How to Manage March Madness in the Work Environment
Learn how to balance productivity, culture, and network performance during the NCAA tournament.
Lauren Winans, CEO & Principal HR Consultant at Next Level Benefits, discusses March Madness’ cultural impact on workplaces. Collaboration between HR and IT can prevent productivity drains.
Discussions, debates, and disagreements over sporting events are common in the workplace. But March, when the annual NCAA basketball tournament is held, takes things to another level.
As the tournament and the excitement surrounding it is known, March Madness brings together the top 64 NCAA teams for five rounds of competition. The single-elimination tournament takes place over approximately three weeks and attracts the attention of tens of millions of fans.
For HR staff and others involved in managing the workplace, March Madness has its upsides and downsides. As with any cultural phenomenon, it provides a great opportunity for building culture. However, March Madness also brings the potential for lost productivity and other troubling issues, especially considering the amount of wagering that typically surrounds the tournament.
Managing the Madness of Bracket Betting
Betting on brackets is a central component of March Madness. According to some experts, more than 50 million people annually participate in the practice, which involves predicting the outcome of each tournament game to determine which team will ultimately emerge as the champion.
Sometimes, the “betting” is casual, with the winner earning little more than bragging rights. In other cases, the stakes are higher. As of 2023, it was estimated that 68 million people in the US wagered more than $15 billion on March Madness. Furthermore, in either case, bracket betting can make its way into the workplace, bringing distractions, disruptions, and worse.
HR leaders should be proactive about addressing the issues that can arise from betting in the workplace. Gambling at work can lead to reduced productivity, increased distractions, legal issues, ethical concerns, and potential financial consequences for employees.
Problem gambling — which is a term used to describe gambling habits that continue after they begin to cause negative consequences in a person’s life — may result in absenteeism, decreased work efficiency, and legal violations. In severe cases, it may even result in employees resorting to theft to fund their gambling habits.
An important step is establishing HR principles and policies that address issues like in-office gambling and outline acceptable workplace practices. Companies often implement specific policies, such as a “Workplace Gambling Policy,” to prohibit or regulate gambling activities during work hours or on company premises. These policies maintain a safe, productive, and compliant work environment while addressing legal considerations.
In anticipation of last year’s March Madness tournament, the US Department of the Interior issued a “Quick Ethics Reminder” warning its employees of the severe consequences of participating in March Madness activities during work hours. The reminder warned federal employees that even “spending a few bucks on a friendly office pool” could be a costly violation of workplace policies. Your office policies may not be as strict, and they must be communicated to avoid confusion or misunderstandings that could lead to ethics or policy violations.
See More: Just Like Sports, It Takes a Team to Fix Network Security
Capitalizing on the Excitement Surrounding the Tournament
March Madness offers an unusual opportunity for culture-building because many games happen during work hours, and there are good odds employees will be tracking scores — if not watching games surreptitiously — while at the office. Sanctioned watch parties can allow employees to come together, engage in the excitement, and build community.
If workplace demands don’t allow for extended downtime needed for a watch party, encouraging people to wear team jerseys or decorate to show their loyalty is another option for capitalizing on the excitement. Workplaces can also organize friendly bracket contests, encouraging competition without sanctioning gambling or placing bets.
Workplaces may consider offering flexible hours or remote work during key tournament phases to enable employees to watch games. If this seems extreme, consider that the “Super Bowl Flu” — the term coined to describe the absenteeism that occurs Monday after the Super Bowl — according to Josephine Nesbit of Yahoo! Finance, cost employers an estimated $6 billion in lost productivity this year.
Experts at Gettysburg Times are predicting March Madness could cost companies more than $17 billion in lost productivity. Providing flexibility allows employees to enjoy games without causing a huge or unexpected hit to productivity.
Anticipating the Impact on Network Performance
Managing the impact of March Madness on office productivity also involves anticipating and addressing its impact on network performance since March Madness games typically happen throughout the workday. Businesses that don’t prohibit using company networks for accessing games should anticipate bandwidth being used for streaming.
IT teams can understand what to expect from reviewing traffic stats collected during last year’s tournament. If indicated, resources may need to be scaled to avoid issues. Leveraging the quality of service to keep key applications running optimally should also be considered. Overall, IT teams should dedicate additional time to monitoring resource use during the tournament to identify and address issues as they occur.
HR and IT can work together to educate employees on acceptable network usage. Communication can also warn employees about the risks of using questionable sites to access game streams, as unauthorized sites could be a source of malware or phishing attacks that could threaten business networks.
Avoiding the madness the NCAA tournament brings to the workplace is probably unavoidable, but businesses that take precautionary steps to prepare can keep it to a minimum. The best approach will be plenty of communication, a willingness to be flexible, and extra attention paid to the impact it could have on network resources.
What policies have your workplace and HR employed to tackle the growing popularity of March Madness? Let us know on Facebook, X, and LinkedIn. We’d love to hear from you!
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