With the World Cup now hitting a critical moment, England plays Argentina in the semi finals at 8pm on Wednesday in Atlanta in the air conditioned Mercedes-Benz stadium. Excitement is reaching peak levels now.

While employers might want to take the opportunity to bring the fun and excitement into the workplace, with this comes potential for HR issues.

Employers can embrace various sporting events at work as a way of developing a greater sense of morale and camaraderie. Participation can be encouraged by holding themed events, including fancy dress, food or lunchtime games, and live notification of results.

There can also be a downside, such as where sporting rivalries are brought into the workplace or people get carried away. For those reasons, it’s good practice to approach dealing with major sporting events with a plan.

For pubs and bars, it is worth noting individual licensed on-trade venues in England and Scotland can apply for a temporary event notice (TEN) to extend their licensing hours during home nation matches during the World Cup.

How to manage HR issues during the World Cup

1. Have a policy in place

While there is no requirement to have a sporting events policy, it can be good practice to do so if you intend to hold events marking sporting events or allow your staff to do so. In the policy, set out expectations around celebrating sporting events in the workplace and the rules staff need to follow. The policy can also act as a guide for management staff as to what is and is not allowed in the workplace, ensuring there is consistency across the organisation.

2. Take steps to prevent and tackle bullying and harassment

Unfortunately, the downside of any competitive sport is that it can lead to heightened emotions and negativity. Many sporting events are international affairs - while this presents a good opportunity to celebrate different cultures and nations, passions must not be allowed to get out of hand and the workplace should remain a welcoming and safe environment for all.

To avoid the potential for discrimination or harassment, employers should be careful to treat all employees in the same way, regardless of their nationality.

Robust policies against bullying and harassment should be in place and these should be reinforced in training for staff. Alongside this is the need for a means to report issues, including allegations of harassment, so that they can be dealt with efficiently.

3. Taking time off around sporting events

This year, the World Cup is being co-hosted by Canada, Mexico and the US between 11 June and 19 July. This means that many of the matches will take place later into the evening and overnight. As such, while many employees wanting to watch these matches might not need time away from work specifically, their rest and recovery time (especially if they are drinking during the matches) will be affected and could impact their work.

Employers have a few options to mitigate the impact, including:

• allowing annual leave;
• adjusting start and finish times;
• allowing employees to compress their hours temporarily.

When making these arrangements, the organisation’s usual rules should be followed. This means any notice that is required for annual leave or changing working hours should be adhered to. Such requests should be dealt with consistently and fairly, and steps should be taken so that no one request is favoured over others.

Allocating leave or working hours requests on a first-come, first-served basis may be a solution to this. If exceptions are going to be made to those rules, then this must be done consistently for all employees.

Employers may want to inform staff that attendance levels will be monitored during the tournaments, to deter those who may be thinking of taking a day off anyway. Employees should be aware that any unauthorised absences will be classed as a form of misconduct that can result in disciplinary action.

4. Viewing sporting events in the workplace

When a major sporting event takes place during working hours, it’s natural that at least some of your employees are going to follow the action. This could be watching it live, following it on the radio or keeping an eye on online updates. Whether or not you will show this is something that needs to be thought about carefully, as it can lead to a reduction in productivity and quality of work.

If you decide to show the action in the workplace, the decision of who gets to watch the match should be made fairly. You may be able to allow staff to time their breaks around particular events, or some may ask to work at different times in order to see their favourite team.

Free download: managing employees during the World Cup

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