Are Businesses Losing Yards But Boosting Their Team?
According to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association (FSTA), there are about 30 million fantasy players in the United States alone and this number is increasing. According to a study by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, fantasy football is played by 22.3 million workers and costs employers upwards of $6.5 billion in lost time and productivity during the NFL season. With more and more people getting into fantasy football, are people so much into fantasy teams and games that they contribute less to their work during the football season?
Many HR professionals, however, believe that the game actually benefits the workplace. A recent article by HR Benefits suggests that fantasy football may provide employees an opportunity to communicate with others who might not otherwise interact – i.e., sales rep may be able to talk to the CEO because their teams are playing each other, or an accountant may approach the head of marketing with a trade offer. Taking an action to ban fantasy football playing across the company may backfire with reduced morale across the office.
This blending of work and personal time makes is very difficult for an employer to have a bright line rule regarding use of the internet during work time. So what is an employer to do? Many employers strictly prohibit any use of the internet during work time, but with the advent of tablets and smartphones etc. it is virtually impossible to uphold. And, according to Silicon Valley Business Journal, if you haven’t outlawed other beloved social activities also widely believed to be time-wasters — like Facebook, Twitter, etc. — then it’s probably worth it to let fantasy football slide, even if just to avoid the backlash you’d get from employees for banning it. Plus, when workers feel their employers trust them to do the right thing, they tend to do it.
Why not – instead of a blanket prohibition – focus on performance and productivity? Does it really matter if your employee spent a half-hour making football trades if the result is a happier more productive employee? Instead, employers may want to focus on developing common sense policies that hold employees accountable while allowing for the flexibility of blowing off a little steam through their fantasy league. As long as there is no illegal behavior occurring, it is likely to create a better work environment for everyone. Particularly those who have drafted well!
Achilles Group helped us with recruiting for a critical position on our finance team. Their team posted the position, sifted through all the applicants, and then screened them via phone interviews. The candidates they brought to us were all top notch–any one of them would have been a great fit! The person we hired ended up being one of the best decisions we ever made!
First Presbyterian
We are a small company and yet we don’t feel like a number. Large payroll companies have reached out to help us with HR, but I fear we would be just a number with them. We can call Achilles and they can be here on site in a couple of hours if needed. And because of that relationship, I feel like I am talking to someone who understands our company.
CEO, Slow Dough
Before we engaged with Achilles Group, our HR was more on the reactive side and we felt something was missing, and we didn’t know how to get there. We worried about many HR topics like compliance gaps, records retention, how to on-board new employees, and how to develop our leaders. Achilles not only guided in all those areas, but they spent a lot of time with us and provided the manpower needed to take that burden off our shoulders. It would have been very difficult to accomplish all this from a time standpoint without their team involved.
CEO, Engineered Air Balance
“We started out as a new company in 2020 that emerged from a group of experienced leaders and employees in the flight services industry. We knew we needed HR support through a real partner so we would not have to figure things out on our own, and we were not going to bring that function in-house. The Achilles team has been vitally important given the many dynamics to HR. It’s reassuring and gives us the confidence that our questions, issues, and problems will be resolved."
COO, Flight Pro Services
“Achilles has helped us navigate this exciting time by reducing some growing pains via thoughtful counsel, offering timely guidance as we hit different periods in our growth, and providing much needed insight into organizing our larger team.
Achilles has played a vital role in assisting us to keep the culture that has been such a key component of our success. As a bonus, we have been voted one of the Best Places to Work for four years running!”
Vice President, 2H Offshore, Inc.
Achilles Group was crucial to the transition off a PEO. Achilles Group engaged to help us roll off the PEO, and immediately it felt like a partnership. The process was absolutely seamless. The Achilles team not only assisted in streamlining HR compliance, but they focused on a strategic approach to ensure our policies and processes were more in line with our business’ vision and not just the PEO’s way. They advised how to cascade our team communications effectively and how to use benefits as a competitive advantage. Achilles Group is our ally and confidante in our business.
Director of HR, Dayrise Residential
One of our leaders created a toxic working culture. Our Achilles expert helped guide our company through the transition. If it weren’t for Achilles, we would have been stuck for years. Instead we experienced a lot of storm for about four months and it’s been a complete rainbow ever since.
CEO, Avanti Senior Living
I am very grateful with all the things Achilles helps us with. The people at Achilles Group are very professional. The team is good with communication. It’s so good to have someone to bounce things off, and we are looking forward to a long-lasting relationship. We like that we have one designated consultant to manage the interface with other Achilleans on various workstreams.
