Dear Office Managers,
Things at work have never been better, right? For the past few weeks everyone has been gathered around the water cooler talking about our medal count, or huddled in front of the TV watching Canadians kick international butt.
No one’s grumbling. No one’s complaining. And then the men’s hockey team won gold on Sunday. Boom! Morale just shot up 3,000 per cent.
The mood at work is the best it’s ever been. Don’t let it fade. Here’s how to keep the flame alive at the office:
Olympic Engagement Rings
Take a page from the Games and start handing out medals. The athletes who enthralled us for the past weeks didn’t do it for a raise or a bigger office. All they really wanted was recognition for a job well done, and office drones are no different, says Andrea Garson, vice-president of human resources
“Maybe companies don’t have a reward-and-recognition program, and they could create something around [the Olympics],” she says. In the lead-up to the Games, Workopolis created a program that doled out bronze, silver and gold awards to employees who best reflected the company’s values.
“It’s just driven so much enthusiasm,” Ms. Garson says. “Without recognizing the input that employees make to the success of the company, they don’t see the end result of their input.”
Seize on the thrill of the Games to push such programs, Ms. Garson says.
Go For Workplace-Culture Gold
Even the most buttoned-down offices across Canada have probably seen a more relaxed atmosphere at work as employees were swept up in the collective euphoria of the Games. People who never talked to each other are now swapping stories about Sid the Kid. Bosses who rarely chitchat with their staff are debating Shaun White
Just because the Games are over doesn’t mean the office culture can’t continue to be a little more friendly and relaxed, says Lorraine Weygman
The Olympics were essentially one big team-building exercise, she says. “What you have is employee engagement, which means they want to come to work, and when they get there they’re going to give their best.” It’s up to managers and leaders to recognize that productivity and pleasure aren’t mutually exclusive.
Get Staff Into Olympic Shape
There’s nothing like watching the best athletes in the world perform on the international stage to make you realize how much you need to get in shape. Ditch the donuts in the cafeteria and use the Olympics to create health-and-wellness initiatives, says Roberta Neault
“I’ve seen organizations that choose a destination to walk to, and get everyone with pedometers and find out how many steps a team can make to get closer to that place,” she says.
Now is the perfect time to start up an office hockey team or invite staff out on the weekend for a fun run, Dr. Neault says. Those sorts of initiatives will help boost office morale and increase the fitness levels of staff. To keep the momentum going, Dr. Neault recommends getting your staff to talk about what inspired them most during the Olympics.
Go, Team
This is the perfect opportunity for managers to go beyond the hoary old clichés of teamwork to actually look at what made Olympic athletes successful, says Beverly Kaye, author of Love ’Em or Lose ’Em: Getting Good People to Stay.
“I think there are some great conversations that managers could have by using the experience of the Olympics to generate conversation,” she says. One such talk revolves around a question that is key to any group that works together: “What does it mean to be a good sportsman in our workgroup?” Ms. Kaye says.
On that note, managers and staff might want to sit down and talk about the importance of rooting for members of your team rather than focusing only on your own achievements, something we saw a lot of during the Games.
“Winning and losing individually was less important than, ‘I’m thrilled my team did well.’ And their outright support of each other, I think, is what is sometimes missing from organizations,” Ms. Kaye says.
