, flexibility or accommodations.
• Consider any changes you can make to facilitate employees who want to watch particular sports, i.e. early finishes or later starts.
• Monitor “banter” and workplace discussions relating to sports, especially where this can lead to heated opinions.
• Embrace employee engagement – allowing employees to watch the match together, or have appropriate discussions around results, can enhance relationships and engagement.

Planning in advance, and understanding what staff are likely to request time off, or adjustments in order to watch matches can be essential.

Equally, ensuring that holiday booking processes are applied fairly is also vital, in order to manage a consistent process and minimise the impact on the business.

Coupled with the changes this year to absence pay and SSP, the cost of absence will be greater to your business this year – both in terms of SSP being paid from day 1, as well as lower earners now qualifying (when they previously would not have). Ensuring that you adopt fair, but thorough absence management processes, carry out return to work interviews, and manage any patterns fairly, can all be essential to manage absence. Also, making sure that managers, or those carrying out the return to works and discussions, are trained and confident to do so, can make a big difference to the effectiveness of the management.

If you need any help reviewing any holiday, absence, or any their HR policies, please contact us on 01255 724415 or email team@hrprime.co.uk