Workplaces Getting in on the Game

Half (50%) of senior managers interviewed by OfficeTeam said activities tied to the college basketball playoffs boost employee morale, and more than one-third (36%) felt March Madness has a positive impact on workplace productivity.

These results are up from 32% and 27%, respectively, in a similar survey conducted one year ago.

In a separate CareerBuilder survey, approximately one in seven (15%) U.S. workers said they plan to participate in office pools this year—up from 11% who planned to do so in 2014. Twenty percent of all U.S workers said they have participated in an NCAA Tournament office pool in the past.

Workers in IT (40%) and sales (33%) lead all industries/professions in office pool participation, followed by Financial Services (30%), Retail (27%), Health Care (offices with more than 50 employees) (19%), and Leisure/Hospitality (14%). The survey found senior management (C-Levels, VPs, directors/managers/supervisors/team leaders) are far more likely to participate in office pools than entry-level, administrative, professional staff and technical employees—27% vs. 19%.

According to the CareerBuilder survey, sports is not the only thing on which workers bet. Workers shared:

• Employees bet on who would become the next pope of the Roman Catholic Church;
• Employees predicted when a colleague’s current relationship would end;
• Employees made Bingo cards of common complaints made by a coworker;
• Employees guessed the number of protein coding genes in the human genome;
• Employees bet on who would hookup with who at the company holiday party;
• Employees predicted the weekly eliminations on the Bachelor reality TV competition; and
• Employees predicted the next coworker to quit.