Possibly the world’s biggest sporting event is nearly upon us and taking advantage of the opportunity to entertain clients and staff with the back drop of the world’s best footballers in action is one not to be missed.

Here at Network Marketing we’ve coordinated one of the biggest games with a summer party bringing together the team for some top quality networking and socialising. TV’s in each office will be showing the chosen matches for the duration of the competition and we’ll be having the usual sweepstakes and competitions linked to our work.

However, a survey conducted by gaming website Betfair showed that 68% of UK adults surveyed thought about taking a sicky during the World Cup and statistics clearly show a major rise in sick leave around major sporting events. We like to think we’re a little ahead of the game and hope that you will be too but there could be significant issues if the policies around an event like this aren’t clear.

With the world cup kicking-off throughout the day, football fans will be eager to watch the important matches and you can’t treat the football fans different to the rest. So it’s critical that you are on top of this and address it with a clear and concise plan to action.

If you allow employees to watch matches at work, it can foster good relations. However, adding alcohol and (hopefully) some sunshine to the situation and it can occasionally increase the risk of inappropriate behaviour. The last thing any of us want is a complaint by an upset or offended employee. A common sense chat with your team beforehand might be worthwhile. Doing this before the event is always preferable to having to do it afterwards.

Staff may seek to use the company wifi to watch the games on mobile devices or track the score, which can use a decent amount of bandwidth which could impact on IT performance elsewhere. Having a clear policy in place on internet usage can help spell out what is acceptable and what isn’t.

Unfortunately, as a team of passionate supporters of club and country there is no statutory entitlement to take time off to watch football and so it’s important to know how the business is going to handle any flexibility.

Instead of the team all taking time off it makes sense for us to allow a reasonable amount of flexible working, as long as we get the job done we’re happy – everyone takes personal responsibility for their work. This may not be possible in all environments though.

Whatever your approach as an employer, ensure that your staff know the rules of engagement well in advance. Utilising sweepstakes or other World Cup competitions creates an environment where staff are onboard and it can have huge benefits to the business and the culture. Get it wrong and you’ll have discontent across the workforce and a headache for line managers who are trying to police it all and keep everyone happy.

If you would like to discuss the World Cup or any recruitment matter then I’m always around for an informal discussion 0203 9056311 until then let’s get behind the team - C’mon England, France, Brazil or whichever team your employees support!