June 2006 – Can a love of sport lead to better work?

Assuming there is a television in the tiny Venezuelan community where I am working next week it will be difficult to resist the opportunity to watch the England v Paraguay match in the village bar.

My work for much of that week involves wading up to the waste casting for Bone fish and Giant Trevally. But if the opportunity presents itself I might sneak away from the toil to watch some football. That’s me and a few million others who will be looking for ways to put their work to one side from time to time during the World Cup.

Should we be feeling guilty? Is our love of sport going to cost workplaces billions of pounds in lost productivity? Will my fishing skills suffer?

It is not unusual before any great sporting occasion to read dire warnings about absenteeism on the back of surveys highlighting the way that shirkers will “pull sickies” or do anything they can to be watching the big matches rather than working.

But sport is not only important to millions, it is good for the workplace according to a study published last week by the Social Issues Research Centre on behalf of Hudson, the recruitment company.*

The report suggests that two common perceptions about the influence of sport on work may need some rethinking. The first is that watching or participation in sport can get in the way of work. The second is that mixing sport and business is a male preoccupation that can exclude women from important “bonding” and networking opportunities.

More than two-thirds of the women among 2000 employees sampled in a YouGov poll used in the research said they thought management should make better use of sport to boost morale and productivity.

While the survey showed that unlike most men, women do not tend to be not talking about sport every day, many women did rate sport highly particularly if it involved taking part rather than simply talking about it.

A substantial number of respondents – about a fifth – thought that big sporting events could disrupt their concentration and productivity at the time of the event. There was a strong belief, however, that potential for boosting staff morale and team working would produce a net gain in productivity. The downside to this is the general malaise that results from a national team performing badly, such as losing at the first hurdle of cup competition.

Instead of worrying about the negative impact of the World Cup, the report recommended that managers worked to harness the excitement and enthusiasm surrounding the event among employees. It was perhaps significant that the most enthusiasm for watching sport rather than working emerged among younger respondents. A stronger work ethic seemed to be apparent in the over 50s who seemed much more willing to concentrate on their work and catch up with sporting results later.

Younger workers were also more likely to report sick than take a holiday although relative few respondents said they would be prepared to cheat on their employers.

ASDA, the supermarket business, has pre-empted this possibility by instigating a “World Cup Leave” policy, offering staff the opportunity to take up to two week’s unpaid leave during the tournament. Imaginative shift swapping arrangements are also allowing employees to plan their work around games.

This makes sense for a big retailing business, aware that shopping behaviour as well as working behaviours are influenced by sporting events with fewer people out on the streets at the time of a big match.

But why should unpaid leave be restricted to sporting events? Employers, particularly those who provide more generous periods of leave than statutory minimums, should not be expected to be ever more forthcoming with paid leave. But where there is room for flexibility in the workplace why couldn’t more employers begin offering options for people to take unpaid leave?

It shouldn’t be beyond the wit of a modern HR department to work out the impact on pay and pensions. In fact it could lead to considerable pay bill savings among companies who have employees willing to trade money for time. The same employees are likely to be more committed to their work when they are in the workplace. A voluntary scheme would give more flexibility to those who can afford, financially, to spend less time in work and who feel they need extra time away from the job.

What about the influence of sport on workplace relationships? Many who responded to the study highlighted the levelling effect that sport can create within hierarchies and the social rapport it can produce between colleagues. Half of the men and a third of the women questioned in the report said they thought sport improved the general mood at work and a big minority of about a third of all those surveyed thought that sport could break down boundaries between colleagues.

A significant proportion of women respondents, on the other hand, said they felt no particular bonding benefit from discussions about sport and a visible minority of men and women – about 10 per cent of those questioned - believed that sporting conversations could create divisions and distractions at work. This could be an important management issue if some members of work teams feel alienated by sport.

The solidarity of sports teams and work teams can sometimes work to an individual’s disadvantage if he or she is not perceived as a “team player”. Such perceptions and prejudices can emerge in the school playground when children who excel in sport, winning trophies for their school, can often find themselves favoured by teachers awarding other responsibilities.

Another concern is the use of sporting hospitality for business deals. Such arrangements can work well in cementing relations with clients, as Hudson itself confirms. But companies should ensure that both external and internal sporting events are as appealing to women as they may be to men. Employers might question whether business-related male golfing cliques should be a thing of the past.

“We have noticed that there is much more interest in sport across both sexes today than there ever used to be. People seem particularly attracted to an occasion and we are finding that participation events are growing in popularity among our staff,” says Rob Chandler, head of human resources at Hudson.

I have found sailing a great leveller between men and women. Just now I am training with Sailing Logic Racing, a specialist company based in Southampton that concentrates on developing sail racing teams. Not only is the team a fairly evenly proportioned mixture of men and women, there is also a broad age range from people in their 20s to those in their 60s.

Sail racing requires many of the things expected of a workplace – high levels of concentration, decision-making, responsibility for a task and accountability. The best teams manage to work well as units without shouting or apportioning blame. No matter how much you know, you never stop learning. If only all work could be like that.

*www.hudson.com